The Homebirth of Bowie

Hi Rosie,

We just wanted to send an email to let you know that Bowie Duane has arrived and we are so in love. Thank you for all of your help in the hypnobirthing course. We learnt so much and it especially helped Jordan to prepare for our home birth. He was amazing. He was so calm, never showed any fear and knew exactly how to support me. 

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My birth story:

On the 19th July at 39+2 I noticed some stronger braxton hicks in the morning. I felt really emotional and had a little cry with Jordan as well, not particularly about anything! My body was clearing out and I was thinking could this be my body preparing? But I also knew that this could happen over days or weeks so didn’t get my hopes up too much. The braxton hicks fizzled out that afternoon and I did all of my usual things to support my body by walking the dog, drinking raspberry leaf tea, bouncing on my birth ball, using visualisations and most importantly relaxing and accepting that my body knows what to do and when to birth my baby. As I was getting ready for bed that night I lost my mucous plug! Again, I didn’t get my hopes up because I knew this could still mean I had days or weeks ahead of me. 

On the 20th of July at 39+3 I was woken with contractions at 4.30am. I took some paracetamol, heated up my heat pack and tried to go back to bed but I could not get comfortable. I needed to move through these contractions and laying down was making them worse. I got up and thought it’d be best to let Jordan sleep for a bit longer in case we were in for a long night and I woke my mum who was staying with us as she travelled from Adelaide before lockdown to be here for the birth! She was a good distraction for a couple of hours, we watched tv shows and got excited about the fact the baby might be joining us soon!

I didn’t get a gradual build up to my contractions. They were coming every 5 minutes and it seemed that each one was more intense than the last. This made it difficult to find a rhythm with my body and find what works. I moved around and used my heat pack for a while and then I moved to the TENS machine. It was around 7.30am and I had woken Jordan up at this point as I was finding I was getting really emotional and needed the extra support. I used the TENS for an hour but my heart was longing for water so I moved into the shower. Jordan and my mum were amazing at supporting me. Jordan kept the bathroom dark and moved the diffuser there for a little light and I moaned through each contraction. I started to get overwhelmed around 9.30am as they were becoming intense so we called the midwife for an early labour assessment. She arrived at 10am, I agreed to a vaginal exam and I was found to be 3cm dilated with baby in a great position and low in the pelvis.

I moved back into the shower and my midwife supported me through the next contractions where I was able to breath through and rock back and forth. She moved my birth ball into the bathroom and I leaned over this on all 4’s with my back in the shower to let my body rest in between. She went home as it was still a bit too early for her to be there and said to call her when we needed her back.

I stayed in the shower for most of the day! I don’t recall much after the midwife left, I went so inwards and I swayed, rocked, moaned, vocalised and swore through the contractions over the hours. I lost track of time and just allowed my body to do what it needed to do. Everything I was doing was completely instinctive and I surrendered to my labour. Just like in the morning, every contraction was more intense than the last which made it difficult to find a real rhythm. Jordan sat with me in the bathroom and he knew exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

Around 2pm, I became really vocal and felt I couldn’t go on anymore. I could hear the whispers of the epidural but I knew there was no point stating this as I had trained Jordan and my mum too well. We called the midwife back and I had another vaginal exam where I was 6cm. We started filling the pool up! Yay, I couldn’t wait to be in the pool! I had previously prepared the room with the pool with dimmed lights, affirmations to create a calming and safe space. I would regularly enter this space in the weeks leading up to the birth to ground me and release any fears about the birth. After this vaginal exam, I started to transition. I was moving around in the bedroom, grabbing onto Jordan and became very vocal. I had a bloody show and started to involuntary push at the peak of the contraction. Holy moly, this was intense!

I was overwhelmed and frightened with what was happening, I just wanted to run away. Jordan grounded me with reassurance and support and reminding me to breathe. He used light touch in between my contractions and it felt so good knowing he was there. I never saw fear in his eyes and this let me know that everything was okay.

At 3pm I moved into the pool. I didn’t get the relief of the water as I was hopeful for, I think my labour was just progressing too quickly and it was extremely intense. I began to bear down and Jordan was reassuring me the whole time. I guided our baby’s head out myself and it was amazing to feel. Our baby’s head was born in the sac at 4.14pm and broke as the shoulders emerged in the same contraction. I pulled him up to my chest myself. It’s a boy!! Ah, relief! But also disbelief, did I really just do that? I asked for the time and couldn’t believe it was still the afternoon, wow that was quick!

I moved out of the pool and had a physiological third stage. My perineum is intact but I have a labial tear that required some sutures. We had skin to skin, he wasn’t very interested in breastfeeding for the first 24 hours so I did lots of expressing and syringe feeding. It was amazing to be at home, we moved into the bedroom shortly after the birth and didn’t leave this space for a couple of days. We focused on recovery and soaking up all the newborn cuddles! 

​Thank you so much Rosie. I 100% owe you and the hypnobirthing course for Jordan’s preparedness and calmness. I wouldn’t of been able to do it without him and he tells me the course gave him so much knowledge on physiological birth and how to support this that he knew my body was doing just what it needed to do and this wasn’t something to be afraid of! 

We are absolutely in love with our little Bowie Duane, all 2.9kg of him! 

Thank you,

Chloe & Jordan :)

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​Rosie Fitzclarence is a Registered Midwife, Registered Nurse, Childbirth Educator (Geelong Born) and a Hypnobirthing Australia™ Certified Practitioner.

​Rosie is based in Geelong and can be contacted by email at [email protected] or phone 0419170783.
 
To find out more about her Hypnobirthing Australia™ classes CLICK HERE