My Birth Story!!!

Overview: Accidental, unmedicated, unassisted home birth!!

I was in early labor starting at about 3:30am on Sunday. Contractions began at 5 min apart and only 30 sec long. They continued like that all day and never really got any stronger, longer, or closer together. I hadn't lost my mucus plug, hadn't broken my water, and had no bloody show. So I wasn't even sure if it was true labor quite yet. My mom was my doula, so she came over around 8am and relaxed with me until about lunch time. I took a nap a little after lunch time, but kept waking up because the contractions hurt worse when I laid down. So I got up around 3pm and my mom told me to go take a shower and relax until my husband came home with lunch for us. Within about 15 minutes, I was having contractions on top of each other. My husband came home and had to help me try and get out of the shower and get dressed. I went to the living room to try and get ready to leave, but ended up going back to the bathroom because I felt the urge to push/poop. I got on the toilet and passed my mucus plug and finally had my bloody show. On the toilet was where I could feel her head crowning, so I got on all fours on the bathroom floor, but while I kept trying to avoid pushing through contractions, my mom helped with a washcloth and some pressure down there to keep baby's head in there while I stretched open so I wouldnt tear open, also while we called our midwives freaking out. They told us we wouldn't have time and to call 911 if we thought it was necessary. (It was currently almost 4pm, so as you can tell I transitioned and fully dialated in less than an hour.) So I said "hell no, fill up my bathtub right now, this baby isn't waiting, and you will not get me into a car right now." Then once I got in the tub, I pushed a little and felt my water break, so my husband got in the tub behind me, then less than 5 minutes later, with one contraction, her head was out, and at the next contraction, her whole body came out! My mom took photos on her phone in between contractions, and also helped us make sure there was no wrapped cord or any other issues. Once baby was out, I got to reach down and lift her right out of the water onto my chest. We were all in such a shock that 1. Our baby girl was born. and 2. That it had happened that quickly. and 3. That we just had her in our bathtub. We sat in the tub for a few minutes and we wrapped her up to keep her warm, while my husband got out and got dressed to drive us to the birthing center. We didn't have anything to clamp her cord, so I delivered the placenta and we put it in a bowl with a cloth diaper over it to keep blood from spilling. We got cleaned up, dressed the baby and myself, and got her in her car seat, umbilical cord still attached to the placenta in the bowl. The 4 of us drove down to the center where we clamped and cut the cord, got her weighed, measured and tested. They did all the newborn screenings and tests they needed to as well as got me checked out. Baby Cora was in perfect health, and I only had a small tear that didn't need stitched. Since there was no need for us to check in (we weren't at a hospital), and we got the OK to go home, we left and we were back home in our own bed by 8:00pm. I watched my mom have 2 (assisted) home births, and I always wanted a home birth, but couldn't find a midwife to assist since it's currently illegal for them to assist home births in NE. But we ended up having the birth I wanted all along, I just had NOT planned on that at all! If I knew I was going to deliver at home, I would've cleaned my tub out more, or made sure we had everything prepped! This baby had a plan of her own!! It was crazy, exciting, and I would do it again in an instant!! ❤️❤️❤️