Mum of five’s amazing breech homebirth
The story of mum of 5, Tara’s, breech home birth to her son, in the laundry, leaning against the washing machine, and lotus birth that followed.
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How Tara prepared for birth
“I’d birthed my first two babies in hospital and everything was fairly straightforward, but, there was a deep desire in me to have my second baby at home. It wasn’t possible at the time, because the nearest home birth midwife was four hours away.
“So, when we moved town and I became pregnant with my third baby, I started to meet a whole group of amazing women who had homebirthed. This pregnancy, I chose to lean into my intuition. I met with a wise, gentle and extremely experienced birth worker, Jenny, and asked lots of questions.
“I learned how to change position in labour if I need to open my pelvis more. I kept my belly dancing up. I did yoga regularly.”
Tara’s birth story
“It wasn’t until about 35 weeks that my birth worker suspected the baby was in breech position. There was a possibility the baby would turn and we talked about things to do that might help.
“I had acupuncture and I went on all fours with my head down, bum up for a few minutes every day, but nothing changed.
“Our birth worker discussed with my husband and I the way a breech birth can go, the risks, our options and how confident we felt.
“I was confident. So was my husband. I had a knowing that all would be well.”
Early labour
“The late morning of 4 June, I started having contractions. I didn’t time them, I simply allowed them to be. I focused on the intensity. For several hours, I pottered around as normal. I called my mum, who had to travel from New South Wales, about 6 hours away, so she could be there.
“I let a couple of close friends know that I was in labour. And at around 5pm, the next contraction was intense. I knew it was in full swing now. I rang Jenny and let her know to come over. We lit the fireplace and got the bedding ready by the fire.”
Active labour
“At around 7pm, my lovely belly dancing friends came over and sang a song to me by candle light. Contractions were close together and really intense by then.
“As my friends left, Jenny arrived and it was around 8pm. She helped settle our other two boys in their room from what I remember and soon after I went into
transition. I started to feel nauseous, and like I had to go to the toilet all at once, so my husband, Liam, walked me to the toilet. It’s such a strange feeling when I go into transition, but only lasts a few minutes.
“As my husband helped me back, I got to the laundry and paused with a huge contraction and my waters broke. I wasn’t moving – standing, holding on to the washing machine was where I was staying.”
Pushing
“I felt the urge to push and also needed my foot up on a stool. I remember feeling a softness, rather than the full force of a hard head. Liam was there, ready to embrace our little one.
“Half way through, it felt like all contractions stopped and our baby moved – I got a fright, saying “he’s moving back up”, but he actually hadn’t. I knew I had to push, and with that, out he came. Our little no. 3 son had joined us at 8.40pm.
“Liam held our baby, with our other two sons peering over his shoulder, while I was still facing the washing machine. Jenny handed him a towel to wrap our baby in. At first, my baby wasn’t breathing, and Jenny was guiding Liam with what to do. He was being too gentle – Liam had to give our baby a good rub, and then he instinctively put his mouth of our baby’s face and sucked. Our little boy let out a cry.
“Because I had my back to all of this, I leant against the washing machine and called upon archangels to help. I had full knowing and trust it was all going to be OK.”
After birth
“Jenny guided me to turn around, lifting my leg over the umbilical cord, as I sat down against the machine and Liam handed our baby to me, against my bare chest. This magical, gorgeous little boy.
“We had decided ahead of time to have a Lotus birth, which meant that we did not cut the cord and left it and the placenta attached to our baby until it all came away naturally.
“We slowly moved to the fire and lay on the clean bedding. I’d given our baby his first breast feed of nutritious, Vitamin K rich, essential, golden milk – colostrum and about 50 mins later, I birthed the placenta and it was placed in a bowl.
“A while later, we wrapped the placenta in a nappy with herbs and into a purple satin bag I’d made. It took 3.5 days for the cord to come away.
Tara’s final thoughts on birth
“Every pregnancy and birth and woman are different. Trusting our intuition is important. Listening to our body, becoming educated and supported by knowledgeable, respectful and wise birth workers and having the right environment and even a backup plan is important.
“We were also very discerning with who we told about our breech baby during pregnancy. We were not prepared to have anyone’s negative opinions or projections.
“The only thing I would’ve changed was, knowing what I now know and support other women with, is having daily postpartum care in place for the first several weeks with nourishing, easy to digest and warming meals and reducing visitors to a bare minimum (unless they were coming to help).
To other mamas to be, Tara says: “Mama, may you follow your intuition and find your power in birth.”
Tara Yewdall is a certified Postpartum Nutrition and Mindset Mentor who helps help mums to heal/avoid postpartum depletion. http://postpartumnurturing.com.au