Home Birth After a C-Section: The Birth of Claire
By the time Claire decided to make her grand entrance, I was almost 41 weeks pregnant. We had waited a long time for this little girl, and while I was more than ready to meet her, I had no idea just how quickly everything was about to unfold.
Now, sitting in bed with my baby snuggled up beside me, I keep finding myself replaying her birth. I’m still riding that birth high, honestly. I’m proud of myself, proud of our family, and so incredibly grateful for the people who helped bring this little girl into the world.
We had hoped and planned for a home birth after my previous C-section, and getting to experience it was something I will never take for granted. But the story of how we got here is worth sharing, because it was beautiful, intense, a little chaotic, and very much real life.
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
The waiting game
I was almost 41 weeks pregnant when things started to get interesting. On Saturday, July 4, I noticed a lot of watery discharge. It wasn’t necessarily anything alarming, but there was enough of it that my midwife, Fiona, wanted me to get checked out and make sure my water hadn’t broken.
So Jake and I headed to the hospital to check things out. Thankfully, my water hadn’t broken, and we went home and carried on with life. My dad was in town for the Fourth of July weekend, partly to visit and partly to help with our older daughter, Ella, in case things got moving. Looking back, the timing of everything is pretty funny.
On Sunday, as my dad was literally pulling away to leave, I felt a little gush of fluid. Not a huge movie-style gush, just enough to make me pause. I went inside, took a picture of my pad, and sent it to Fiona. Her response? It really looked like my water had broken.
So, back to the hospital we went. And, sure enough, this time it actually had. Because I had previously had a C-section with Ella, we were mindful of how long my water had been ruptured without labor progressing. I wanted to give my body the opportunity to do what it needed to do, so once we got home, I started trying a few things to encourage labor along.
I did the Miles Circuit a couple of times, started pumping, and eventually went to bed around midnight. At around 4 a.m. on Monday, July 6, I woke up and experienced the kind of water breaking you see in the movies. I rolled over in bed, and whoosh. There was so much fluid.
What made it even more interesting was that my water breaking had also been the first sign of labor with Ella. Apparently, my body likes to do things its own way. I cleaned myself up, went back to bed, and tried to get some rest. By morning, we were ready to see if we could get things moving.
I did the Miles Circuit again, pumped some more, and even tried castor oil in an effort to help labor progress. I was having mild contractions, but nothing particularly exciting. They felt like period cramps and were coming every 10 to 12 minutes. It was slow going.
And then, around noon, everything changed.
The moment everything shifted
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
Jake was in Ella’s room trying to get her down for a nap. She had been awake since 4 a.m. thanks to all the excitement, and we were hoping everyone could get a little rest. Meanwhile, I was standing at my dresser, pumping and looking at the little space I had created for my birth.
I had twinkle lights, birth affirmation cards, and a beautiful poem my friend Lizzy had written for me. She had even painted a picture to go with it and made me a painted rock. I had flowers from my mother’s blessing, too. It was a little corner filled with so much love, encouragement, and intention.
I stood there reading my affirmations and looking at the things people had given me. I remember thinking about how my body could do this. How we could do this.
And then I had a contraction that literally brought me to the floor. Not a little pause-and-breathe-through-it contraction. I mean, I needed to get as low to the ground as humanly possible. And then another came. And another.
Suddenly, my contractions were two to three minutes apart, and the intensity had gone from zero to one hundred. I texted Jake in the other room.
“Hey, is Ella asleep yet? Because things are happening.”
He got her settled and came to check on me, and it was immediately clear that we were in a very different place than we had been an hour earlier. The contractions were intense, close together, and not giving me much of a break.
Jake started contacting our birth team. He called our midwife Fiona, our doula, Kim Duran, and our birth photographer, Jacinta. He also started getting everything ready at home. And by “getting everything ready,” I mean trying to blow up the birth tub and prepare for a baby while his wife needed him every two minutes.
Poor guy.
He would get a minute or two into filling the tub, and then I’d yell, “Jake!” He’d come help me through a contraction, and then try to run back to whatever he had been doing. And, of course, Ella woke up.
So now we had a laboring mom, a dad trying to do approximately 47 things at once, a five-year-old who was awake and wondering what was happening, and a birth tub that still needed to be filled. Utter chaos.
Thankfully, Kim lives just six minutes away and was able to get to us quickly. She arrived and helped take over getting the tub ready while Jake focused on supporting me. Our team started arriving, one by one, right in the middle of all the action. Jacinta arrived, Fiona arrived, and Dr. Kelsey Pendleton, our second on-call midwife, came, too.
I am sure there were about a million things happening around me that I wasn’t even aware of. All I knew was that the contractions were coming fast, and I needed to get through each one.
Finding my rhythm
For reasons I still can’t fully explain, we spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Maybe it was because it was cooler in there. Maybe it just felt like the right place to be. Whatever the reason, I spent a good chunk of labor trying to get comfortable and work through contractions in that little space. I even threw up once from the intensity of it all. But even in the middle of all that intensity, I felt supported.
Eventually, the birth tub was ready, and I decided to get in. I’ll admit, I wasn’t entirely convinced I wanted to. I was already hot and sweaty, and the thought of getting into a warm tub didn’t sound particularly appealing. My team reminded me that I could always get out if I didn’t like it.
So I got in.
And you guys. It was glorious.
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
I had heard people talk about how much relief water can provide during labor, but I don’t think I fully understood it until I experienced it myself. The pressure felt different. My body could relax in ways it hadn’t been able to before. It was such a welcome relief.
And then, almost immediately, I felt the urge to push. I told Fiona that I felt incredibly pushy, like all the pressure was in my butt. She encouraged me to lean into the feeling, and that is exactly what I did. It wasn’t a subtle urge. It was powerful and almost impossible to ignore.
Every contraction brought that feeling back, and we could start to see the very top of the baby’s head appear and then recede. Ella was in the room with us at this point, and she thought it was amazing. Getting to have her there, watching her baby sister begin to make her entrance into the world, was such a special part of the experience. There was something really beautiful about having our family together in our own home, with our baby so close to arriving.
Then my dad showed up.
My parents had planned to come help with Big sis, so Ella could have a break from the excitement if she needed one. Dad arrived and took her out for a bike ride, completely unaware of just how close we were to meeting this baby.
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
And then, once again, another contraction hit. The urge to push was intense. But at that point, my team noticed that there was a little more bleeding than they were comfortable with, so I needed to get out of the tub.
The moment we had been waiting for
I got out of the water and onto the bed, where I positioned myself on all fours. The contractions were still coming, and my body was working hard to bring this baby into the world. We were getting close.
And then we discovered that Claire was coming out with a nuchal hand. Not only did she have her hand by her face, but it was positioned across her face and chest. So, in addition to everything else, we had that to work through.
Getting her out was an incredibly intense experience. It was hard, and it was not exactly the smooth, effortless finale you might imagine when you picture a birth. But we did it. She came out safely. And I had the vaginal birth I had hoped and worked toward.
I cannot adequately explain how elated I was in that moment. After having a C-section with my first baby, this birth meant so much to me. I had spent so much time hoping, praying, preparing, and imagining what it might feel like to have this experience. And suddenly, there she was. Our baby girl.
Jake caught her and brought her up to my chest. I got to hold her, feel her, and take in the fact that she was finally here. We had done it. Our family had grown, our baby was in our arms, and I had experienced the home birth I had dreamed about. It was overwhelming in the very best way.
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
An honest note about how it all unfolded
Although the birth itself was beautiful, it wasn’t without a few unexpected moments. There was still some bleeding after Claire was born, and I needed a shot of Pitocin to help manage it.
I share that because I think it’s important to be honest about birth, especially when we’re talking about experiences that people sometimes imagine as either completely natural and uncomplicated or frightening and full of interventions. Our birth wasn’t one or the other. We had a home birth, and we also needed medical support. That was part of our experience, and I am so grateful we had a team who was prepared to respond to what was happening.
It was one of the reasons we chose the midwives we did. I knew they would bring the equipment, skills, and supplies needed to care for us, including when things didn’t go exactly as planned.
I never felt unsafe. Even when I needed to get out of the tub, even when there was more bleeding than everyone wanted to see, I never felt panic or fear from the people around me. They were calm, collected, and focused on helping me deliver my baby and making sure we were both okay.
Maybe they were having a few panicked thoughts behind the scenes. If they were, they did an excellent job of not passing that along to me!
I never felt like things were spiraling out of control. I felt like I had a team who knew what they were doing and knew how to respond. That sense of trust made an enormous difference in my experience.
I’m not sharing this to say that home birth is the right choice for everyone, or that every home birth unfolds this way. I’m sharing it because this was my experience, and I think there’s value in talking honestly about what it looked like.
Birth can be beautiful and intense. It can go differently than you imagined. You can need help you didn’t anticipate and still look back on the experience with gratitude and joy. For me, all of those things were true.
The people who helped make it possible
When I think back on Claire’s birth, I feel so much gratitude for the people who surrounded us. Fiona, our midwife, helped guide us through the process with knowledge and reassurance. Kim, our doula, was there to support me and help keep things moving when everything seemed to be happening at once. Jacinta documented the moments we will get to look back on for years to come. And Dr. Kelsey Pendleton was there as our second on-call midwife, helping provide the care and support we needed.
And then there was Jake.
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
He was my partner through all of it. He was trying to get the birth tub ready, helping me through contractions, feeding me popsicles, electrolytes and honey sticks, taking care of Ella, and doing everything he could to make sure we were supported and that I knew he had me.
I couldn’t have done it without our team. Truly.
I am so proud of myself, but I’m also proud of all of us. We worked together, trusted one another, and welcomed our girl into the world. I will always be grateful that I got to experience her birth this way.
Bringing Claire home — without ever leaving home
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
We’re finding our rhythm as a family of four. I’m getting to know this new little person, soaking up the snuggles, and trying to let myself settle into this season instead of rushing through it.
Even those little details feel like part of the story right now. Birth is such a big, extraordinary moment, but then comes the real life of getting to know your baby, figuring out feeding, healing, resting, and learning how to be a family in a new way.
Looking back
Photo Credit: Jacinta Lagos Photography
When I think about Claire’s birth, I don’t remember every detail in perfect order. Some of it is a little hazy, and Jake has had to fill in a few gaps for me. What I do remember is the feeling.
The feeling of standing at my dresser, surrounded by affirmations and reminders that my body could do this. The moment my contractions suddenly became intense and everything shifted. The chaos of Jake trying to fill a birth tub while I called for him every couple of minutes. The relief of getting into the water. Ella watching her sister begin to arrive. Jake catching our baby and bringing her to my chest. And the overwhelming joy of realizing that we had done it.
We had welcomed our girl into the world, at home, surrounded by the people we trusted. It wasn’t perfect or predictable. It was intense, messy, beautiful, and real. And I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
I feel incredibly lucky that I got to have the birth I had hoped, prayed, and planned for. I’m proud of myself for showing up for the experience, proud of our team for supporting us, and so grateful for the little girl who made us a family of four.
Claire, you were worth the wait.
We’re so glad you’re here
Photo Credit: Janet Catherine Photo
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