One of our lovely customer's Brittany had a wild road-side birth at sunset, and was home from the birth centre and tucked in bed with her new baby Maggie by midnight! Here is her amazing story;
After having quite a fast labor with my first 3 years ago I had opted to have a home birth for my second child and wanted to prepare myself with a TENS machine from Bliss Birth for pain relief.
My first was born at 41 weeks so I had prepared myself to go over with my 2nd. In fact I was more then happy to go over as we had just moved house and I didn’t feel quite prepare to have another babe just yet.
At 39+1 I had a few niggles during the day but thought they were just braxton hicks as they didn’t get closer together or intensify and I hadn’t had a ‘bloody show’ or lost my mucous plug.
My husband arrived home from work at around 4:30pm, I was having mild contractions that we’re about 6-10mins apart.
I called my midwife to let her know that I thought labor might have begun but I didn’t require her yet, I just wanted to let her know she might get a call overnight.
My husband collected our daughter from daycare and I got him to help me put on the TENS machine, I got instant relief during my contractions and we began to set up the birth pool so it was ready to go.
Just as we’d finished pumping it up my midwife called us back with bad news. There had been a number of COVID cases in the NT and they weren’t allowed to attend at home births and I would have to go to the birth centre. I was a bit upset by this but was still grateful that I was still able to birth at the birth centre.
My contractions were becoming a bit more regular at about 6mins apart and I was getting a bit irritable so my husband left to drop our daughter off at a friends place.
Whilst he was gone my contractions got closer together at around 4 minutes apart.
He got home and noticed a big difference in how I was coping. I had become more vocal during contractions and was in quite a bit more pain. He began packing a hospital bag to take whilst I got dressed. In hindsight it was probably at this stage that I was ‘transitioning’ - I remember struggling to put on underwear and thinking that I wanted to skip the birth centre and just go to the hospital so I could get an epidural.
My waters hadn’t broken yet so I had the forethought to grab a mattress protector and some towels to sit on in the car.
I had to make my way downstairs to get in the car and the moment I sat in the car my contractions became super intense and close together at about two minutes apart.
About 5 minutes from home, just as we turned onto the highway, my waters broke and my daughters head was born with them. I began yelling at my husband to pull over as the baby was coming.
He pulled over on the side of the highway and pulled down my underwear in time for my next contraction. Our daughter was caught by her daddy in the front seat of our car with one small push at 6:30pm.
She had her cord wrapped around her neck once and was quite purple, her dad unwrapped the cord and I rubbed her back and suctioned her mouth with mine until she began making some noises, it was about a minute til she let out a big cry and we both breathed a sigh of relief.
We called an ambulance who conveyed us to the birth centre. I chose to leave her cord unclamped and she had her first feed in the ambulance on the way.
We arrived at the birth centre and I delivered my placenta. We we’re both checked over, our little girl was perfectly healthy at 3.7kg and 48cm.
We were able to leave a few hours later and were tucked up in bed with our little Maggie by midnight.
Although I didn’t get the home birth I had envisioned we did get the intervention free birth I’d dreamed of and my husband and I worked so well together and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Not many bubbas get a sunset photo right after birth!