Birth Story: Mabel's Unplanned Home Birth by Sarah

I woke up at about 3:20 am on Sunday February 13, 2022 with what felt like mild contractions, but I wasn’t due for another 2 weeks and as a first time mama, I had no idea if this was the start of labour or just Braxton Hicks. I stayed in bed for a while to see if I could go back to sleep, but eventually I realized that wasn’t happening and got up. I didn’t wake my partner, Justin, because I figured if this was real labour, one of us should have some good rest and if it wasn’t, I didn’t want to bother him if I could manage on my own, which I was doing well. I started timing the contractions and they were pretty consistently about 10 min apart and didn’t seem to be getting closer together or intensifying. Since I had taken some prenatal classes through my midwives, I assumed this meant I was experiencing false labour. The contractions seemed to taper off and I was able to go back to sleep for a couple hours around 9 am.

When I woke up, I had a few more contractions throughout the afternoon but continued on with my day as normal; went for a walk, baked cupcakes, and we even went to a friend’s house for dinner. Before we left for dinner the contractions started to increase in frequency, but not intensity. Justin tried to convince me that we should stay home but I wanted to go for dinner since I had spent the afternoon baking dessert! All throughout the dinner I had contractions about every 10 min again but wasn’t really phased by them. When we left and I told Justin this, he was shocked because he hadn’t noticed I was uncomfortable. I assumed I was still experiencing false labour because the contractions were mild. We went to sleep, I woke up about 4 times to go to the bathroom (late pregnancy bladder, amirite?!) and experienced a contraction each time. 

When I woke up in the morning I still didn’t think I was in labour, and to this day I still don’t know if it was true or false labour at this point, but I decided to call in sick to work because I was pretty tired. (I still had 3 days left of work!) I texted my boss and a couple co-workers to say I was not in labour but would be taking the day off to rest. Justin went to work as normal but kept calling to check in because he was convinced I was in labour (turns out he knew before I did.) Throughout the morning of February 14, 2022, I continued to experience mild contractions but this time they were getting closer together and more intense, but I still didn’t think it was real because they weren’t extremely painful. I had asked friends how you know when you’re in labour and all they said was “oh, you’ll know” so I was waiting for that ah ha moment, but it didn’t come. 

I took a bath and when getting out I caught a glimpse of my booty in the mirror and noticed a couple stretch marks and texted my other pregnant friends to laugh about it. One of them asked if I noticed this while looking for the purple line that indicates labour. I hadn’t been looking for this but of course now I went back to the mirror to look and sure enough, there was a long, dark purple line above my butt crack! I texted my friend back to laugh and say that according to the length of the purple line, I was very much in labour and told her I didn’t think it was accurate… spoilers, it was! Justin continued to call and check in and strongly encouraged me to at least call my midwives because I told him the app I was using to track my contractions told me to consider going to the hospital, so reluctantly I called them shortly after 11:00 am. The midwives explained that it was possible I was in labour, but it was also possible it was false labour (I didn’t mention the purple line.) I felt justified in my denial. At the recommendation of the midwives, I made a snack and was going to try to rest. My sister called to check on me and when we hung up, she immediately called me back and said “we were on the phone for 12 minutes and you had 3 contractions!” She knew. Justin called again at 11:45 am because he was about to start something at work that would keep him there for 2 hours and wanted to see if he should start this or come home, I told him to go ahead, still not believing I was in labour and assuming it would be hours of this if I was. He didn’t start it. He knew. 

I started to feel a bit nauseous so I thought I would go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Moments after getting up from the couch, stepping off the carpet floor and onto the laminate in the bathroom, my waters broke at 12:01 pm. It was like it happens in the movies, a big gush of fluid. I immediately called Justin and told him to come home (he’d already told his boss he was leaving.) I called the midwives back and they said they would come over to check me to ensure it was my waters that broke, but there was no mistaking it, I knew. In a panic I cleaned up the bathroom floor, found an adult diaper and got some clean pants. The contractions got intense, felt like one after another, and were all in my back. Justin got home at about 12:30 pm just before the midwife arrived and she checked me. My waters had indeed broken and I was 4-5 cm dilated. She said we could go to the hospital now or we could stay and I could labour at home for a few hours. Everything I had learned said to stay home as long as possible and only being about 5 min away from the hospital, I chose to stay home for a while. 

One throw up and 20 minutes later, during a contraction, the midwife asked if I was pushing? I didn’t know. She said she would check me again after a few more contractions because it would be extremely rare to have progressed that quickly and if I wasn’t ready to push, I shouldn’t be. One more contraction and more pushing later, she checked me again: 9 cm dilated. The midwife said that if we wanted to go to the hospital we should go immediately. Justin started to go downstairs to get out hospital bags. The midwife stopped him. She explained there wasn’t time to gather our things and that it would be an extremely uncomfortable car ride for me. She said she had most of the things required for a home birth with her and asked if we wanted to stay home. At this point I knew I was too far along to have an epidural anyway so I figured why not stay home, I did not want to get into the car in the dead of Canadian winter. Justin agreed. More midwives were called for backup, Justin was running around like a chicken with his head cut off getting towels, bowls, garbage bags, anything the midwives needed. I was managing with breathing, the yoga ball, and counter pressure from whoever was available. I asked if this was transition and was told I was almost done transition. I learned transition was the hardest part of labour so this was comforting. They checked me again around 2:00 pm and I was 10 cm and fully effaced. After 45 min of pushing on all fours, Mabel was born at 2:45 pm on Valentine's day, at home, weighing 7 lbs 5 oz. The midwives ensured Mabel could latch, told us to feed her every 2 hours, and to put the placenta out with the green bin(!) then they left around 5 pm and just like that, it was the 3 of us. It was a whirlwind. It was empowering. It was perfect.

I’m a 31 year old mama of the happiest, most easy going little girl I’ve ever met. I’m lucky to have the most amazing, kind, and involved partner of 10 years to raise her with. I work in social service helping those in financial difficulty and I absolutely love it. I am a long distance runner, although getting back into it after baby has proven to be a challenge, but I’ll get there! We love spending time with family, especially my sister’s son and identical twin daughters, whom Mabel adores and learns from. I have survived motherhood so from with support and guidance from other amazing mamas like you!