Juli, HBAC waterbirth

On the evening of February 18th, when I felt what I thought was another gas pain, I lamented my poor judgment for having bean soup for lunch. The thought briefly crossed my mind that I might be in labor, but I quickly decided that it was not possible – I was convinced that I still had weeks before the baby would come. Earlier in the day I’d had a routine check-up with Tammi and everything was looking good. Though Tammi had just become my midwife a few weeks earlier, after every meeting with her I felt more empowered, more confident about what my body was meant to do, and less worried about labor.

My “gas pain” continued through the night. At around 4 a.m., my water broke and I decided to give Tammi a call when my “gas pains” were about five minutes apart and were really beginning to hurt. Tammi answered my call in the wee hours of the morning with a cool, confident and relaxing manner. She told me she was on her way over.

I’d planned on a waterbirth, but we had not set up the tub or filled it yet. In the middle of contractions, I managed to help my husband set up the pool. A few minutes later, with about 2 inches of water in the pool my husband informed me that our hot water heater was out of water. As if on cue, Tammi arrived and sprang into action – comforting and reassuring me, checking to be sure the baby was doing well, and putting pots of water on the stove to heat and fill the pool. I don’t know how she managed to do everything at once, but I knew she was on top of everything.

My first child was born via a planned c-section because he was breech. I decided during the last month of my second pregnancy to have a homebirth. My prenatal visits with the ob were constantly stressful overreactions and worries about non-existent problems. I was constantly being “reminded” that I could “try” to have a VBAC, but it was more likely that I would have a c-section. In frustration with the constant attempts by the ob to schedule a c-section “just in case,” I started to look elsewhere.

As soon as I met Tammi, I knew that she was the right person to guide me through. During our prenatal visits, Tammi had assured me that when it was “time” I would know and my body would tell me what to do. As expected, Tammi was right. Although labor was not what (or when) I’d expected, with Tammi by my side it was better than anything I could have ever imagined.