I had a deep desire to labor and birth our third child in our home before I ever imagined having a fourth. Home Birth was in my heart before I remarried. It wasn’t something that I chose as a RESULT of a terrible experience in the hospital. Women and couples decide to have a home birth in a plethora of ways. Could it be an option for you now or in the future? Let’s explore…

My home birth was all that I hoped it would be.

My midwife Mindy.

Both of my midwives, Brandi and Mindy, scheduled an in-home visit with my “birth party” once I reached 36 weeks; the magic number when baby should safely be born at home. My birth party (people present during labor and birth) was probably larger than most. My husband and children were all present, my mom, sister, In-loves, a dear friend, and doula were all present during the exciting part of my labor and birth.

I say exciting part of my labor, because my water broke and I labored nearly 40 hours before MJ was born. Sounds awful doesn’t it? It wasn’t. The most frustrating part of laboring that long was coming to the realization that yes, my water broke at 7ish in the morning, but I wouldn’t meet my baby that same day.  My contractions continued, so I thought they were making progress. So far, the contractions weren’t unbearable- I could walk, sway, bounce, color, and talk to my mom while she baked cinnamon rolls in our kitchen.

My mom rolling homemade cinnamon rolls. Everyone was grateful for the smells and treat!

I should’ve known, with those signs that my labor would last a while longer.

After about 12 hours of laboring, I called Mindy to come check me out.It turned out that my cervix was only about 2 centimeters dilated. I felt so mad! At this point, I realized that I couldn’t inconvenience anyone who’d arrived as a willing part of this experience. Keep your party smaller, so you won’t have any of those feeling if you happen to have a longer than average labor.

Mindy was so gracious and sweet to me. She wasn’t the least bit annoyed that she’d come all that way only to return home with me still pregnant. She advised me to eat, drink a glass of wine and get some sleep. My mother-in-love was so sweet and volunteered to make the wine run two nights in a row because Saturday and Sunday were much of the same. Our family took shifts in and out to check on us and make sure we ate. I ate better while labored than I did the entire pregnancy!

My dear friend, Simone’ stopped by with my pregnancy craving.

By Sunday, I was going stir-crazy

I felt so annoyed at my still-pregnant state. Brent and I ended up padding the passenger’s seat of the car that night and taking a drive. Everyone left, and I had cabin fever. However, the time allowed us to talk and enjoy the view of the stars.

I woke up Monday morning to a big gush of fluid and substantial contractions. IT WAS ON.

Sweet toddler kisses between contractions.

Finally, we put out the call and woke up the family members that were already at house waiting. I remember using the restroom just after my midwife arrived, and sitting there fussing my husband out. It angered me- I was in labor and having a BM. The need disgusted me. Like, who does that?! I knew that this happened all the time, but it was the strangest feeling to me. I kept telling him it was all his fault. Haha!

We decided to check my cervix after I got cleaned up and I had progressed to four. We still knew there was a way to go, but knew we would meet MJ soon.

Once again, I misjudged my daughter.

She was out and on my chest in 41 minutes!!!! That might be the only thing that I would change. With contractions coming so close together, and then suddenly boom baby– it was hard for me to mentally and physical keep up with. I barely made it into the birthing tub. As soon as I sat down, by body began pushing.

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I fell in love once more!

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My husband and I after my cervix check. I barely made it into the birth pool from here.

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My husband and I decided to leave her placenta attached for a few hours after birth. So MJ and I dried off and climbed back into bed to nurse while Mindy looked us over. Meanwhile, someone fed me and gave me water. I remember feeling so incredibly thankful to give birth at home, in my space.

Taken shortly after getting back in bed from the birthing pool.

There was no hurrying around going on just joy and excitement. After a few hours passed Mindy prepared a nice herbal bath for me and MJ to get cleaned up and then helped us get back in bed and comfy again. Seriously the best immediate postpartum period that I could have asked for.

MJ just after our herbal bath.

I know you have some curiosities…

Throughout the pregnancy and labor, my husband and received lots of questions. I also like to open myself up to answer questions from others who are curious about home birth. Here are few that we’ve come across:

• What would you do if the baby stopped breathing?

If baby stops breathing or isn’t breathing at birth, the midwife takes resuscitation measures, just the same as the hospital. My midwives came equipped with rescue bags and it was our responsibility to provide a metal cookie sheet to serve as a hard surface in the event baby needed CPR. Do make sure the midwives you choose are trained in neonatal resuscitation.

•  How often do you check heartbeat?

Baby’s has his heartbeat checked aproximately every twenty minutes during active labor, but less often in early labor and during pushing.

• Do you prepare emergency plans? 

Yes, we prepare emergency back up plans. I registered with my back-up hospital ahead of time, in the event I needed transported.

• Can I eat/drink what I want the entire time?

I ate and drank EVERYTHING I wanted. I was SO hungry!

• Is it true that it’s unsanitary to give birth in the water that you are sitting in?

This is not true unless the water somehow becomes contaminated. If you have a bowel movement while pushing, you should of course get out of the water. This is the same procedure you would follow if you were pushing on the bed, and the soiled linen would be removed before baby is born.

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Coloring was a relaxing way for me to pass the time.

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Supply corner and my wall of affirmation. This was taken a few days before my water broke.

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One of my birth affirmations.

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• What do you do to provide mom comfort immediately after placenta delivers?

It’s a great option to have warm blankets or heating pads arranged. The parents or someone in the birth party can provide them. The entire experience is customized to fit the needs of mom/dad/family. However keep in mind that requests shouldn’t keep the midwives from ensuring the safety of Mom and baby.

• Does mom still go to the hospital afterwards? What preparations need to made beforehand as far as materials, sanitation, space, etc…?

No need for Mom to go to the hospital if delivery was uneventful. Your home should be just as clean as it normally is.  There is a list of supplies that we needed available for the birth. For instance, we had a water birth, so we had to get a water hose, plastic to go under the tub to protect our carpet and a bunch of extra towels on hand.

• Weren’t you concerned about infection with your water being broken so long?

I wasn’t. Being at home with ruptured membranes is much different from being at the hospital with all those germs.  I trusted my midwives and I follow their instructions closely. They told me to practice good hygiene, clean the toilet seat before each use, nothing in my vagina, to stay hydrated, and watch for signs of fever. I wasn’t gushing fluid at all. There was a slow leak until the morning MJ was born.

All my loves!

Hospitals are a great option, but they are not the ONLY option. Explore all of them and be fearless in making the best choice for you and your family. Are you interested in your own home birth? What are some of your question about the process? Let’s keep the conversation going! We would love to hear some of your home birth experiences.

Be sure to join us in our social media accounts to be up to date with the progress of our project!

And… Don’t forget to share your brelfies using our hashtag

#BreastfeedingWorld

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Joi Barnett

Joi is a Believer, wife, mother, entrepreneur, and artisan, who has a passion for educating and empowering women holistically. Using family and women’s health as a focus, Joi has built an all natural soap business and doula practice to serve the needs of her community. She lives and loves in Indiana with her husband and 4 children.

The post How to Have an Amazing Home Birth in a World of Hospitals Pt.2 appeared first on Breastfeeding World.

My midwife, Mindy, and my dear friend Ebony chatting as they fill my birthing pool.

When you tell people that you are having your baby at home, they tend to look at you like you have three heads

Even though home birth was the only way babies were born for centuries, it has become taboo. However in recent years, home birth has seen a resurgence in current culture, as women opt to have their babies on their terms. There are SO many women who are not happy with previous in-hospital birthing experiences. Unfortunately, some of us still refuse to accept that we have options beyond giving birth to our babies in sterile, cold hospitals- and not in the comfort of our own home. We’ve allowed the procedural to take precedence over the personal.

My Home-Birth Story Will Make You See Birthing in an Amazing New Way

It Could All Be So Simple…

There is no way for me to explain to you why I am so passionate about women being aware of all their birthing options without sharing a bit of my own experience. I am a Mom of four beautiful children. Both of my eldest babies were born “naturally” without incident. I also didn’t leave the hospital moved by my birthing experience. It just was what it was. Nothing special. I was just another woman who came to the hospital, had a baby, and was sent home with a few diapers and the back up formula bag.

Six years after having my eldest daughter, I became pregnant with my third child.

I was wiser and had more education regarding my options. I was DEAD SET ON having a midwife and a home birth. My bubble bursted quickly when I found out it was not legal for a midwife to attend a home birth in Kentucky. Off to the OB I went. Initially I felt excited to find a young, Black, Female OB. I felt like she would understand what my wishes were, respect them, and help me stick to my guns. I was wrong. When I saw her picture on my computer screen, I saw my sister in a cape.

I thought she would serve as an advocate for me, but it turned out that she was just another doctor. I, of course, ended up on bed rest. After spending months on the couch and only going out to attend the millions of doctors appointments, I was spent. I felt OVER pregnancy and I missed my own Mom. By the time U had my next appointment, I went in to the office in a mood.

Upon being asked by my OB how I felt, I confessed: I was tired of being pregnant. I wanted my body back. Soon after, I was scheduled for an induction the following Monday. The decision to allow an induction came when I was in a highly emotional state. She never stopped to talk me down or reassure me that it wouldn’t be long before I’d be holding my baby. None of that. So, without any good medical reason to do so, my former White Coat Crusader was going to induce my labor.

This wasn’t MY plan.

On the morning of induction, I felt ambushed with misguided “care”. It was akin to reaching out to a friend for emotional support, only to have them comfort me with cocaine. Her “help” was hurting me. Even before I got to the hospital I felt confusion, regret and betrayal. I remember telling my husband that I hoped I was dilated to 5 centimeters and that my contractions would pick up. I wish that I had the courage then to just not show up. But it was too late to turn back.

My Hubby snapped this before my OB came up. The thumbs up was my way of saying: here we are so lets go with it.

After being checked in, my doctor came up to check my cervix. My cervix had dilated to 5 centimeters and I was 50% effaced (cervix shortens, softens, and thins). I had a fleeting moment of excitement. Then I heard her say, “I’m going to break your water now.” Immediately following the breaking of my water, warm amniotic fluid soiled the sheets. I was devastated. I asked her why she broke my water if I was already dilated to 5. Her exact words were “I don’t play. I get it rolling.” What, Sway?? I was livid. When her desire to get rolling came in, the rest of my options went out.

An hour later nurses started me on Pitiocin.

Pitocin is an artificial version of Oxytocin, the hormone that causes a woman’s uterus to contract during labor. Not asked; just started. When I questioned it, the nurses dismissed my concerns saying that Doc thought it was best because my contractions weren’t “strong enough”.

The medication continued getting increased. I requested that it not be turned up any more because of how strong and close my contractions were coming. My nurse kept saying that my doctor thought it was best. She blatantly disregarded what I, the patient, was asking her to do. My uterus became so irritable that I couldn’t move without having another contraction. On my last trip to the bathroom, it took about 10 minutes to get to the toilet because they just wouldn’t stop coming.

Hubs and my Mother-in-love did provide a few chuckles throughout.

Sit up. Contraction. Swing legs over the bed. Contraction. Stood up. Contraction. Take two steps. Contraction.

This is not a dramatization of my experiences. I wish that I didn’t remember so vividly.

Moments after she’d been placed on my chest.

Finally, it was time to push. Exhausted, I remember my OB yelling for me to push with each contraction. But I couldn’t keep up. They were coming like a flood. I stopped to breathe and her head popped up to look at me. She yelled, “PUSH!” I yelled back, “I NEED TO BREATHE!!’ When my daughter was finally born, we shared a blissful hour of skin to skin contact and breastfeeding.

And then more madness.

Have you ever wondered what postpartum hemorrhage looks like?

I handed my daughter over for my Mother-in-Love and other family to see while I got up to go to the restroom.

Love at first sight..

When I sat on the toilet, I felt a huge clot slip out. I mentioned it to my nurse and before I could turn to look, she flushed the toilet. She may not have been trying to hide anything, but that didn’t sit right with me. I got cleaned up and noticed that I seemed to still be having contractions. I was still in so much pain.

On my transport to the postpartum floor, I began to shiver. And the pain became worse. Because I could feel the blood and the clots between my legs, I requested that the nurses check while they were transferring my care one to another. They did and changed my pad. 15 or so minutes passed and my pad needed to be changed again. Again, I called the nurses in, and again the same routine. Still I shivered and I remained in a lot of pain. I don’t remember asking for pain meds.

The amount of blood concerned me

At some point, my daughter’s Godparents came into the room. I expressed my concern about the blood to my husband and how many times my pad needed to be changed. There was a comment made, “You just had a baby. You’re supposed to bleed a lot.” I dismissed this comment while my mother-in-love was telling me to calm down and try to sleep. I appeared anxious to her. Afraid, I knew I needed a moment to think. So I called my husband closer and asked him to ask everyone to leave. Once they were gone I tried to feel for the top of my uterus and realized it was displaced. It dawned on me that a few hours had now passed and I hadn’t emptied my bladder.

By this time, my peri pad had been changed four times. Once again, we summoned the nurses for restroom help, and to request meds to stop the contractions and slow the bleeding. I was in so much pain by this point that I lost my stomach into an emesis basin. My nurse didn’t hesitate to get an order for the meds that I requested and she administered the suppository as soon as I was back in bed. After a uterine massage, a pad change, and some time for the medication to work, I was feeling better and my bleeding was normal.

This experience was such an ordeal. My daughter was perfectly healthy and I am eternally grateful for that.

Artwork of our daughter by Ashley Cathey.

 The horror of what actually happened didn’t dawn on me until weeks later. I took inventory and I realized that if not for my medical training and knowing what signs to look for, I probably would have taken the advice of those around me. I would have changed my pad, requested meds for pain, and settled into sleep. Had I done that, I would have bled out in my sleep. I was so furious and traumatized that I didn’t even go back to my six week check up. I have only shared all the details of my experience a few times. It still chokes me up. I had to walk away from sharing this  today as not to break down in tears. My daughter is three years old now.

I don’t believe any woman should walk away from a birthing experience feeling this way.

Sadly, what happened to me happens to women all over this country and around the world; every single day. My goal is to help women be confident and knowledgeable about the options available to them.

In the second part of this post, I will share my experience with home birth and answer some of the questions I have received about what to consider when thinking about home birth as a birthing option.

Have you had a birth experience that you were unhappy with or do you know someone that has? I’ve found that exploring my feelings about my experience and sharing with others to be empowering. It is high time that we as women say what is best for us! We do not have to await the medical community or government to make sweeping changes for us. The unity amongst women is not to be underestimated.

Joi Barnett

Joi is a Believer, wife, mother, entrepreneur, and artisan, who has a passion for educating and empowering women holistically. Using family and women’s health as a focus, Joi has built an all natural soap business and doula practice to serve the needs of her community. She lives and loves in Indiana with her husband and 4 children.

The post How to have an amazing home birth in a world of hospitals, Pt 1 appeared first on Breastfeeding World.

Fact #1: Less than 5% of babies are born on their due dates.

The “due date”. Oh, the pressure! The very first question people ask you when they hear you’re pregnant, lots of times even before they officially congratulate you, is the inevitable, “When are you due?”. My answer is always the month I am due (this time “April!”) in which I get the response, “April what?”. Well, my issue with my “due date” is that it’s not when my baby is due. It’s an estimated “guess date”, which is what we call it in the natural birth world of low interventions, homebirths and hypnobirths. Oh, and if you weren’t sure what the second question always is, here is a meme to show you. Although, not as annoying as long as your response isn’t “Oh, good luck, they are trouble” or “How can you make me wait so long?”…

Fact #2: 80% of women will have their babies between their 37th and 42nd week of pregnancy.

According to the statistics, 95% of women have their babies on any other day besides their “due” day; and according to the statistics of fact #2, 80% of women have their babies within the same 5 weeks of gestation. FIVE WEEKS. That’s a large window. That’s three full weeks before the “due date” and two full weeks after it. That could mean even my guess month is off, especially if you’re “due” within the first or last week of the month. Now that I think about it, maybe I’ll just answer with a season from now on.

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Fact #3: On average, most studies show that first time moms deliver late, or past their “due dates”.

I am a second time mom this time around, and luckily I did not deliver “late” my first time. I also did not deliver “early”. Nope, my little girl came right on her “due date”, because, that’s when babies come right? Kidding, of course. Maybe she will grow up as a perfectionist or someone who is always on time, but if she is anything like me…well, she just got lucky.

Fact #4: Your cell phone and social media accounts will blow up with family and friends inquiring when baby is coming around your due date

Every few hours, someone will ask if you had the baby yet. Or where the baby is. “When the baby is coming,’ they inquire. Perhaps even worse- they yell at you!! They actually have the nerve to say THEY can’t wait any longer. This will continue until they receive the news the baby was born. It will even continue once they know you’re in labor. It will not stop until they see proof of baby.

Ok, this may not be a proven fact

 But any pregnant mother past her date can tell you- this is 100% true. Also, if don’t see the verity in my point, you can probably admit you’ve bugged an “overdue” mama about when baby is coming. Well, you’re the reason I’m not telling my due date.  If I were to go past my guess date, I wouldn’t think twice about it. Although, I’ll admit, around 41 weeks and 6 days I might start to question where my baby is myself.

But that’s for me to worry about! You may think because my baby was born on my due date I have no business complaining about this…yet. However, people began to ask me this my first pregnancy about 2 weeks before I was even “due”!  I also witnessed numerous pregnant mothers receiving due date inquisitions as well.

So really, there is no way around having NO ONE ask you if your baby is here yet, but there is a way to minimize it . Broaden your due date to a due month. Be prepared for further inquiries after you give the month (mine, April). To hear “April what?”

At this point I always say “mid April”. Most people “get it” by then, but some continue to ask, for the third time, “But what day?”. Why these people will care so much you will never know. I mean, my family and my closest friends know my guess date, but they also know how I feel about it and that to me, it doesn’t mean much. (And if they didn’t, they do now!)

Fun fact #5: My daughter is one of the 5% of babies who was born on their due date.

She is also one of the 1% of babies born at home. I don’t know the statistic for homebirth babies born on their due dates, but I am pretty sure she is something special.

So, I will be having my 2nd baby this is April. Possibly March, possibly May.

Basically, Spring 2017. My baby will come when my baby is ready, and if you just can’t wait any longer to find out he/she is here, just remember… I have spent this pregnancy puking, crying, farting, gaining weight, dealing with insomnia, having migraines and back aches and sciatica pain that would make Superman cry , getting kicked in the ribs, peeing every 15 minutes, waddling instead of walking and staying sober for 40 weeks…so please, SHUT. UP. AND. WAIT.

I will leave you with one of the hypnobabies affirmations from my tracks, forever embedded into my brain…

“Babies are born on their birthdays, not when doctors say.”

Teresa Finocchio

I am a 27 year old first time mom who lives in New Jersey. I had an all natural planned homebirth with the help of water and the self-hypnosis hypnobabies method. I am currently a stay at home breastfeeding mother to my beautiful baby girl and I’ll be sharing with you all some personal experiences and covering some other interesting topics, stay tuned.

The post 5 Reasons Why I Won’t Share My Due Date appeared first on Breastfeeding World.

My fiancé, Albe, taught me differently. He showed me what an amazing birth partner was. I also learned from my research and hypnobabies classes that my perception of childbirth was way off and with the help of my amazing birth partner, we could change what our minds once knew, and truly believe in a comfortable natural birth.

All I really knew about birth was that it looked like it hurt and that it made women loathe their partner at the time

Being a strong, wonderful partner in birth is not all that makes an amazing birth partner. The pregnancy counts too, guys! Albe was so supportive the entire 9 months leading up to the birth. From doing his best to not miss one appointment, supporting my decision to change over to a midwife and plan a homebirth, financially providing for me to give me a relaxing pregnancy and the birth I wanted, to attending every hypnobabies class with me.  Oh, and making sure that our completely unfinished house had a comfortable, finished birthing space and finished living room space for my postpartum stages.

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Housework in my birthing suite!

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Housework in my birthing suite!

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Housework in the living room – my postpartum suite!

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He was the most amazing partner during labor, which I will tell you about in detail in a minute, and also during the first couple weeks postpartum. (They count too, guys! Maybe even the most!) Albe typically worked 7 days a week, minimum 12 hour days. He runs his own construction business so he is a busy man! In the first couple days he did not leave our side. He helped me walk to the bathroom and back, got my food and water (OK – that was mostly our moms but he helped!), changed diapers and bonded with us. After that, he began working 5 days a week, maximum 8 hour days. Oh, and probably stopped home 2-3 times during those days to check in and give kisses! Now, almost 5 months in, he is home for dinner every night (which I now cook!) and off every weekend he can be, showing me that he is not only an amazing birth partner but an amazing life partner.

Daddy diaper doo-ty!

Albe learning “crowning” at hypnobabies class!

Mid-day visit from Daddy!

OK – back to the childbirth part. So, I am going to try to get this out without retelling you my birth story, which I already did. (Click my name at the bottom for my author archive which has links to my home birth stories, Part One & Part Two). When my water broke, we were just falling asleep, Albe helped me out of bed and to the bathroom to clean up. Then he immediately (my contractions, which I call waves, began within 10 minutes) helped me time my pressure waves so I could keep the midwives updated. He got me calmly through the night (water broke 11 PM) and made sure my birth pool was filled by 8 AM. Meanwhile, my midwife came for a check at 6 AM and I was only 1 cm dilated, which I wasn’t told – my choice. He never made me feel like what was happening wasn’t important or that it was going to get way worse, thankfully, he just acted totally normal. As normal as you can when your fiancé is indeed in labor, I suppose!

Once the pool was filling, he helped me into the shower so I could still be in water until the pool was ready. He then got me comfortably in the pool and my midwife came back around 10 AM. I will admit, during those first few hours in the pool, Albe had answered what seemed like 100 phone calls already and had walked in and out of the room a thousand times, and I was definitely worried. Annoyed? I was something, but I decided to let it go each time that damn T-Mobile jingle blasted through his pants. He was just running his business – organizing for the day(s) he was about to miss. Eventually I shouted, “Can’t you at least turn it on vibrate!”. I still ignored it, as I was so deep into my “zone” of hypnosis by now. But I can tell you this…once things progressed and I was using my vocals during waves and really needed him, he left his phone in the other room and did not leave my side.

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Things were really progressing. Frozen towels, fans, water, Gatorade, reheating the birth pool, cooling down the birth pool, food, dilating, back-to-back waves, longer waves, harder waves….I really was in need of his full attention, which I got without a doubt. Holding my hand through many waves, spraying me down with that lifesaving $8 spray bottle fan, holding my water, putting more hot water in my pool, putting ice cubes in my pool, switching my towels, rubbing my back, whispering to me how much he loved me and how great I was doing. Everything counted.

As things progressed I started pushing around 7 PM. I pushed in the pool for an hour or two, with Albe right behind me, giving me my relaxation cues and supporting me. Eventually, it was suggested that I push outside the pool which I was NOT happy about. He helped convince me was a good idea and I should try and that’s when we moved to the ottoman beside the pool. He leaned against the wall and I sat between his legs and leaned against him. This was also not working and I was exhausted. My team decided it best if I lay down on the pull-out bed in the living room and try to sleep between pushes. Albe rubbed my back, my head and did all he could to help me rest.

While I was side lay pushing, he was holding my leg up for me, supporting my weight. After an hour or two of this, my team wanted me to move the bathroom to squat and toilet push. For hours, Albe held me up as I swayed against him, dropping my full weight into his supporting arms with each push. We were both tired, drenched in sweat, and working so hard. We did this facing each other, and my back to him. Eventually, he had to sit on the toilet to support himself while he held me in my squats. He was being so patent with me, as he had now been able to see our daughters head for 3 hours. After this, we moved back to the ottoman where I attempted pushing on all fours. Albe was behind me (YUPP, behind me is right) ready to catch our baby. He was helping guide her head out and telling me how cool this was. This is when I thought to myself, WOW, I cannot believe his face is where it is and he is excited and coaching me to push, telling me when her head is most visible and when it is slipping back in. “Hold it there, keep pushing, she’s coming, you’re doing it!”, are things he would say to me. Counting like a sergeant on a battlefield to help me push longer. I never felt insecure for a second.

My midwife suggested I try standing and giving 3 big pushes, this was going to be it. But if I stood, he needed to hold me and could not catch the baby. “What do you wanna do babe, wanna try standing, you should I am ready to meet our baby”, he says. “I don’t know babe, then you can’t catch, it’s up to you, it’s your moment,” I reply back. It was at this time, 27.5 hours of labor in, 7 hours of pushing and 3.5 of crowning that my heart melted. He had been so great this whole time, I wanted him to be able to catch. He was thinking I had been so great this whole time and it was time to meet our baby and end this long, hard journey. This is when I thought to myself how silly the movies were and how could any woman ever yell at their partner during this spiritual and intimate moment? I did switch positions, I stood up and within minutes we were holding our beautiful baby girl. WE did it.

Albe – Thank you for being the best pregnancy, birth and postpartum partner a girl could dream of. And for all you do for us. I cannot wait to marry you and do it all over again. And maybe again. You helped make it an amazing, beautiful experience and I know I can do anything with you by my side. I love you.

If you have an extra 4 minutes, check out our homebirth video (appropriate for anyone to watch) filled with more pictures and some video from our birthing time and see for yourself the love and strength my amazing birth partner gave me. You may need a tissue….

We would love to hear from you so leave us a comment below! How was your home birth experience? Did you have an amazing birth partner as well?

Be sure to join us in our social media accounts to be up to date with the progress of our project!

And… Don’t forget to share your brelfies using our HT #BreastfeedingWorld 

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Teresa Finocchio

I am a 27 year old first time mom who lives in New Jersey. I had an all natural planned homebirth with the help of water and the self-hypnosis hypnobabies method. I am currently a stay at home breastfeeding mother to my beautiful baby girl and I’ll be sharing with you all some personal experiences and covering some other interesting topics, stay tuned.

The post My Amazing Birth Partner appeared first on Breastfeeding World.

Ahhhhh, RELIEF. As my baby was handed to me, I could not even fathom what was happening. My fiancé, Albe, was trying to hand her over to me and I held her for a couple seconds and went to give her back. “I need to sit down first,” I said in exhaustion. (I had my baby in a standing position and my legs were about to collapse!) So we readjusted, I laid back on my fiancé and comfortably got to hold my baby. Staring at her in disbelief, I thought, “Wow she is actually cute!”. I am one of those “babies are weird looking” people…or at least was one of those people. A couple of other first words I spoke were, “Who is still here?”, “Where are those doughnuts?”, “My vagina is on fire!” and “How dilated was I when my midwife checked me 10 hours ago!?” (7cm!). After a good 15 minutes alone, delivering the placenta and then Albe cutting the cord (talk about delayed cord clamping!) we told the midwives to send in our moms…and to my surprise my best friend was still there too!!

New Grandmoms coming to meet their granddaughter

First look for everyone!

Placenta lesson!

As everyone came in to see the baby, my mom already had a doughnut (from my favorite bakery..my mother-in-law stopped on her way upon request 14 hours ago but I refused to eat during labor) waiting for me. As we all cawed over the new bundle and ranted about how crazy my labor just was, my mom fed me my doughnut, my baby girl began to nurse and my midwife, Yuliya, did a placenta mapping for us all! This was beyond cool. We got to see my placenta inside out and learn all the parts of this wonderful piece of me that kept my baby alive for 9 months.

After all of this, it was time to get cleaned up. I walked over to the shower, which was close by as my “birthing suite” was attached to the laundry room/full bathroom, and started the warm water. I leaned against the tiled wall while my midwife, Heather, washed my body for me. She was so gentle and so kind, she even offered to wash my hair which is so long its down to my butt! I told her lets just rinse it and put it up in a bun, that would be easier for both of us right now, plus I wanted to go see my baby ASAP! As Heather was washing me up, Albe was in the living room with our baby, our moms and Yuliya. They weighed her, gave her the Vitamin K shot, measured her head and her length and did the newborn exam! They put on her first diaper, clothed her and bundled her. All of this while I was in the shower!! Luckily, I had Lauren, my birth photographer, capture all of these moments for me and I am beyond thankful to her for sticking around for that.

Daddy’s Diaper lesson!

Albe weighing our baby girl!

Measurements by Yuliya

LOVE

After my shower I felt like a million bucks! A sore, exhausted, hungry, can barely walk, deflated million bucks, but a million bucks none the less! The couch was already pulled out into a bed (I actually did some laboring there) and I got to lay down in my own living room with my baby and my fiancé. My photographer left after this and my midwives shortly after – but they stayed until I was totally comfortable physically and mentally. My mom stayed that night on the other couch. As tired as I was, I don’t think I went to sleep until 8AM or so and of course only slept a few hours. Actually, later on that day, we had a tornado warning and a horrible storm! With a not-even-24-hour-old baby in your arms, that is pretty scary!

REFRESHED

Being at home really kept me comfortable and flexible. I could send someone right upstairs to get me anything I wanted, use my own bathroom (although I still have flashbacks using that toilet after laboring in that bathroom!), eat my own homemade food (OK, my MOM’s homemade food), watch my own TV, watch my baby sleep her first nights in her bassinet and just overall feel, well, at home.

Thanks for reading my entire birth story and my postpartum blogs! Check back for more fun topics I plan to start blogging about! Feel free to comment about your first hours postpartum!

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Teresa Finocchio

I am a 27 year old first time mom who lives in New Jersey. I had an all natural planned homebirth with the help of water and the self-hypnosis hypnobabies method. I am currently a stay at home breastfeeding mother to my beautiful baby girl and I’ll be sharing with you all some personal experiences and covering some other interesting topics, stay tuned.

The post My First Hours Postpartum In My Own Home appeared first on Breastfeeding World.