Vancouver Home Birth - Baby born En caul

Note: all birth stories have been shared with permission

I was a week overdue and early labour signs had been increasing for a few days, such as Braxton Hicks contractions and losing my mucous plug. My prenatal classes with Michelle and prenatal yoga were such empowering experiences for me, that I was feeling confident in my body’s natural ability for birth as I waited for labour to begin. I knew with the first contraction at 1am that this time it was the real thing. Each contraction, I tried to lie still and quiet so as not to wake my husband, wanting him to be as rested as possible. Then I quickly realized simply butterflying my legs and breathing deeply made the sensations much more manageable and thankfully he continued sleeping. I would sleep in between contractions which were inconsistently between 10 to 30 minutes apart. When he woke up in the morning he asked, “why do you have such a big grin on your face?” and I replied excitedly that I was in early labour. 

We let our immediate family members know so they could make arrangements to travel to Vancouver. However, we decided not to tell them that we were planning to have a home birth. This was to avoid the inevitable worries, warnings, and attempts to change our minds, which would not have been helpful at the time. We were so grateful that regardless of prior losses, this pregnancy was healthy the whole way through and considered low-risk. Had you asked me just a few months prior about a home birth, I would have been terrified at the idea. Then after learning about the benefits and safety of a home birth, we agreed a home birth would actually be less likely to have the interventions we intended to avoid and would allow for a more personalized and less medicalized experience. This was the choice that felt right for us.

We spent the day resting, eating, and getting into a positive mindset. I had prepared a list of mantras, playlists, and meditations and Kyle and I spoke again about the type of support I wanted. Our bedroom was beautifully set up with dim lighting, nursery decorations, and my music playlist. I felt energized, yet calm and determined. Later that evening the contractions increased in intensity and frequency, between 7 to 10 minutes apart and we asked our doula Michelle to come over with the TENs machine and setup the birth pool. To keep my mind distracted and ease the sensations, I would bend over and sway my hips. With Michelle’s suggestion, I had a candlelit bath with soothing music, which again helped to maintain a peaceful atmosphere. By 11pm, contractions were roughly 3 minutes apart and more intense. Michelle offered suggestions for positions in the birth pool, bed or bathtub, which not only made me feel better, but were helpful distractions to pass the time. Kyle was by my side holding my hand the whole time, which provided such reassurance and strength. Since my eyes were closed most of the time and I wasn’t very responsive, he had to intuit what I needed. I would even fall asleep sometimes in the couple of minutes between each contraction. 

When the pain was at its peak, I felt doubt and fear creeping in, questioning if I could do this at home without an epidural and whether I needed to go to the hospital. Michelle provided the strong encouragement I need, “Yes, you CAN do this! You and your baby are safe.” Sometimes my breath would feel too rapid and I asked Kyle to repeat “breathe in strength, breathe out tension” over and over and over again, which helped me slow my breathing and rest in between contractions. Michelle took care of everything so that he never had to leave my side by getting water, snacks, keeping the bath water warm and I’m sure many other things I wasn’t even aware of. If she hadn’t been there, I’m certain I would have been more afraid and felt more pain and ended up going to the hospital. I credit her reassuring presence and knowledge to our ability to have the home birth we desired. 

I asked for the midwives to be called. When our midwife arrived, I started feeling the urge to push. At this time, my low aaaah sounds turned to more of an animal-like groaning or even roaring sound. Her cervical check determined there was a cervical lip and I shouldn’t actively contribute to pushing, although it felt like my body took over and I couldn’t hold back pushing. I knew at this point that I wouldn’t want to travel to the hospital and once that option was off the table, it somehow made me more confident that I could have this baby at home. I was surprised Kyle was so calm and strong the whole time - I had thought maybe seeing me in pain would have made him more anxious. 

Strangely, I felt something emerge and the midwife told me it was the water bag, which hadn’t yet broken. It felt like I was blowing out bubble gum from my vagina haha. She encouraged me that my body and my baby knew what they needed to do, that I could start pushing. Her head started crowning and I would reach down to feel her head. This was one of the most difficult points in the labour as it took so much effort to push her head out, only to have the head retract over and over again, which was disappointing and tiring. Michelle and the midwife were united as a team to explain that this was normal and helpful stretching to avoid tearing. I asked the midwife to estimate when our baby would arrive and when I heard a guesstimated “4 hours”, I felt crushed and turned inside myself to be more patient. Unexpectedly, my long labour was scattered with moments of rest as well as humour.

When our second midwife arrived, my hopefulness was renewed because I knew that meant baby’s arrival was getting closer. She regularly checked our baby’s heart rate and said that she was a happy and easygoing baby with a steady heart rate. Kyle likes to share a snapshot of a moment around this point when he looked over and one midwife was giving the other midwife a shoulder massage and Michelle was giving me words of encouragement. He felt like he was witness to the ancient tradition of birth.

At this point my energy was waning and I knew I had to dig deep and push through the pain to bring baby into this world soon. I asked for them to cheer me on. It was hard to intentionally push when it hurt like a burning ring, but I was motivated for labour to be over. While my plans were to not give birth on my back, a side/back lying position felt best for me at that point. My water sack still hadn’t broken and my midwife reassured me this was good for what the baby needed and my body knew what to do. She coached me to push hard one more push each time and that drew more strength out of me than I thought I had at that point. 

Our baby girl was born at 9:22 am “en caul” with her head inside the intact water bag - a unique, weird, and special experience. It broke as she emerged and Kyle was still able to catch her slippery little body and quickly bring her up to my chest. It was a huge feeling of relief and joy to hear her first sounds. I kissed each of her fingers, but was unfamiliar with how to shift her body so I could look into her face. Then suddenly, her big dark eyes were blinking up at me and Kyle and I just soaked her up as we embraced together in our bed. 

I opted for active management of the placenta because I was nervous about placental abnormalities, and thankfully the placenta came out easily with just a couple of pushes. Then our care team gave us some much appreciated alone time as a family to get to know each other and our baby already started breastfeeding. I had a first degree tear and while the stitches were unpleasant, I was happily distracted by holding our baby girl. Michelle assisted in getting me to the shower, making us breakfast, and captured some of the most precious photos of our lives. After they had all left we video called our family members and I was so proud to reveal our surprise home birth and healthy baby girl. Being able to rest at home immediately after the birth was such a gift and aided with my physically and emotionally smooth recovery. While the birth felt like more of a marathon than I anticipated, I am appreciative of the slow, peaceful and unrushed approach. Our home birth was a beautiful way to bring our baby into the world and start off our parenting journey in our own personal and positive way.