After giving birth to my baby girl on the bathroom floor, I was assisted to my living room couch. The midwives had wrapped up the placenta in one the sterile pads and bundled Christy in a towel, who was being held by her dad and grandmother, before being cozied up next to me on the sofa. The umbilical cord was kept on, not cutting it, until all that wonderful cord blood had drained from it. I LOVED this. One of the first things the doctor did with my 5 previous babies was to cut the umbilical cord and waste all the benefits of the rich cord blood. I wasn't given the choice to have it any other way. With a homebirth it's all choice~you become empowered and encouraged to make your own decisions.
When the time was right, Christy was evaluated.
Her vitals taken.
Measured and weighed.
All done right from my couch. She was always kept close to me.
Both Christy and I were treated with utmost love and comfort.
The midwives stayed for two hours from the time of delivery to ensure baby and I were doing alright. They used the time to carefully clean, sterilize, and reorganize all their tools of the trade. I was given the choice by my husband to have anything to eat, he'd make me anything. I had a craving for french toast! So it was, my post partum meal was a batch of my hubby's scrumptious homemade french toast :)
It was my doulas first homebirth experience as well, so she stayed and watched everything-taking it in and learning from it. I didn't know until after the fact that she was a real godsend to my husband. During the heat of the action of my impromptu bathroom delivery, my husband was left on the outside. From the hallway he could only catch glimpses and was beginning to panic a bit not knowing if everything was alright or not. My doula was able to give him peace of mind reassuring him the process was going normal and all was well. I am eternally grateful for her role in my birth.
The midwives came back every few days in the beginning to check on us and then every week or so until our 6 week post partum check up. I couldn't be more delighted or pleased with my homebirth or my wonderful midwives.
It was my husband who was most turned on to the homebirth experience. In his excitement he told nearly every person he came across our birth story--including the lady behind the Subway counter! I think he's shared our story more times than I have. He was asking me why didn't have a homebirth sooner with our other daughters. Back when we first started having babies he was dead set that babies were born in hospitals, period. Well we sure made a convert out of him!! He even had a buddy at work whose wife was pregnant and considering a homebirth. My husband was sharing with the other guy how wonderful it was and that he should let his wife give it a try if she wanted to. Oh he's come a long ways, my little homebirth advocate!