Cameron Elliotts homebirth (very long!)

[V8]

My Journey to Homebirth

My reasons for homebirthing -

After the birth of my first son Joshua in a hospital I had many questions as to the outcome of his birth and why it was so traumatic. Some of the main factors were that I felt that the birth was being dictated by the hospital, there were so many interruptions in the whole process which I felt hindered my natural ability to birth. The labour was quite long, baby was posterior and an exhausting 27 hours later, he arrived via the assistance of a ventouse. I basically had the works in regards to interventions, constant monitoring, epidural, etc etc, (a pretty standard hospital birth really). Another factor was my husband, he suffered an acquired brain injury in 2004 and subsequently has severe short term memory problems, I was very concerned about him as I am his full time carer, I needed someone else to ‘look after him’ while I was in hospital, so that caused great distress, my mum was there and my twin sister was also there. My twin sister also experienced the whole pain of my labour, so she was screaming in pain, I was screaming in pain, the whole environment was just stressful and I know that not only I suffered trauma from the birth, my family suffered trauma having to watch it, which made me really sad. I started to hear about homebirth and the more I thought about it, the more reason there was to go ahead with it. I had also been in chronic pain since my first son’s birth and found out after 16 months I developed a condition called Hypermobility which means I am in constant pain and my joints are very painful, so this was another reason I didn’t want to go to hospital and be subjected to unnecessary interventions and also I knew my body would not be comfortable birthing in a hospital, I knew that I needed water to help my joints and deal with the pain. So basically the reason to homebirth just became more suited to me and my family. My husband could be in a familiar environment as new place stress him out, he would also have a better chance to remember what happened because it happened in our own house, not in an unfamiliar environment. It meant Josh could stay at home with his mummy around, and not have to have me go to hospital and be away from him, it meant I could birth the way I want and just let my body do what it needed to do.

My Support people

At first I went to a HMA meet on the Sunshine Coast where I spoke to women and heard their birth stories and thought, wow, I have never heard of anyone actually enjoying their birth before, it was just awesome hearing their stories and I was just so touched to be able to share their joy and excitement about birth, when I felt so ripped off by mine and so saddened by the whole ordeal. So that planted the seed for me, I researched like anything, chatted to like minded people and just tried to immerse myself as much as I could, I met more women who had homebirths and felt really that this was going to be awesome. Then to choosing the support people. I went to the HMA website and found a local midwife who only lived a short while away and also practiced at the local hospital so I was very confident that she would be experienced at birth and when I met her I liked her laid back approach and thought she’d be great. So the decision to have her was quite simple, I just had to work out what capacity I wanted her for and chose to have her for birth support only, mainly due to the cost of homebirth. I then realised that the woman I met through my first meeting at HMA was a student midwife and doula, and my midwife attended her homebirth as backup support, so they knew eachother and I thought, I’d love to have her here aswell. So asked her if she would attend to me too as a doula, which she was more than happy to. It all really just started to fall into place. I cannot praise my support people enough, they were both there in the capacity I needed them for, they let me do what I needed to do, while they helped with everything else, making sure the birth pool was constantly at a good temperature, massaging my back with hot towels, giving me encouragement, and also we had a few laughs along the way at the whole thing. It helped me immensely having them there. I also believe it helped with the rest of the family, they could just sit back and let me do what I needed to do and just come along when the action was happening! My doula also took fabulous pictures!
I couldn’t rate them highly enough.

[V8]

Cameron Elliott�s birth day

Well I was entering my 41st week of pregnancy and while I really enjoyed my pregnancy I was really anticipating the birth and just anxious for something to happen. My body was starting to give in it felt, so I just needed to remain focused and know that it will all happen when it was meant to. On Friday the 16th I was getting twinges in my ovaries and in my back, thought hmm this might end up being something. Spoke to my twin sister and the first thing I asked her is how she was and she said she�d been having ovary pains on and off and she had a feeling it was going to start happening, so I was excited. That night I asked my mum to come down, I had a feeling even if it wasn�t anything I was going to be tired, and might need my mum�s help the next day dealing with Josh, I also noticed I was starting to get a bit short with my husband and Josh was getting a bit on my nerves, which normally I am able to handle. So anyways, mum gets here and I was still a bit funny, then I started having some show which was exciting. That night I was counting my pains and they were coming every ten minutes, so I thought woohoo, I was having mild contractions and they were pretty regular. Tried to get to bed, but by about 2:30am I was needed to be up and about, I couldn�t sleep. So I just bounced on my fit ball and watched discovery home and health where there were women giving birth etc, it was kinda cool knowing that that would soon be me.

Through the day I was still getting contractions every ten minutes or so, got my mum to time them for a while and they were lasting for at least a minute and still fairly regular at 10 mins apart. My support people were given the heads up that I would need them later today, but wasn�t sure when as I was coping fine on the fitball and just breathing through the contractions. By about lunch they were 6 mins apart, I had some lunch and then at around 2pm I said to mum that I needed her to call my doula as she�d take about an hour to get there. Sometime around 3pm my doula arrives and my contractions had amped up and were coming every 3 minutes. I managed to have a quick chat with her, show her where the hose for the birth pool was and some things, and she immediately started getting my birth pool ready and my birth room set up with candles and aromatherapy. I thought gee she�s keen I could be hours away yet! When the pool was filled up I took my pants off and jumped in, didn�t have time to take my shirt off as I was midway through a contraction and just wanted to get in the pool.

My doula then rang my midwife and told her to come. Awesome, it was all happening. I am guessing it was around 4pm now and there was a severe storm warning in Brisbane, outside the wind started, lightning and thunder started and the wind was blowing the candles in my birth room while i�m in the pool completely in labour land now, I was just thinking, this is so awesome. My midwife arrived and I only just noticed her appearance she just sat back and watched. As soon as she came the contractions were becoming more intense and I was starting to get quite vocal through them. Some time shortly after my mum decided to take Josh and my husband out to my brother�s house to give me some space, I was a bit worried because she was driving my car and I could hear the storm outside it was really quite severe. When they left I really started to get into it, I was screaming and swearing through the contractions, it was funny the build up was funny I imagined that I was climbing a mountain and the first two steps were ok, the next three steps were really,! really hard, and then the next two steps I just fought through to come back down the mountain again. This really worked actually as I started to get used to the intensity of the contractions and dealing my way through them, my doula and midwife were rubbing my back with hot towels the whole time, making sure the pool was nice and warm and just generally being there supporting me. The storm was amping up outside which was awesome as I knew the neighbours wouldn�t hear my screams through that as it was so intense. The breaks between contractions were absolute bliss, I remember one really nice long break and I was just enjoying it thinking, this is so awesome and I almost had a little sleep, then I had a massive contraction and it was a pushing contraction which really took me by surprise so I swore like anything through that one.

So now I was starting to get the pushing feeling, and I remember feeling the pain in my bum like anything, I was joking through contractions about how much I hated the pain in my @ss! My midwife said, yeah well when he gets here he�ll still be a pain in the @ss which made us all laugh. We did have quite a few laughs through the labour which was nice. I also remember getting really cranky and saying, �I don�t wanna do this anymore, what was I thinking, can someone else do it?�, my midwife said, �Holly get in you do it� and we laughed, and I was actually thinking, �yeah awesome, she can do it, and can take me away from this pain, then my other thoughts came and is said to myself, �I can do it, I am doing it, I�m going to do it!� And my support people were right there with me giving me encouragement. I also knew I wasn�t with it as everytime I went to say contraction, I�d call it a transaction! Haha, and then I was like, well it kinda is a transaction I�m getting a baby at the end of it, kaChing!� . The stupid things you say in labour! PMSL! Around this time mum came home with Josh and hubby, Josh could hear me and I could hear him screaming for me, mummy mummy mummy, and then he�d said, Joshy sore, Joshy got sore leg, and things like that, which made me really sad and actually quite angry, I remember saying, �can someone get him out of here!� as I couldn�t cope hearing him want his mummy and I couldn�t help him. This kinda took me out of my zone and I started to get a bit antsy, starting getting uncomfy, the pushing feelings were really very intense and still this pain in my @ss wouldn�t go away! I remember asking my midwife, can you just have a look and see where he is I want to get him out of here.

She had a look and basically said I can feel his head, it�s right at the end of my fingers. I was like awesome, so then I was like still feeling all this pushing and two big ones and I felt a gush come out of my vagina it felt like the waters breaking which it was, then I was like that felt like my waters, I said I think I can feel his head in my vagina, I think he has hair! Which was a weird thing to say at the time but it felt like I could feel his hair being blown around by the water inside me! Then I started to go, ok so I am feeling like I need to push, his head is right there, I asked my midwife, I must be 10cms dilated then, she said, well I�m pretty sure your waters just broke and you have the urge to push, yeah I�d say you�re 10cm. So that was reassuring, I just needed to know all was going well! The feeling of being uncomfortable was getting to me though, they said to stand up, so I stood up in the pool with the help from hubby and the midwife, I didn�t like being out of the water, but thought it might encourage him to get down, still uncomfy we moved to my bedroom and into the shower. I was still using my coping methods but this time instead of really losing it at the peaks of the contractions I was able to breathe my way back down and grunt down to my baby to get him to come out. I actually felt quite calm for the most part of this. My hubby was watching me and I was like, where�s the midwife and doula I can�t do it without them, they said, �we�re right here�, and I was left to it in the shower. I got kinda antsy and said nope, not liking it in here, I�m uncomfy a few times they suggested I get onto the bed, I was like no way I need water, I am in so much pain and I don�t want to be on my back, my back is stuffed.

After a few more contractions I was just going with them and breathing, I just went there must be a reason they are suggesting I get on the bed, I may aswell try it. So they helped me out I got on the bed and started pushing. They were all very encouraging, and they could straight away see his head, so at each contraction there was about 3-4 pushy contractions and just breathed and pushed through them, they were helping me along and I held my husband and midwives hands and squeezed them hard to help with the pushing. Soon half his head was out, then they said, I can see his eyes, a few more pushes and his whole head was out and they said, reach down and touch your baby�s head, it was funny I would describe it as a bit like a massive sultana! I could feel his head out and lots of blood coming out so I knew it was going into babies face so I knew I had to get the rest of his body out. I felt the midwife fiddle around with his head and stick her hand in my vagina which made me jump a bit, I was like what are you doing? She was just helping with his cord as it was around the back of his neck, after she had a fiddle she helped ease him out with the next few pushes and he was here. Wow my baby was here! I felt lots of fluid come out of me and saw that there was blood and meconium and he was a bit flat, I knew he was alright as she�d just checked him before he came out with the Doppler, I knew he was just a bit delayed as he was getting fluid in his face, so they patted him down a bit and gave him to me and probably 5-10 seconds later he was screaming. Then I felt a little pull at my vagina and my placenta just fell out of me, the midwife said it was just there and just pulled a little and it plopped out.

The cord was already stopped pulsating because of the way Cameron�s cord was wrapped around his neck. So we got hubby to cut the cord. I could feel gushes of blood come out and once it eased off a bit I said, can I get up and have a shower I�m covered in sh*t! So they helped me up, mum was watching me I remember her asking me about 3 times, are you ok? I said I feel a little faint, next minute mum is in the shower, my doula is in the shower and I�m like what are you doing I�m having a sleep, then I realised, oh I�m in the shower, I�m on the floor, oh whoops, shouldn�t have done that! So I did pass out but silly me should have just stayed in bed! They weighed Cameron and he was 4.2 kgs with a 38cm head, my midwife and doula were really stoked for me, I didn�t need stitches either! Phone calls were made and announcements over the internet were made, my little bro who is in Japan got the news about 2 mins after it happened which was pretty cool. All because I had given birth at home.

Josh came in met his little brother and had a look and then said, �grandma watch cartoons� so he was more interested watching cartoons then meeting his brother. That night the midwifes cleaned up put the towels in the wash for me while I just laid in bed with Cameron and tried to feed him, he wasn�t interested and had a lot of gunk in his lungs, he spewed about 3 or times through the night which didn�t bother me I knew he had swallowed a bit of fluid and he was fine. The midwife and doula left and then my dad arrived to see his new grandson and they all had some cuddles and then we all went to bed at about 11pm, it was awesome. After having a chat with my midwife she described how Cameron�s cord was around his neck, it was actually around his arm then around the back of his neck then around the other arm, so it was pulling his head down, the cord was totally flat at the back of his neck and it was making it hard for him to turn his shoulders in order to get out, so that�s why she had a fiddle in my vagina I thought! So all in all I had about 12 or so hours of pre-labour and about 5 hours of active labour and about 2 hours of pushing. Totally stoked with it all and wouldn�t birth anywhere else again!

Setting up birth room, having a contraction (http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l132/vee81/?action=view&current=DSC02001.jpg)

Husband during labour! (http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l132/vee81/?action=view&current=DSC02002.jpg)

Josh during labour playing with grandma (http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l132/vee81/?action=view&current=DSC02003.jpg)

Just getting in the birth pool (http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l132/vee81/?action=view&current=DSC02005.jpg)

Contractions in the pool (http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l132/vee81/?action=view&current=DSC02007.jpg)

[AM]

:D:D:D: AWESOME stuff V!! :yelclap::yelclap::yelclap:

[Roopee]

Thats an amazing story!!!:yelclap:

Your amazing:smiliedance:

[TeamAwesome]

Thanks for sharing your amazing story! Way to go!

Welcom baby Cameron!

[happybunnypony]

ahhh awesome story vee!! congrats! love the pics too! xo

[~Emmylou~]

Well done!! Congratulations and welcome baby Cameron :D

[stellarella]

Oh I loved your story, I was so in the moment with you.

Beautiful birth!!

Way to go Vee!!

:yelclap::thumbsup::smiliedance::goodvibes::sunshi ne::kiss:

[emilysmumma]

What a beautiful birth story. Way to go V8!

Welcome little Cameron.

[PrincessJasmine]

Congratualtions again Vee on a wonderful birth! I'm getting so excited about my own birth now reading that! Cameron looks so much like his daddy :yes: where Joshy is so much like you! DD thinks he's very cute too!

[V8]

Congratualtions again Vee on a wonderful birth! I'm getting so excited about my own birth now reading that! Cameron looks so much like his daddy :yes: where Joshy is so much like you! DD thinks he's very cute too!

Was glad i could write it up before you give birth :D You will do brilliantly. Any q's just PM me. :D

And yeah Joshy looked exactly like Cameron when he was born, very philipino like his daddy, but now Joshy looks like both of us, i reckon Cameron might do the same. :D They are like little clones!

Thanks all for taking the time to read my long story! :laughing:

[Tam-I-Am]

Awesome story, Vee! Congratulations once again - and what a brilliant job you did of birthing your wee man. He's so gorgeous! :goodvibes:

Can't wait til I can share my own homebirthing tale :)

[bAaM]

Awsome story Vee Congratulations to you all.

BTW where u at Northlakes on Tuesday feeding bub near woolies cause u look really familier??

[Lucybelle]

Fabulous story, beautiful photos - dammit, you've made me clucky again.

What a stunning child, so alert too!

[reAllytee]

Awesome job Vee :D

What a legend you are :yelclap:

[M O P]

:flowerz: well done!
what a great story

[mixy]

Congratulations Vee that was a wonderful read to! You did such a fantastic job!

[V8]

Awsome story Vee Congratulations to you all.

BTW where u at Northlakes on Tuesday feeding bub near woolies cause u look really familier??

:laughing: Yes, that was our first trip out of the house, quite stressful, but we managed. :D

Thanks for all the lovely comments, :goodvibes:

[LMum77]

Congratulations! You are amazing!!! :yelclap:

[bAaM]

:laughing: Yes, that was our first trip out of the house, quite stressful, but we managed. :D

Thanks for all the lovely comments, :goodvibes:

Oh wow well i saw u feeding your bubba up near woolies, i had a little girl and boy just walking with me running riot. I would of saw hello if i had of realised.

[V8]

Not to worry Baam, we are there pretty often, i'm sure we may bump into eachother at some stage! ;) lol

[~*clairesmum*~]

way to go, great birth story

good to here it was better then ur last birth :yelclap::yelclap::yelclap:

[Coffee]

Congratulation Vee, you did a great Job.

Thanks for sharing your story. The pics are wonderful and cameron is such a cutie.

We have to catch up once I'm back, can't wait to meet him :)

[2sweetgirls]

Oh Vee I was laughing and crying the whole way through that.
It was as if you where sitting here telling me the story your self!

You are amazing woman! :D:hugs:

[V8]

:p :kiss: Thanks sweetie pie, such a long time ago now hey and look at the rewards i get with my little Cammy pants :)

[spicemum]

V8 I only realised when I got to the end of the thread how long ago Cam's birth was. Still I am very greatful for your sharing. Like 2SweetGirls said - You are awesome. I hope I get to be nearly as awesome when my turn comes - very soon.

Thanks 2 SweetGirls for bumping it.

[V8]

Hey Spicemum how exciting to be homebirthing your little one :) How long have you got to go?

[spicemum]

V8 he arrived earth side in my spa on Jan 3rd, 2011. Yes it was very exciting.
Thanks again for sharing your inspiring story. I hope to share mine soon when I have two hands free to type with.