Baby Whitney Surprised her Parents and Chose to Be Born at Home!
Isabelle and Dan are a HypnoBirthing couple from the tiny western country town of Quilpie in QLD. They had all
intentions to birth at the local hospital, but their new baby daughter chose to be born in the comfort of their home with their midwife by their side. Isabelle shares with us how this empowering and life changing day played out with her feeling completely safe and supported!
I woke at 2 am to use the toilet and noticed I had lost my uterine seal. Thinking nothing of it I went back to bed. I was getting cramps in my back within 30 mins. My waters broke at 3 am and surges started to heat up at 3:30 am. At this stage I vomited which woke my husband up. I thought as I was having so much back discomfort that my baby was in OP position and in my mind I had to swing that baby into a better position …. So I was on all fours in the lounge room attempting to breathe though my surges.
Around 5.30-6.00am I started to become more uncomfortable due to my back and decided the best place for me was in the shower. Things were definitely starting to heat up now and I felt my body take over, between breathing I found some noise helped me release tension and relax. This woke my mother as she had been staying with us in the lead up to our birthing day. She asked my husband to call my midwife.
Later we discovered that she thought I wasn’t as far along as I was and decided to have a shower and get ready for the day before coming straight around….. from what my husband he tells me he called her another few times before she was walking through our door (with 30 mins to spare). She arrived and asked if I wanted to be checked or to get into the car and head to the hospital. I wasn’t keen of the thought of getting out of the shower so I wanted my midwife to check me. I remember saying please tell me I’m not hours away. She didn’t even get to complete the VE (vaginal examination) as she realised bubs head was coming!
She asked my husband to call the ambulance as she didn’t have a deliver pack. 
Within minutes I was breathing my baby out, once bubs head and shoulders where delivered I was able to birth the rest of my baby and pulled bub straight up onto my chest. Our baby was born at 8.08am. In that moment my world changed and what I had accomplished was something I am still so proud of. One of my birth preferences that I felt very strongly about was I wanted to discover my babies gender not have anyone tell me. But once I had my baby I completely forgot to even check, I was so captivated by everything that had just happened. It wasn’t until my midwife said so what did you have? I looked down at my baby and then up at my husband we had a little girl!
The ambulance arrived once we were comfortable on the bed as a family. They were wonderful friendly officers but couldn’t understand why we had called them. Once they realised it was an unplanned home birth and we didn’t have any equipment or deliver packs, they were more than happy to assist the midwife. I was able to have delayed cord clamping and a physiological 3rd stage and my placenta was delivered within 22mins.
Looking back and reflecting on the experience I wouldn’t have wanted anything to change. I felt supported and in control. Isabelle and Dan attended HypnoBirthing classes with Alecia Staines .
