“It’s a strange feeling having guilt around sharing a positive birth story as I know birth is so unpredictable and doesn’t always go to plan. People are quick to tell you their negative birth experiences when you are pregnant and it is usually followed by some iteration of “oh you just wait, you will see what I’m talking about”. We need more positive stories around birth out there so that is why I am sharing my positives unmedicated home birth story.  

I have always wanted kids and when I found out I was pregnant I was so grateful and excited. I did A LOT of research and preparation for birth. I knew, in the ideal situation, I would give birth at home, in water, and with no medical interventions. In preparation for birth, I read a lot of books, some of my favorites being “Babies are not Pizzas. They are Born not Delivered”, “Sweet Sleep” and “Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth”. We also took classes with Sonya our doula and also a hypnobabies prenatal class with Ricky Issler, which I think significantly contributed to how I was able to cope during birth. 

My water broke at 9pm on June 9, which also happens to be my birthday. My husband and I were out with friends but I quickly excused ourselves cause I thought something was up. On the car ride home I knew for sure my water had broke, as I was now sitting in a large puddle in my freshly detailed car lol. When we got home I texted my midwife and doula to let them know my water broke but no contractions had started and both of them said to take some gravol and get some rest! By 10pm I had taken my gravol and was laying down to rest listening to my hypnobabies sound track, while my husband was frantically getting the rug moved in the living room, blowing up the pool, and getting some things crossed off the todo list (baby was 7 days early). 

Laying down to rest didn’t last long as I quickly became very uncomfortable in any laying position. It started out with cramping and I quickly knew I was having real contractions. I kept trying to lay back down cause I thought I was in for the long haul and knew I needed rest, but now the only place I could get comfortable was on the toilet. Around 12:30am we checked in with our doula and I was still talking through contractions, I was nauseous so I was throwing up every once and a while but my contractions were only about 20 - 30 secs long and we agreed to check back soon. 

I continued to labour on the toilet for a while as any other position didn’t feel good. Around 2am my husband brought up the birthing ball to give that a try and that was a great relief. I was now concentrating very hard, still listening to my hypnobabies relaxation music and making a deep humming sound which helped me focus. 

As we neared 3am things were intensifying and I was getting the chills which I knew could mean I was going into the transition stage of labor. We decided we should time the contractions, they were 45 secs long and coming quickly. The doula and midwife were called and both were on route. My husband moved me downstairs to continue to labour on the birthing ball. I also had the tens machine on now which was a nice distraction. 

Once the doula and midwife arrived and were set up, we started to fill the pool. At around 4:30am my midwife asked if I wanted to be checked to see how far along we were and I agreed. Much to all of our amazement, I was already 9cm and started to have the pushy feelings. The pool couldn’t fill up fast enough at this point lol! 

By 5am I was in the pool and activity pushing. The water was such a nice relief. After about 1.5 hours of pushing in the pool we were making progress but not as much as we would have liked to see. We moved to land ie. the couch around 6:50am and within 20 mins we had a beautiful baby boy in our arms! 

My birth was very fast for a first time birth. Baby was with us just 10 hours after my water broke. I am so grateful I had such a positive birth experience and that I was able to stick to my plan, but I was also willing to change the plan if it needed to be changed. Healthy baby and healthy mom is the most important thing at the end of the day. 

The best part: having such a supportive birthing team and husband. Their words of encouragement really help get you through. And of course, having a healthy baby come into the world.

The worst part: the ring of fire lol (when the babies head is crowning and about to be born). This is the only moment I would describe as painful, it only lasted a few moments as I waited for the next contraction to come and birthed the babies head. Oh and when they push on your stomach after birth, that was not cool lol.

1. Making sounds. Most of the sounds I was making sounded like a deep hum/moo. The sounds just came out, they were instinctually the sounds my body wanted to make.
2. Music to concentrate on. I used a combination of my hypnobabies sound tracks and relaxation music. I was very focused pretty much the whole time during birth, I spoke very little, you kind of go inside yourself and having music to focus on really helped my concentration. 
3. Water, birth ball and tens machine. These tools were all very helpful for pain management and switching between them was a nice change of pace.
4. Do not fear birth. I knew at the end of the day no matter what happened my body was made to give birth to this baby. 

I hope this story encourages anyone considering an unmedicated birth whether at home or in the hospital!

-Rebecca”

For those of you who know me, you’ll know how much I talk about “rainbow pregnancy”,which is a pregnancy following the loss of a previous pregnancy or child. I have both personal and professional experience with these unique situations and they are both challenging and beautiful at the same time. In one aspect, going through a pregnancy after a loss can really highlight fears and anxieties you have around birth and around your body’s capability of birthing a healthy baby. However on the other hand, there is no more sacred and loving experience then when a new parent finally holds their rainbow baby in their arms - that feeling brings a wave of light over a darker time in their lives. Needless to say, rainbow pregnancy and birth are more complex then an average pregnancy and birth. As a loss mom with two live rainbows, and a birth doula, I want to share with you 3 tips to help get you through a rainbow pregnancy and help prepare you for an empowering birth experience

After finding out about my second pregnancy (after my first loss), I visited my usual clinic to do some various routine tests and I saw this lovely nurse who will always stand out to my in my memory. She said something to me that carried me through all four of my pregnancies and this piece of advice is one I share with everyone I know who’s just found out they are pregnant after having a previous loss. This advice was to live in the moment, every moment that you are pregnant.

Try not to think about what happened in the past as what’s done is done and nothing you can do now will change that.

On the contrary, don’t obsess over the future as every embryo is different in lifespan. Some babies are meant to be birthed at term, some post and some preterm, and some are only meant to live to 6 weeks, 7 weeks, etc. You can’t ever know how long that baby that is in utero is meant to last, so don’t attempt to predict what the future will hold. Focus on just the present - soak in every pregnancy symptom, every milestone big or small, and never EVER feel bad for fully enjoying your pregnancy even if it doesn’t end the way you’d like it to. Trust me, once I heard this and began to put it into practice, it helped me not to fully get over the children I lost (because you truly never will, and that’s ok) but to process what happened to each of my babies and come to a point of understanding and acceptance
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Whether this is the first baby you’re expecting or your fifth, every single life you create means something. Don’t forget to honour each of those lives and hold space for them for as long as they are with you. Take some time to be alone, away from other family or friends, and allow your consciousness to speak to your unborn baby. Tell them you love them and will always love them no matter how long they stay with you.

Hold them close to your heart (emotionally) and get to know their true spirit. Embracing your time with your baby will make that time really count.

 I personally found that while this didn’t take away the pain of losing a baby, this definitely made me cherish the weeks and months I had with the ones I lost. Many of us feel like we “wasted” our joy and compassionate love when we grew attached to babies we went on to lose. But if you reframe your thinking this way and honour the time they spent with you. The grieving process will be a bit more smooth and you can truly say that the short amount of time was spent with complete love.
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Pregnancy after loss almost has an unspoken “club” (and those of you who have had losses know what I’m talking about). Members of this club usually know how to navigate your heart during a rainbow pregnancy but many do not belong to this club and can be triggering in many ways (usually unintentionally, but still triggering nonetheless). Whether people say something insensitive or just simply “fall pregnant” without complication causing you a feeling of resentment, you need people around you to talk to (or vent, not all days are good days) that actually get it. There’s also that hit that a loss survivor takes to their overall confidence and trust in their body. We feel as though our body didn’t do something right or it failed us somehow, and when you’re on this level of thinking then how could your body give you an empowering pregnancy and birth experience if it didn’t do it properly the first time?

This is such a tough thing, because you NEED to trust your body and trust the process. Nothing that you did, intentionally or not, caused you to lose that baby, believe that because it is true

Better yet, have someone around to believe that for you on days when you don’t. So my best suggestion for that all-encompassing support is a doula, and particularly a doula with experience in loss and supporting loss. Hire a doula as early on as you need to instil confidence back into your mind at any stage of pregnancy. We will be there for you to call or text when you’re having a rough day, but more importantly we will be there for you when you go into labour and your moment of “I can’t do this” is enhanced by the previous trauma of pregnancy loss. A doula will remind you how capable you are of birthing this baby, just like each and every other woman with no previous trauma. We will hold your hand and lift you up so that you feel like the powerful goddess you are, and we won’t let you fall into a dark place during one of the most powerful times of your life.