Home Birth after Cesarean | Sweeden, KY

Hi, my name is Mandy. My homebirth after cesarean (HBAC) took place in Sweeden, KY in Edmonson County. The midwife who attended was Tracey Shelley Moore. This is my birth story. I have attached pictures as well.

A little background [on my hospital birth]…

My cesarean was labeled as nonreasurring fetal heart tones and failure to decend after 3 hours.

Weight: 7 lbs 6.2 oz

When I gave birth to my first born, it was not at all how I expected it to go. She was born by cesarean.

The morning I went into labor, I woke up to my water breaking before contractions started (PROM). I headed to the hospital right away. My nurse told me the on-call doctor whom I had never met before wanted to start pitocin. The nurse urged me to get an epidural first because I would not be able to handle the contractions once pitocin was started. Believing doctors had my best interests in mind, I agreed.

My husband and I were so excited. This was it. This is what we had waited 9 long months for. I couldn’t wait to push my daughter out while sqeezing my husband’s hand. We couldn’t wait to hear her first cry. We couldn’t wait to hear “It’s a girl” and have her placed immediately on my chest. We couldn’t wait for my husband to cut the cord.

Several hours went by and I wasn’t making the progress they wanted me to. My daughters heart rate also took a nose dive which was concerning. The on-call doctor used an amnio fusion to correct the decelerations and her heart rate started looking great again. The doctor said she would give us an hour and keep an eye on things, then we would discuss what our next options were since I had already been in labor for several hours.

After two minutes, she returned to my room, looked at me and said “I think we should just do the c section”. I asked if everything was okay or if their had been anymore changes in the heart rate. She told me everything was okay and there had not been anymore concerning changes, but that their was a chance it could get worse again, and if it did, my husband would not be allowed to be in the room while our daughter was born. She also informed us that my husband was not allowed to cut the cord in the OR because it was illegal in Kentucky. I wanted to believe she had our best interest at heart but my intuition was telling me she didn’t.

I signed consent to have the cesarean.

As I was getting prepped for surgery, the doctor stood in my doorway bragging to my nurse about how she performed a c-section on all of the patients she had that day.

During surgery, I felt as if I wasn’t even there. I felt disconnected and left out of my very own birth experience. The only connection I felt was my husband holding my hand as my arms were strapped down to the table. The staff played their own music around me. They had their own conversations among themselves.

When my daughter was born, I could hear her cry but I could not see her sweet face. They did not raise her up for me to see. They talked about how much hair she had and how beautiful she was as I laid there wondering when it was my turn to see her. She was immediately taken over for exams. I continued to hear her cry for what felt like an eternity. I kept asking if she was okay. I just wanted to see her and know she was okay.

The doctor left immediately once surgery was done to go home and did not stay during my recovery.

After the exams, they finally brought her over to me and I was only able to see the side of her sweet face. I kept kissing her cheeks as tears filled my face. What a relief to finally know she was okay. The anesthesiologist snapped a couple pictures for us and whisked her off to the nursery.

While I was in recovery for an hour, my husband stayed by our daughters side the whole time. He held her little hand the entire time as she cried during the newborn tests to let her know that someone was there. He did not allow anyone, not even himself, to hold her for the first time until I did.

Once they finally brought her to my room, they laid her on a pillow on my lap instead of on my chest like I hoped for. They wanted me to go ahead and breastfeed her which did not come easy. It was one of the many struggles that were to come.

My first birth was a unnecessary cesarean. It was a traumatic experience I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through. When I found out I was expecting again, I knew I wanted something different. I wanted to make the very best possible decisions for both me and my baby and not what was best for anyone else or their time. I wanted to be able to walk away from this birth saying I did everything I could to do what was best, and even if it didn’t end the way I wanted it to, I could live in peace with that.

I did all the things to get ready for this birth. I educated myself as much as possible, drank red raspberry leaf tea everyday, had date smoothies everyday starting at 36 weeks, did spinning babies, seen a webster certified chiropractor, sat on a yoga ball for better posture, read all the books, hired a doula, went to a very vbac supportive hospital for my care, took a natural childbirth class with my husband. You name it, I probably did it.

My midwife at the hospital I was going to was so very supportive of my birth plan. However, I wanted to meet with anyone who could potentially deliver my baby to make sure they were just as supportive of my birth plan. To my surprise, one of the midwives was less than supportive. I felt as if I wasn’t “allowed” to make my own educated decisions. I politely let her know that I was very educated and had done my research, that I know what is best for both me and my baby, this is what I wanted and I wasn’t willing to compromise my birth plan unless it became medically necessary to do so. I went home that day knowing I didn’t want to continue my care at this hospital because if things did not go the way they should, I didn’t want to walk away with questions or regretting that I didn’t do everything I could to have a better birth.

At 37 weeks, I decided to do something I have never envisioned myself doing. I made the decision to switch to homebirth. I knew deep inside I was making the right decision and I felt so good about it. For the first time during my whole pregnancy I was able to breathe.

At 41 weeks, I thought I was having braxton hicks contractions all day and didn’t believe it was anything real. My husband kept telling me he thought it was the start of early labor but I was in denial.

At 6:30 pm, we were getting some last minute things ready. We were in the middle of putting plastic and sheets on the bed when my water broke. It was then I knew this was really it. He set the birth pool up and finished helping me get everything ready. He cooked me a steak and cut up some cantaloupe to snack on to stay hydrated. My daughter would bring and feed me slices of cantaloupe. She was allowed to come and go during my labor as she pleased. My husband encouraged me to get as much rest as possible.

At 41+1 at 1:30 am I woke up to a couple of intense contractions and yelled out for my husband. He came running in the room and asked if I was okay or if I needed anything. I had him lay down with me and he held a heating pad against my back to ease some of the pain that was radiating to my back.

At 4 am I wanted to get in the bathtub. He constantly poured water over my back and it felt so good. I could hear my moans getting louder. The contractions were getting a little harder to work through. The contraction timer went off for the 4th time and my husband insisted we call everyone to come. I didn’t want to because I know vbac labors can be long. I finally gave in. He called my midwife and doula and told them my contractions were 45-55 seconds long coming every 2-4 minutes.

Once I got out of the bathtub everything was a whirlwind and things really picked up. I was afraid my husband wouldn’t be able to keep up with me because he just had surgery but he was a rockstar and if he was hurting then he did a good job not letting me know it. If I said “water” he would put a bottled water with a straw in my mouth. If I said “hot” he adjusted the air. Then it was too cold so he got me a cover. But that one was too thin so he got a thicker one. Then I was getting hot again so he put the straw in mouth again. He never missed a beat.

At 5 am the contractions were so hard to work through. My husband suggested blowing raspberries like we learned in our childbirth class and it was one of the only things that helped me get through. I begged my husband to call my midwife and doula to see how much further they were because “I couldnt do it anymore”. I was in transition. My midwife told him it would be a good time to start filling the pool up and she was only 30 minutes away so he did. My doula wasn’t far and either and talked me through some of the contractions reminding me how to breathe.

My midwife arrived and my doula did soon after. My doula said a prayer over me that was so calming I will never forget. My midwife told me it would be a good time to get in the pool. The warm water felt so so good. I listened to my body and swayed from side to side on hands and knees and rested in between contractions by laying my head on the side of the pool. My husband rubbed my back the entire time never leaving my side and rubbed his fingers through my hair. My doula helped do the same and helped distract me by waving essential oils under my nose. They never let me give up. Any time I would say I couldn’t do this, my team would tell me “You ARE doing this and you’re doing a good job”.

At 6:15 am I started feeling a lot of pressure. My body took over and started pushing on it’s own. I held both my husband and doulas hand with each push in a squatting position. After about 45 minutes my body pushed my babys head out while on hands and knees. What a relief to know I was almost there. I was getting uncomfortable in the position I was in so I moved to my back. From there I looked up to see my husband in front of me. I asked him if he wanted to catch the baby. His eyes and face lit up so bright and without hesitation he put his hands under the water ready to catch our baby. At 7:01 am our baby came out into the waiting hands of my husband. With excitement in his voice he told me our suprise baby was a girl and she was placed on my chest. My husband brought our daughter over to the pool so we could all be together. He looked at me and said “You did it!” Right then it sank in. I did do it. It was empowering. It was beautiful. It was exactly what I needed.

Weight: 7 lbs 15 oz (9 oz bigger than my first). I had an active labor of 3 hours with no tears and no cervical exams whatsoever.

My message to anyone reading this is to listen to what your heart is telling you. Do the research and decide what is best for YOU, not anyone else. You CAN do this. Our bodies were literally designed to do this.