A Healing Home Birth
The home birth of baby Lewis as told by his momma Clarissa. A local prenatal yoga teacher and doula.
"Our third baby came into the world on the wee hours of October 12th, 2020. This was two weeks before his due date so I was in denial all day with annoying braxton hicks and a small gush of fluid early that morning. At around 8:30 pm we began timing the waves, they were still felt as braxton hicks, I was able to talk and move through them. I still didn't think I was in labour. I texted with Shea around 11pm who suggested doing the "Miles Circuit" to help my baby into an optimal position. The waves began to come quicker and more intensely. I wanted to have a shower, so at around midnight I had a shower and did some lunges in the shower. Bri was there to provide hip squeezes. Things kicked into high gear with 1-2 minutes between contractions. Matt came upstairs to check on me and was surprised at the timing! He went into gear calling our team and I got out of the shower. “
“ Shea arrived and began documenting our journey. I got into a good rhythm with my body and my breath, hugging Matt and Bri still pressed on my pelvis. I leaned over the bed for a contraction and pop! My water broke which I thought was awesome. I knew that this meant things were going to get really intense. I got up onto our bed to lean over a birth ball and I was no longer able to joke between the waves. My sounds got loud and low, our midwife arrived in the nick of time and was calmly setting up around us. It was only a few more very intense contractions later that I felt our baby descending. I was saying "I can't do it" but our team was so reassuring that I could.”
“ A couple pushes later and our baby came rocketing into our world. I was shocked and relieved at how fast it all went. Shortly after we learned what the sex of our baby was and it was special and emotional.”
“ I love that I have photos of the journey we went through, with our final baby. I love seeing the photos of the care immediately postpartum, it's so special to see the look on our faces as we loved and caressed our new little person."