Epsiode 22 is finally, a story from South Australia! And not just any but a first time mum homebirth story is very beautiful to listen to. Through our conversation, Issie explains how she initially was "terrified of birth" but through connecting with the local Adelaide birth network, she was able to develop a deeper understanding of true physiological birth and how to plan for it.
Links to people/business/resources for this episode:
CHAPTERS
02:12
Discovering Home Birth
03:11
Choosing Home Birth
04:36
Considering Home Birth
06:31
Pregnancy and Care Options
08:33
Partner's Perspective on Home Birth
09:29
Family and Friends' Reactions
10:59
Influence of Home Birth Background
11:28
Pregnancy Experience with Harper
12:46
Declining Tests and Education
14:13
Empowerment through Education
16:33
Mental Health Doula and Support
17:29
Working During Pregnancy
18:58
Colleague Reactions
26:52
Going into Labor
28:50
Preparing for Labor
29:47
Early Labor and Showering
31:40
Midwives' Arrival
32:38
Getting in the Pool
37:09
Relief in the Water
39:29
Pushing and Catching Harper
43:37
Birth of Harper
48:01
Changing Birth Plan and Birth Space
50:11
Postpartum Experience
52:30
Future Home Births
52:54
Empowerment and Respect for the Body
53:48
The Power of Positive Home Birth Stories
Epsiode 22 is finally, a story from South Australia! And not just any but a first time mum homebirth story is very beautiful to listen to. Through our conversation, Issie explains how she initially was "terrified of birth" but through connecting with the local Adelaide birth network, she was able to develop a deeper understanding of true physiological birth and how to plan for it.
Links to people/business/resources for this episode:
CHAPTERS
02:12
Discovering Home Birth
03:11
Choosing Home Birth
04:36
Considering Home Birth
06:31
Pregnancy and Care Options
08:33
Partner's Perspective on Home Birth
09:29
Family and Friends' Reactions
10:59
Influence of Home Birth Background
11:28
Pregnancy Experience with Harper
12:46
Declining Tests and Education
14:13
Empowerment through Education
16:33
Mental Health Doula and Support
17:29
Working During Pregnancy
18:58
Colleague Reactions
26:52
Going into Labor
28:50
Preparing for Labor
29:47
Early Labor and Showering
31:40
Midwives' Arrival
32:38
Getting in the Pool
37:09
Relief in the Water
39:29
Pushing and Catching Harper
43:37
Birth of Harper
48:01
Changing Birth Plan and Birth Space
50:11
Postpartum Experience
52:30
Future Home Births
52:54
Empowerment and Respect for the Body
53:48
The Power of Positive Home Birth Stories
Hi, welcome to Birthing at Home, a podcast. I'm Elsie, your host. I'm a home birth mom of two little boys. I'm a mental health nurse, a home birth advocate broadly, but also more specifically in the state of Victoria, and I'm an ex-student midwife. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people who are the traditional custodians of the land I'm recording on in Nam, Melbourne, Australia. I would also like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been birthing at home. country for tens of thousands of years prior to the British invasion and acknowledged that sovereignty has never been ceded. This is episode 22 and finally today first time mum Izzy from South Australia shares her home birth story of Harper. This is the first episode from a mum in South Australia and it's a very positive one. Izzy herself was born at home in New Zealand, but had never really thought she would have a home birth until listening and reading others experiences led her on a path towards a beautiful home birth that has had a transformative impact on how she views herself as a woman and a mom. One of my favorite parts of this episode is the realization of another home birth benefit, that in a home setting, you have so many spaces to choose from, whereas other options often force women to be confined to one space. It's pretty amazing. Enjoy. Welcome Izzy to the birthing at home podcast. Thanks Ozzy. We would just say that this has been a long time coming and you're from South Australia, which is very exciting. I'm taking off the states. Do you want to give a little overview of who you are? Obviously you live in South Australia and anything else about your family? Yeah, so I am living in South Australia but I was originally from New Zealand. Yeah, so I've been in South Australia for maybe eight years. I had a beautiful little girl Harper this year in April so she's just gone seven months and I live with my partner Christian and we also have a mini-deaf un-Rolo who is my original baby. Excellent. Yeah cool. And I guess my first question is especially coming from New Zealand which is known for having way better access to home birth than Australia. Before having Harper did you know about home birth? No, I did know about it, but it wasn't something I'd considered for myself. It's kind of funny how it's worked out because I was actually a home birth. Yeah, had me in New Zealand and I don't know whether it subconsciously played into it. But yeah, until I actually looked into my options, it wasn't like I was never like, I want to do a home birth. This is something I'm still on. Yeah, okay. So my next question is, how did you choose Home Perth? Good question. So it's like, Christian, I had actually, like just gotten engaged in June last year, and we hadn't actually planned to get pregnant. So when we did get pregnant, like I had no idea what our care options were. And just by coincidence a friend had added me to Adelaide Birth Network on Facebook. Okay. I reckon about a year prior. So I think I just like kind of been seeing the resources from that pop up and just been reading some posts. So I just assumed that I would be like birthing in a hospital, epidural, you know the words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Birth terrified me. Okay. Until I started actually like educating myself. like about how powerful our bodies are and that was all thanks to my midwife. But basically from Adelaide Birth Network, I figured out that I wanted a private midwife. Yeah. Because I just read like that's gold standard care. The friend who'd recommended I should join Adelaide Birth Network, she had a home birth as well. So I think like, it was kind of in the back of my mind, but it wasn't, yeah, something that I thought was for me. The only other thing apart from a private midwife that I knew I wanted was to have a water beer. Yeah. So the first person I spoke to was my doula, Sonia Newton, who was just an absolute legend. She had so many conversations with me and my partner, just about... You know, so you want to have a home birth and I was like, what? No, I don't want to have a home birth. She's like, but you want to have a private midwife? And I was like, yeah, she's like, well, you know, like they, they do home birth, like they don't have admitting rights in the hospital. So, yeah. It's basically like an expensive support person. Yeah, an expensive do-la. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I spoke to some obstetricians and I quickly found out then in SA, some of them might let you lay in the water but they won't let you deliver. So after I figured that out, I was kind of just like, okay, I really need to get on board with this whole home birth idea. So it definitely took both of us like a good couple of months to get on board. We interviewed three midwives. And we ended up settling on my midwife, Lena. Yeah, who's just amazing. Like we ended up just having the absolute dream team. So yeah, that's so awesome. Yeah. I guess going back a little bit. So you found out you're pregnant and had, you know. So it was kind of a surprise being pregnant with Harper. Yeah. So. Like you find out you're pregnant. Did you go to the GP? What did I do? Yeah, I did. I'm just I'm just curious. Like, this is kind of like my little, I don't know, vendetta, because it's so often been shared that women, especially first time moms that don't really know any other option, like the GP saying, oh, public private, and they're like, oh, okay. And then they think those are the options, whereas that's not actually the full list of options. So I'm just curious, like, did you, so you decided, you kind of figured out you wanted a private midwife simply from being in this network. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think I did go to the GP and like I had my early dating scan and everything and was trying to figure out my options from there. But yeah, I just had in my head, I wanted a private midwife. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it- I guess I was a little bit more educated on it than I thought I was. Like I wasn't just public or private. Yeah. Yeah, but my... I think we were maybe interviewing the midwives when I was trying to get my referrals. And my midwife just said, you know, because they do make it quite challenging to, you know, get the referral. And they were like, you can just say it's for... prenatal and postnatal care, like you don't need to say specifically that it's for birthing at home, like you don't need to include that. And she also said, you know, it can be helpful to get a referral to an OB at the same time, which I did, but I hadn't fully made the decision then. Yeah. Yeah, cool. And what was Christian's take on home birth? He was not keen. Yeah. That's a pretty common theme, yeah. Definitely, we did a lot of work to get him on board. Excellent. Yeah, so we worked with doctors and he worked with them. Like, we met through working together. And he worked with doctors for a lot longer than I did, but he was very much just, yeah, like, just in... the doctor and what they say and that has to be right. Like I don't think you would ever challenge something that they said. So yeah. Yeah. Wow. And family, friends. I mean, your mom sounds like she was probably on board. Yeah. And it's funny because I kind of forgot that I was on there. Yeah. So when we had locked in that doctor and her family had worked and had settled on a home birth. You know, I think I was on the phone to mum and dad and dad was like, oh, you know, we made like this birth mat and all this stuff. Wow. I was like, oh, yeah, I can ask you what you needed and what you needed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They never at any point kind of pushed me in one direction or another. Yeah. My sister had just given birth nine months earlier. Yeah. Um, when I had heartburn, so she birthed in a hospital, um, and I don't think that she, um, was that happy with her experience there. Um, so I think that she was a little bit scared for me actually doing a home birth just. That's so interesting. Yeah. I think because you were born at home, was she born at home? She, no, she was born in the hospital. Wow. And she's older. So I think my mum had that whole, I've had a really traumatic birth in the hospital. I'm never sitting further in again. Wow. They're doing a home birth and then my sister had a similar birth as well. So she's actually pregnant at the moment and she's looking into a home birth too. So that's really cool. Yeah, amazing. Yeah. Yeah, that's so fascinating because... For so many reasons, but like, I guess, yeah, as a culture, a society, whatever, like, yeah, it wasn't that long ago that we were having more home births, you know, like once upon a time and, um, yeah, I just find that like, so, yeah, interesting that like you are the product of like a successful home birth. Mmm. Um. Yeah. Yeah, how interesting. Okay. And what was your pregnancy like with Harper? My pregnancy was pretty straightforward. Very luckily, I definitely had like a bit of nausea in my first trimester. And I feel like before I got pregnant, everyone was just, you know, in my mind, I was like, oh, you know, when you're pregnant, you have all these like pregnancy cravings and it wasn't anything like that. It was so many food aversions as opposed to cravings. So I think I lived on my spaghetti on toast for like my whole first trimester. And yeah, I think... Yeah, it was pretty straightforward except for we did have a follow up on our 20 week scan um just because my placenta was a little bit low lying um and I previously had a let's procedure so they just thought that my cervix was a bit short but that we're clear. What kind of procedure sorry? A let's procedure so it's like when they um take some cells off your cervix like pre-cancerous cells. Yeah. So it just meant that I didn't have like a full cervix going into pregnancy. Yeah. Okay. Did you decline anything in particular, like any tests or anything? Well, yes. I think that we were recommended to go back in third trimester for another scan for just to check that the placenta had moved up. But we ended up declining that, which my midwife was just like, you'll probably, they'll probably, you know, be like, put more fear into you as opposed to that. And she was pretty confident. I hadn't had any bleeding or anything. And we also declined the GBS testing. Yeah. I think that's all. Yeah, cool. It sounds like your midwife was amazing, as she should be. But it also obviously helps you out with education kind of stuff. Did you do any other kind of education? Yes. So I think my midwife, Lena, she gave us all the books. She told us about all the podcasts. So she really kind of direct us to the resources. Yeah. I just like consumed them. Yeah. So much education. Because I remember meeting and interviewing our midwives and their focus on informed choice was just massive and it was like pretty daunting to begin with because we didn't know what we wanted. Like we just wanted people to be like, this is what you're gonna do, this is what it's gonna be like. Because you know, when you go into something and you have no ideas. So I just read all the books and I loved the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. Yeah, it's so good. So, so good. And we did hypnobirthing. My other back-up med wife just recommended some health professionals like osteo and acupuncture and mental health dealer and stuff like that. Yeah. So... Yeah. Did you say mental health or maternal health? No, did you say mental health or maternal health? Yeah, mental health doula. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah, she's awesome. What is it? What like, can you tell me more about a mental health doula? Yeah, so I actually saw her, she came and met with Krishna pretty late in my pregnancy, like pretty late in third term I said. And because a lot of our hypnography thing was about, you know, like fear release and all that kind of thing. And I've been seeing like a prenatal psychologist as well, just to kind of, you know, work through some things. Yeah. So this was kind of like a session for like parenting values. And I think she also did like some breastfeeding education as well. But yeah, it was kind of just to. Yeah, she was, I think she, oh, I don't want to say anything that's incorrect, but I want to say that she used to be a postpartum doula or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's really her focus on mums and... Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. And so did she also attend the birth? No. So I had, just like my doula... Yeah. But I didn't have my midwife do attend. It was just like a one session. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. So we'll support it. And you obviously got to meet the second midwife at some point as well. Yeah, so we lived north, like when we locked in my primary midwife and then we moved south. Okay. So I had quite a bit of interaction with my backup midwife because It was just like, I think they alternated appointments towards the end when they got closer together, yeah. Yeah, that's so cool. And you obviously worked whilst you were pregnant? Yes, I did. Yeah, it sounds like you work in healthcare, is that right? We did used to work, it was like the training organisation for GPs. Oh, cool. I didn't work, yeah, I worked in research. Yeah. Did you get any like weird comments or anything from like colleagues kind of thing about, I mean, I guess it's not like, not everyone's asking you where are you birthing, but. Yeah, it's funny though because so many people do and I remember, I think one of my colleagues at the time was like, oh no, like you need to like book a hospital. Yeah, wow. Um, and then I think I had blood done and, um, even the person taking my blood was like, oh, so I'm just sending this to like a midwife. And I was like, yeah. And he's like, what hospital are you with? And I was like, I'm not with a hospital. And he's like, I recommend you book in with a hospital, like as soon as possible. And I was like, there's none of your business. Oh my gosh. I do like the question as like a home birther when they say like, oh, which hospital? And then you're like, I'm not going to hospital. Yeah. I'm not going to be leaving my house. Yeah. Cool. And when did you finish work? I ended up finishing quite early, I think. I reckon like 34 weeks. Oh yeah. Yeah. So it was like a good amount of time. Like I feel like I think in my head I was like, I'm going to work out. as long as possible, but I think I ended up having just over a month off and I think I really needed that. It was just change your mindset and relax. Yeah. During that four-ish weeks, were you practicing the hypno birth stuff? What did you get up to? I actually made myself a little table of things I needed to do every day. Excellent. Yeah. And it was like... go for a beach walk, because we live really close to the beach. Yeah. And it was like all the spinning baby stretches. If I had like an osteoacupuncture appointment, you know, drink my raspberry leaf tea. Yeah, yeah, all the things. Yeah, all the things. Yeah, wow. What did you think of like osteoacupuncture? Did you find that it helped with something? Yeah. My midwives actually really pushed Cairo. But they, my second midwife just mentioned this amazing osteo who I still see now. Which is unfortunately not taking new clients, otherwise I would plug it. Yeah, don't. They'll get so many emails. Yeah, so that was just kind of like, she checked. like that I was all aligned. She had done a lot of extra kind of study to do with like woman's health. So I saw her post-natally as well. And she did all of like my pelvic health stuff. And then my acupuncture, I didn't love the person who I had acupuncture through, but. I'm not an uncentral, it's the reason why I went into labour when I did. So it definitely worked for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. In the lead up to, you know, going into labour, did you like have any like signs of labour? Yes, so I had just kind of like really light period cramps. And I remember being in the car driving somewhere and I was like, Oh, I feel like I'm getting my period. And I was like, Oh no way, I'm pregnant. But it was just really like mild. I didn't get any tummy tightening or anything like that. Yeah. And like, I guess how, how did you win Christian over? I never asked that. Sorry, I'm just knocking everything off. Okay. I Actually, I Got him reading the books that yeah, my midwife had been giving me because I was just like I think it's easier for You to consume that information and Make of it what you will. Yeah as opposed to me feeding it to you and then you have been to take my word for it And my midwives were just like amazing. So we would, I'd read all the books and then I'd listen to the podcasts and then I'd come to them. Sonja was laughing about it. I was just like come to them with lists at every appointment and be like, what if this happened and what if this happened? And Christian would come and he'd be like, but you know, what if something bad happens? And that would just, so all our questions. But I feel like the big turning point for both of us was when we did our hemorrhaging course. And we might have been like eight couples in it and we were the only ones doing a home birth, everyone else was doing a hospital birth. And just like talking about the birth plans and the potential, you know, intervention, and just knowing that we weren't going to have to have those fights and not having that stress of, you know. we have to really advocate for ourselves. Yeah. And just, that was just like a huge turning point. I know for me at least. Yeah. Like I wrote up a birth plan, but I don't even think I ended up printing it out because I just knew that like the care providers I'd chosen were so woman-centered. Yeah. And I just knew I was gonna be really well looked after. Yeah. Yeah, wow. And so like, I guess reading and consuming all of this education and I want to say that wisdom and stuff like that really empowered you to become like confident that Your body could actually do this Yeah, definitely and I think the first book I read was the birth space and it is like my favorite book. It's just got You know Lots of positive first stories I'm going to buy it for like all of my friends because I just love it so much. Yeah. Just like, yeah, listening to really positive birth stories. Um, that, yeah, I think that helped the most. Yeah. Do you like, you don't have to know the answer to this, but do you know, like what exactly it was about the positive birth stories that was like, I guess. Yeah, I'm not really sure like how you could answer this. I'm trying to think as well, like, what is it that changes your mind? I guess maybe that whole like, well, if she can do it, I can do it too, maybe. Yeah, and I guess just, just like, I think I read some of Dr. Rachel Ream's books as well. Yeah. And, I think that Lena gave us some really good books about like the physiology about childbirth and You know how Naturally everyone used to birth and how big home with used to be and Then it just became so medicalized. So kind of just learning about the history of it. Yeah, and Kind of just like restoring faith that you like your body knows what it's doing. I think there was a saying that I read and it was like, you don't need to tell your body to grow your baby's right arm today. You know, like you don't need to tell it how to birth. Like your body knows how to birth. Oh, that's so good. Is that from that birth space book? I don't know what book it's from, but I just knew it. That's so good. And I was like. Whenever someone is going to challenge me about the home birth, I'm going to say this stuff. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. Because, yeah, I guess, um, yeah, like reading, like Rachel Reed and Sarah Wickham and all of the amazing people's resources out there. I guess the birth stories, the positive physiological, more often home birth stories. like I guess are evidence of that in action because yeah, it's like read that. Okay. Um, you know, you can do it and whatever, but actually then hearing that it actually has worked, I think, yeah, that's quite powerful. Yeah. And, um, then the birth of Harper, I guess. So when did you go into labor then? I went into labor. I was 39 and two. Yeah. Were you expecting to go like, like in inverted quotes or whatever, like early or? I think in my mind, I was like, I was expecting to go for the long haul, but. I was not mentally prepared to go for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that we went on like a little baby moon over Easter and it was just like so amazing. And I was just so focused on being as relaxed as possible. And I think I hit 38 weeks. And I was like, OK, this week, you know, we're on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was looking at all the statistics. I'm like, what? you know, what's your chance of going into labour as a first time mum this week? And then I think I had 39 weeks, I was like, all right, 43. Yes, that's it. So no, I was not expecting to go into labour at all. Yeah. And I feel very lucky that I went before my estimated due date because. I didn't get any other harassment. Yeah, so true. No one was messaging me being like, are you Superman or anything like that? Yeah. Amazing. I hadn't actually thought about that. That yeah, if you always birth before this magical date that a lot of people do tell people. then you miss out on all of that harassment, all those text messages, like, what are you up to today? Like, are you having a baby? Yeah, cool. And yeah, do you wanna tell the story of, birth story of Harper then? Yeah. So I had eggplant the day before. Yep. And I think for about a week, I was having like those period cramps, but again, they were just like mild. And in the lead up to it, I think that we were, there was still quite a bit of COVID around. So I was like really paranoid about getting sick because I was just so focused on that, you know, my hypnobirthing and I wanted to make sure I could do like my breathing techniques and stuff. So I wasn't going out that much, but. Christian the night before was like, oh, I feel like I'm getting cold. So I was like, okay, you're gonna sleep in this fair room and you're not gonna breathe on me. Yeah, yeah. So I woke up around like 6 a.m. on the Friday with cramps. Yeah. And they weren't that bad. Like it wasn't that intense, but I just kind of woke up with this feeling of like something is happening. And I had really struggled with sleep throughout my pregnancy. I was like sleeping, sitting up and stuff. Like it was just terrible. Was that because you were like so uncomfortable? I was just so uncomfortable. Yeah. I was sore. I was really congested as well. So a lot of the time, I'd adjust my pillows in the middle of the night. Like I'd go to sleep lying down, and then Krishna would wake up, and I'd just be like sleeping, sitting up. And he was like. This is weird. Yeah. We're at desperate times, call for desperate missions. I was sleeping in at all like, you know, 10 o'clock or something. So Christian hears me like, pottering around the house at 6am and he's like, what is going on? So I just got up, like had a shower, washed my hair. And I was meant to see a friend for lunch and I was like, I don't actually want to go out today. Like, I just want to have a night. I know that everyone says, you know. carry on with your day, just ignore it. But I was like, no, I just want to get home, I want to conserve my energy. And I think my biggest fear around birth was running out of energy, being in labor for three days and just being exhausted. So I was like, I just want to hibernate. I called my sister and told her, and she wasn't convinced, but I was like, oh, yeah, we'll just see how it goes. Yeah, yeah. And it ended up just being like the perfect day. Like I think I had a nap. Me and Christian went out for lunch. And then I already had an appointment booked with my backup midwife for that afternoon. So she was coming anyway. And then my doula ended up just tagging along. She just surprised us. So they came and we told them, you know, like having some cramps. Do you think like we could? I'll be having a baby soon and they were like, you know, it could still be, it's probably just your cervix getting ready. Like it could still be like a couple of days or even, you know, like a couple more weeks. So that was a little bit disheartening. Yeah. Well, some women do like have this early labor for weeks. Like that was my worst year. Yeah. And I've heard about that. And I was like, hey, don't get too excited. Yeah. But I remember Sonia afterwards saying, look, you, came to all your appointments with just those lists of questions and things you want to talk about. And she was like, you didn't have anything. Yeah. She was like, I knew something was happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they left around, I reckon, 4.30, and as soon as they walked out the door, like they were talking about going to other appointments. So I knew that they had other things on, and as soon as they walked out the door, my mucus plug released. Yeah, wow. And I thought my waters had broken, and I went to the bathroom and was like, oh no, like, no, this is my mucus bug, and I went through the question, I was like, you need to finish work now. Yeah. Because we have our mini Dachuan Rollo, and I didn't want him at the birth. because he's a very loud boy. Yeah, I was gonna ask that as well. Like how did Rollo play a puppet? Yeah, I wish he could be like a beautiful support animal. Yeah. Yeah, so the agreement was that we were gonna tell Christian's mom that I wasn't there because we needed to drop him off. Yeah. So anyway. I say to Christian, you know, like, you have to finish up now. And so he's trying to get all of, roll those things together. And I just go into the living room and I just like, just bounce on the birth ball for a while and timing my contractions. And then I eventually went through, I was like, I was feeling like a bit uncomfortable. So I was like, I'm gonna go get in the shower. So when I got in the shower and I was just like on my hands and knees. And I was like, this is feeling like quite intense. And I think I remember timing them and they were like a minute apart or something. Yeah, wow. And Christian comes in and he's like, I'm gonna go take Rollo now. Cause I was like, keep calling for him. I was like, you know, like where are you? Like I want you to be here with me. Yeah. But he was like madly running around and he's like, I'm gonna go take Rollo now. I was like, no, you need to call your mom. Like you can't leave now. Like it's too late. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was like, oh, okay, so calls his mom and his mom's on the way down. She lives about half an hour from us. So I knew that I still kind of had to wait. Like in the back of my mind I was like, I can't just have this baby right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I might have been in the shower for like 20 minutes and I said to Christian, I was like, you need to block the pool because I can't get out of the shower. Like I need to be in the water because the water was like quite relieving. Yeah. And he's like, okay, well, I'm gonna call the midwife now, I'm gonna call Lena. And I was like, oh, you know how you just get told it? I think, especially in my head, I was like, like if you're birthing in a hospital, they're like, oh, you need to wait until you're really in active labor. So in my mind, I was like, oh, it's gonna be hours, like don't call her yet. And he's like, if you want me to blow up the pool, I'm calling Lena. I'm like, okay. So I just remember him being on the phone to her and she was kind of just like, what like Sonja and Nikita just left? Like they said that you were fine. Like they were there like an hour ago. She was so confused. Cause she lives like an hour away from us from where we moved to. So she was like, you know, call Sonja, Sonja will come. And so Chris was like, okay, call Sonja. They and Nikita ended up coming back because she was closer. So Christian's starting to blow up the pool and we had the TENS machine, someone had lent it to us and we hadn't tried it out, stupidly, so I said to Christian, I'm getting out of the shower now, can you get a TENS? So he was trying to blow up the pool and... do everything he's trying to keep calm he did such a good job so he gets the teams on and I'm just I mean the Sonia coming in and I'm on my hands and knees on the ground just my dressing down on my bum in the air yeah some pillows down and with the teams on and I think the hardest part for me was I just remember thinking I need to move positions, you know, and keep moving. But every time my contraction ended, I'd try and move and the pressure from my water is not breaking was just, it just felt like a continuous contraction. Yeah. So I was like really struggling. Yeah. And I was just like doing my hypnobirthing breathing, like really internalizing. Yeah. And then eventually Christian was like, you know, the pool's ready, you can get in. And I think I felt like I kind of had a bit of control from using the TEMS machine. You know how you push it during contractions and all that. Yeah, you can boost it. Yeah, you boost it. So I eventually got in the pool and as soon as I got in the pool, the relief was amazing just because it took all the gravity off, obviously where my waters hadn't broken. Yeah. So yeah, then I spent obviously a few hours in the pool. Yeah. And my midwives and Doula were just in my kitchen, like all the way down the hallway eating dinner. Wow. And it was just Christian and I. We had, it was in our bedroom, and we had like all our affirmations set up on the wall and like some fairy lights. Yeah. And we just spent like the majority of my labor like that. And they kind of just let you do your thing? Yeah, they weren't even in the room. They apparently were walking down the hallway just to listen, to see what sounds I was making. But other than that, they weren't in the room. Amazing. That was really nice. And Christian had recorded a hip-niverting track for me. Oh, cool. So. That was really nice because he wasn't actually allowed to talk to me or touch me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was nice to have his voice in the room. Yeah. But there's like no breaking track. And then I was doing when I was transitioning that I was kind of just like, well, if I was in hospital now, like I'd have an epidural. I was like, this is a lot. And then I was like, no, you wouldn't think about your pelvic floor. Yeah. But I was just like, I rolled over and I said to Krishna, I was just like, you know, you need to go ask Lena how much longer this was gonna be like. I'm tired, but this is a lot. And then it wasn't long after that, that I started pushing. And then everyone was in the room. So I think I was pushing for about... an hour. Okay, yeah. And I think I didn't realize it at the time. Like I remember looking back and being like, oh, you know, I didn't even really need my midwives there. It was just kind of like a sense of security. Like they just left me to it. But thinking back to this moment, because I was pushing for a while. And they were like, Oh, do you think that you need to just like do you need to do a wee or do you need to just like move positions a little bit and I think that she had gotten a little bit stuck coming out because as soon as I was on my hands and knees in the pool and I rolled to the side to see if I needed to do a wee and as soon as I rolled my body was just like pushing again. Yeah wow. So she would obviously just gotten like a little bit stuck or something and just needed like a little bit of um. to be maneuvered a little bit. Yeah. It was all about space and creating space and pretty much in like almost every episode of Recorded, there has been like some element of like, I mean, like birth is like a lot of movement. Like even in hospital births, like if you don't have an epidural, you're like trying to move a lot. And I guess that's one of the big problems with epidurals is that, um, you can't move. So you can't create the space, you know, you're not rolling over and lunging and bobbing up and down, whatever else. Um, yeah, it's all about space. I actually, um, I was going to say it when you talked about your osteo, but That you might already have heard it, but the great birth rebellion Recently did an episode about osteos and making space and stuff. So yeah, that was really good My osteo push spinning babies a lot. Yeah, and so we were doing those stretches like every day. Yeah To just making sure, you know, you didn't kind of Yeah, yeah So Harper got in the right space. Yeah, so she got in the right space. I think like In the back of my mind, I was constantly like, I need to move around, I need to. And I don't think I actually moved around, I don't know, maybe I did, but I feel like I was in similar positions for my whole labor. Yeah, so I didn't move as much as I thought I would. I wasn't as active as I thought I would be, which is interesting. But yeah. Then... Yeah, I birthed her head pretty soon after that. Yeah. And in my birth plan that wasn't printed out, we had discussed that Christian was going to catch her. Yeah. Because I was on my hands and knees, he was behind me. My midwife was also behind me. They weren't in the pool. But I said, and we were saying, I was like, oh, look, her head is out. like Krishna, are you going to catch it? And Lena, he's in the pictures. He's like got his hands in the cool, like really. So sweet. But Lena was like, look, like you're not in the position where he can do that. So like you're going to have to do it. Yeah. Cause like if he, so you're on your hands and knees and then yeah, if baby comes out, she's going to be like at the back. And then if Christian catches, then you're going to get really tangled up. Yeah, all tangled up. So with my neck surge, yeah, she comes out and in the birth video, I can just, you can see me just being like, oh, and then be like, oh my God, where is she? And just scooping her up. And yeah, so she was born at 11 o'clock that night. Yeah. Wow. Do you have like any more, I guess, explanation to share about, you know, those last, I guess, moments before she was born, like in terms of like how you like felt the sensations or pain or contractions or however you want to call them. Like how did you, how would you say you experienced all of that in those last moments? See, I feel like labor itself for me wasn't as painful as I thought it was gonna be. Look, I could just, it could be the oxytocin. Yeah, but I mean, that's why it's there. That's why it's all there. Yeah. And I remember talking to my sister that day and her being like, I don't think it's gonna be as painful as you think it's gonna be. She was like, it's actually quite manageable. The hardest part was the pushing and I think that I just reached the point where I was like I'm done. I need this baby out. Yeah Yeah, and I remember when she was Being born just saying to my bed wife like this really hurts She was like yeah, like just embrace the stretch and I think that was probably the most important thing that she said She was like just embrace the stretch. Yeah And at one point she said to me, you know, like, if you can use your hand, because she didn't check me at all. I think she just used the Doppler maybe once before I transitioned. But she said like, you can use your hand and just see if you can feel her head. And at that point I was like, I'm not moving. So I didn't, but I then read a post recently and it was saying something about if you, if you do feel the head before it's born, it can not delay the birth, but it kind of gives your body more time to open up. If that makes sense, they might come down and go back up a few more times or something like that. I don't know how accurate that is. But I was like, I wonder if that's also why she said it. But yeah, I think, yeah, I don't know what if there's anything else that. Yeah, maybe it's as simple as that. And so you find her. I presume like did somebody like push her through your legs or something? I don't know if Lena tapped her through. You caught her. I caught her. And then, yeah, we just sat in the pool. Yeah, oh that's beautiful. Yeah. And so it was your doula, the two midwives, and Christian. Yeah. And I'm presuming your mom appeared at some point to get Rolo. So my mom and dad actually live in WA. Oh, OK. Yeah. So they weren't here. But yes, so Christian's mom did come. And I just remember. I think it might have been like six o'clock and I was like on the ground and my hands and knees in my bedroom and I was sitting with her back to my bedroom door and then I think my second midwife Nikita took Carrie Rollo out so just like no one could come in, no one could interrupt my space Amazing! It sounds like, I mean I was going to say the team was amazing which they clearly were, but like how awesome of you to have organized that team. Like that's incredible. You don't hear that many first time mom home birth stories as positive, I was gonna say, or like without like such cause there can still be interventions of sorts at home, but that's amazing. And so how long did you stay in the waterfall, roughly? We were in, we transitioned from the pool to our bed. Um, and that's where I birthed the placenta. And that was like, I think I birthed the placenta at about the hour mark. Maybe half an hour or 40 minutes. Wow. And that was just like pure oxytocin. Chilling. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. It was amazing and the only thing that I changed on the day to like my birth plan was I planned to birth out in like our second living area. Okay. And then what the morning that I woke up, I was like, I had all my affirmations up on the wall, like I had it all set up and I got up and I was like, no, I'm moving through. and I see it all up in the air and it was just the perfect space. Oh my gosh. Imagine if you went into like the, the labor ward or whatever or hospital and we're like, Nope, I don't like that room. I'm going to move. You couldn't do that. That's awesome. It's so funny because I was having nine years about, cause I think my biggest, second biggest fear was like going to over 43 weeks and then not being able to have my home birth. I was hearing night news about a birth in the hospital. Oh my god. I was like, I just really want to have my own birth. Yeah. We put so much effort into it. Yeah, yeah, of course. I think, yeah, like, yeah, my first pregnancy was 41 plus five. And certainly that was like one of my biggest fears. I was like, I that was probably the biggest fear I had. was I do not want to go to hospital and I think that's completely a normal thing to be having nightmares like if you've got like that sucks though but if you've got yeah like this whole plan of home birth and yeah it's quite different. Yeah amazing so that that's the birth of Harper. Yeah yeah I honestly couldn't have expected it to go on any better like having a full night's sleep, having a nap. I mean, great lunchtime meal. Yeah. Yeah, and I said to my doula afterwards, I was like, you know, I'm concerned about my second birth if we choose to have another child, like, it not going as well. And she's like, no, it's going to go just as well. It's just going to be quicker. Yeah. It's like, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because you've set the bar so high. I know. That's so cool. But yeah, we just had that absolute dream team. So experienced. Do you think, like how has your postpartum been having, you know, had this amazing experience? Yeah, it's been, look, I think having a baby is very challenging. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. We did have like a bit of a rough breastfeeding journey. Yeah. But Christian had, I think. four weeks off and that was just amazing. Like that was just a bubble and yeah, just so many newborn snuggles. I just, you know, didn't leave the armchair and he just fed me and made sure I was watered. Yeah. Yeah, it was lovely. And what did Rollo think of the new sibling? Sibling? Yeah, there's a lot of jealousy going on. So he stayed with Christian's mum for two weeks just because we, you know, just we wanted to be able to have things figured out a bit more and not neglect him and make sure he still had attention. So he's definitely gotten used to her. He, when he first met her, he kind of came in and was like, what is this thing? You know, side-eye there. But now that we're on solids, he's like, oh yeah. She's my friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She feeds me. She throws things on the ground. Yeah, yeah. And I guess, yeah, it's probably safe to say that if you have another child, you'll have another home birth. I think so. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. There's no question about it. Yeah, yeah. And has like this experience... like changed how you thought about yourself I guess from what it sounds like is you know you kind of empowered yourself like the entire way through your pregnancy but on a whole do you feel like it's strengthened you as like a woman as a mom like do you have any words about that? Definitely. I just have so much more respect for my body now. I feel like as, you know, like a young girl, you're brought up to kind of critique yourself. And up until this point, I, like, just knowing what my body did, like, grew this tiny human and Yeah. And it's actually quite triggering for me now to like hear a lot of like negative birth stories because I'm, you know, I'm like, this shouldn't be the norm, you know, because I was so afraid of it and yeah, it's hard to hear. Yeah. Like really medicalised birth stories now. Yeah. I have the exact same. experience, which is kind of like some of the inspo for this entire podcast is to, you know, get out home birth stories, number one, but also get out positive home birth stories. Yeah, to spread the word of how amazing it can be and you can choose which room in your house to give birth in Exactly You can't do that anywhere else You can expect if you want Whatever your heart desires Exactly. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing that story, Izzy No, thank you so much for having me on and thank you for um creating this podcast. I think it's definitely needed Yeah, of course