FTM Homebirth Story: The Birth of Marli Sun

Written by Natalie Yeates - First Time Mumma Homebirth Story

I had always seen myself having a homebirth. When I first realised I wanted to be a mother I knew that birthing in a hospital environment didn’t align with how I viewed childbirth. I envisioned birthing in a safe environment, somewhere familiar with a midwife present and all reasonable medical bases covered and this is exactly how our little Marli wished to land.

The Beginning

It all started at 4am on Sunday the 1st of October, the day I had been telling Marli for the last 2 weeks that she was going to make her move. I’d awoken to what I thought was my bladder taking over while asleep, I went to the bathroom and back to bed, 30 minutes later a sudden gush while rolling over, I knew then what was coming.

We were due a visit from our midwife that day, we called her, my first crisis of confidence faded away as she reassured us she will be seeing us at some point today. Gus began to prepare the space we wished to birth. I took myself back to the bedroom, put on Gus’s oversized hoodie and lay on my side while examining the dogs faces, tracing their fur with my fingers, remaining present, calm, disconnected from the matrix, connected with my body and the nature of all things, including the gradually rising discomfort. The time passed and I began to groan through the tension in my uterus that came at regular un-timed intervals, I wanted to remain in a primal state. At 6am the sensations had stepped up a notch, the real beginning of our labour, I reached out to Gus, the oxytocin flowing harder through my body had brought on a feeling of nausea. With the sensations intensifying and becoming frequent I moved into the bathroom, crouched over the bath, I began to vomit and then rest, in time with the surges.  With the tens machine now in place and my breath helping to guide me I stayed out of my left brain and connected to the moment. The surges were now close together and lasting well over a minute, Gus called Steph and before I knew it, she was by my side, any impending crash of confidence evaporated, she gave me an anti-nausea tab for under my tongue and offered words of encouragement which brought a sense of relief.

The Middle

Around 9am we moved to the pool, an overwhelming feeling of being exactly where I needed to be centred me and with that, the sensations escalated. With water trickling over my back, a comb in one hand and the guiding words from Steph of “you can do anything for 60 seconds” I settled into a rhythm of active labour. It never felt like pain, it felt like intense movement, I was lucid, moving from squatting to leaning over the poolside feeling the pressure build on my pelvis.

Then my body shifted gears, a surge like nothing I’d felt before consumed me, that overwhelming feeling to bear down. My sighing and yes’ing turned to deep guttural drawn out grunts, my entire body clenched, tensed, cramped. The breath was forced from my body and the pressure between my legs expanded, my body had a mind of its own.  The midwives told me that I need to help her through the J tube, I need to use some energy to help her navigate down through this tricky area. In an unexpected moment of clarity, inspired by the supporting people around me I took on a mental approach of being present and helping my baby through this space, 3 bursts of energy and the midwives voices returned to normal, calm, I was able to slow again and allow my baby to now do the rest, little did I know how close we were to meeting our girl.

The End

With the dogs and Gus looking on I slowly edged out our little girl with each breath, my body taking the lead, I surrendered and with that the emerging contraction did it’s work, Marli’s head moved through I was in awe of what my body was capable of. Marli turned posterior, face up and with the next involuntary push her shoulders emerged followed by the rest of her body, she had swum into my arms. I lifted her up as she took her first breath and watched her turn from grey to pink in an instant. The warmth of the water cradled me as the realisation that our girl had arrived, right where we said she would, landed. I had birthed our baby girl, no medication, no intervention, no tearing and no ring of fire.  Just a whole lot of surrender, trust support and love.

A note from Nikola;

You too can have an empowering experience for your first birth! Get in touch with me if you have any questions about homebirth or how we can work together. Let’s chat!

If you would like to share your homebirth story please get in contact with me nikola@illuminatewithnikola.com

Together we can change our birthing culture and make transformational birth normal again.