This is the powerful story of a beautiful Homebirth experience after C-section.

Matilda is a midwife and lives in the Wodonga/Albury region. She has offered us a little insight into her first cesarean birth with her precious daughter Goldie and her healing homebirth, meeting baby Murphy.

Summary of Goldie’s Birth

My pregnancy with Goldie was uncomplicated. We changed care from Wodonga hospital to Wangaratta hospital, due to feeling unsupported. At 32 weeks pregnant Goldie was confirmed to be in a breech position.

We tried ALL the things to turn her around. At 37 & 38 weeks pregnant, we experienced multiple failed ECV’s (external cephalic version aka trying to shift Goldie’s head down). Our care provider was unsupportive of breech birth.

After two failed referrals to breech birth clinic’s in Melbourne due to static fundal heights (supposed “small” baby) and low Amniotic fluid index, I had no choice but to just surrender. At the time my Husband was unsupportive of a Freebirth due to fear and it was too late for us to book a Homebirth.

At 39+1 weeks we booked a Caesarean. Our beautiful perfect 3kg baby girl was born.

Throughout my pregnancy, I had everyone telling me to trust the doctors NOT MYSELF!

“It’s just a ceasearen…”

I begged to be supported to try for a vaginal breech birth.

My LUCUS was fine, we had skin to skin in theatre and Goldie never left my side.

My physical and mental recovery was hard and I knew next time I wanted different.

Murphy’s Birth

Again, my pregnancy with Murphy was uncomplicated.

I was booked in with a local private Midwife Lindsay, but unfortunately I received an email saying that their practice was closing. I cried to my husband and said “I don’t feel safe” going to hospital knowing how they treat VBAC’s.

He knew how much a vaginal birth meant to me. That is why he got on board with a Homebirth.

We met Claire from Your Birth midwifery and we were happy that we would be safe and was she confident in my ability to VBAC. I educated myself even more than I was already was educated, as a nurse and midwife.

I read books.

I listened to positive birth stories.

I supported my body.

I trusted my body throughout my pregnancy.. I told myself I was going to have a vaginal birth.

I did a lot of mental prep work with the help of Kinesiology. I surrounded myself with supportive people. People who said “yeah, you can do this! ”

At 40 weeks I became very, very private and introverted more so than I already had been. I chose not to tell many people about the birth plan, mainly because I didn’t want their opinions.. I regret sharing my due date.

It was definitely challenging to sit with being over 41 weeks pregnant. I had Acupuncture and chiropractic weekly. Daily walking, drinking raspberry leaf tea, fresh pineapple & dates, sex. I did all of the things to get my body ready..

But this is where the trust really came in and having people around me saying:

“this is normal, your body needs the time, babies come when babies are ready.”

I had a stretch and sweep on Monday at 41+4 weeks and this was 100% my request. My midwife knew I was getting anxious and unsettled about going “over due.”

She sent me a beautiful poem. As a Midwife myself, I had never met a woman who was 42 weeks pregnant, let alone a VBAC at 42 weeks.

I had acupuncture on Tuesday morning and at 41+5 weeks pregnant, I went into labour and had a baby and exactly 42 weeks !!

The labour itself was long. It felt intense very early on. I used the breathing techniques I learnt in Calm birth class. I used OMP movements. The TENS was my best friend.

I laboured in the bath and shower, while my 2 year old held my hand. She was a great birth support. I moved between the pool and using the TENS, as labour got more intense.

My husband was the gatekeeper.

I knew that he knew what I needed and what I wanted. He was educated in birth and it just left me in this really safe space to labour.

Murphys birth was not only healing for me, but my husband also.

29 hours of labour total. 12 hours of active labour + 1 hour of pushing, born in her waters - a beautiful 4.25 kg baby girl.

The Curveball

I didn’t realise that I was holding onto the fear around this part of my story.

I have been neglecting to tell pretty much everybody about my postpartum haemorrhage, because I felt like it took away from the joy of my amazing VBAC. It wasn’t until I debriefed with my husband and chatted to Charlotte (Saada Health & Wellbeing) that I realised this is really important to share.

So this is an addition to my birth story.

After Murphy was born, I couldn’t get comfortable in the pool, so I hopped out. My placenta was still inside & I had bled a little bit in the pool.

Totally normal.

When I got out of the pool, I felt a little lightheaded - not an uncommon reaction after birth. But the lightheadedness got worse, until I was lying down in bed. Once I was settled in bed feeding Murph, I could feel the blood pooling around my bum.

This is where my Midwife brain kicked in,” Is that too much blood?”

My midwife reassured me that we were all within normal limits - it felt very different being the birthing woman vs being the midwife.

I chose to pull slightly on the cord to Murphy’s placenta & and felt a little tug. This was not a great feeling and a small amount of bleeding was continuing - just a little bit, but it all adds up fairly quickly. I had the intramuscular Syntocinon on injection, but I kept bleeding.

At this point, I had lost approximately 800ml of blood.

I started to go into shock.

I also hadn’t eaten or drank anything for over 24 hours whilst in labour, and had been awake for over 48 hours.

I was WRECKED! I just needed to sleep.

The placenta came out and I was given misoprostol - a bloody wonderful drug that stopped the bleeding. My memory is a little sketchy. At some point during all of this, I had become only rousable by voice, so our Midwife called for backup.

We had the most wonderful paramedic. He said to me as soon as he walked into the room, that he was a fellow Homebirther!! My Midwife had helped his wife with their babies.

What other chances? It was amazing.

I had the care that I needed, in the comfort of my own home and felt safe the entire time.

In total, I lost was 1.2L of blood.

I could’ve gone to hospital post-birth to be monitored, but my Husband is an Emergency Nurse and we felt really comfortable to stay at home. I had minimal bleeding and felt well enough to stay.

Birth is wild & natural and beautiful & sometimes you just need a little bit of extra help..and that’s okay.

The contrast between births…

The trust in my body.

Everyone on my team trusted my Body AND ME, which helped me trust my body. This was support I needed..

Instead of having someone tell me my baby is too small or my belly is too small, I had a supportive provider telling me everything was perfect!

My baby was moving beautifully and physically I felt good. I was growing just as I needed to..

I surrounded myself with people who were 100% on my team.

Matilda’s three tips :

Educate your birth partner
Move your body intentionally throughout your pregnancy and learn to trust your body really listen to your body in pregnancy. This will set you up to trust in labour and beyond!
Be picky and Private about due dates when labour starts.