At 40+3, at 3am on the 3rd of July, the night/morning of the new moon, I woke to contractions 10 minutes apart. Speaking to my baby, I let her know that I was excited to meet her soon, asking that she go gently, that we work together to ensure she was born beautifully and gently, at home.
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Going to the bathroom, I took my last ever belly-selfie and listened to my hypnobirthing soundtrack. Back in bed I shifted through the discomfort and built a pillow fort to allow me to lean forward. Calm, but unable to rest, I got up to drink and wee several times. Every time I walked by the clock it showed repeated numbers – 3:33, 4:44, 5:55 – just as I’d seen throughout this pregnancy. I decided to get up and sat in my birth space, rocking back and forth with my forehead on the cold window. The space was beautifully prepared, both physically and spiritually – I could feel my tribe of women holding me in this space.

By 10am I felt nauseous; I was working during contractions, but still fine in between! Juz was telling me to stop doula-ing myself! I asked him to set up the pool, maybe that would help me zone in? Jo rang and we chatted through a couple of contractions; we decided she should come and check on us, and we messaged Jacquie and Ru too. Jo and Tash (student midwife) arrived at 11:11am and Jo confirmed that bub was engaged and happy. Jacquie and Jacqui arrived soon after, both bailed up by our dog, Obi. Then Ru arrived. Everyone was here! But I was sure it was too early!
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I sat on the fit ball, Jo holding a heat pack on my back, Juz holding my hands/heat pack on the front. I felt so supported and loved! But I felt that this wasn’t doing anything! I sat and cried; big fat tears dripping onto my bare belly. “I just want to meet my baby!” Obi licked me, sitting by my side. I asked Jo why it wasn’t progressing; she suggested I get out of my head. I asked her with bitterness, “And how exactly do you propose I do that?” I don’t remember her response, the question was rhetorical.

“How much longer?” “As long as it takes.”
“I’m done!” “One at a time.”
“I need an epidural.” “No, you don’t.”

Each contraction felt worse than the one before! I needed a time limit, answers, SOMETHING! It was relentless. Willow (5.5yo), Hamish (2.5yo) and Juz were providing me water and massages. I was screaming, “Owwww, nooooo, noooo!” until Ru held my hand, massaged me and helped turn it into a “Yesssss-aaaa-owwwww!”
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I was getting grunty at the end of contractions – ‘Good, we’re getting somewhere!’, but the grunty urges never got longer or stronger. “Jo, can I just start pushing? I need this baby out!” Jo suggested I see if I could feel baby’s head. I reached into my vagina and couldn’t feel anything noteworthy; just a squishy mess. “Where is this bloody baby!?!” I cried.

I was done; I asked Jo what we should do. I’d been in transition for what felt like days! Jo mentioned she could check where we were at. “Yes, let’s check!” As I stood, some bloody show came out – ‘Excellent! That happened when fully dilated with Hamish, this’ll be the same!’ I waddled into the bedroom believing I’d be 9‑10 cm. But I was 7 cm (Jo added I was stretching to 9 cm, apparently I blocked that out!). I despaired – this was too much! Jo reassured me it could go quickly from here, “Let’s just keep going.”
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I got back in the pool, hating the world, angry at my body, screaming I’d done this before and could do it again! “Come ON baby, go gently!!!” I kept glaring at everyone through weak, cruddy contractions. My mum rang but couldn’t get through, so dropped by. I’d debated whether to have her there, now I was being given the chance to decide. I knew this was too intense for her, it felt too intense for me! I let her be sent home.

I was asked to try 20-30 minutes of contractions without pushing; cue horse‑lips, screaming, tantruming and kicking and punching the lounge! I calculated (still in my head, then) that 20 minutes would around 5 contractions; I did 4. Constant words of encouragement were everywhere now! I asked for the catheter to be removed. “Jo, can you check again?” Surely this was almost over!
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The lip was still there. “I can’t DO this anymore!” I wanted the pool! More screaming, horse-lips, bum-in-the-air contractions and I started involuntarily grunting at the end. The next contraction, despite doing horse‑lips, my body pushed! “I NEED THE POOL!!” I hopped in, collapsing to my knees. Relief! Then the next contraction came and so did babe’s head – whoa!! I heard Jo ask, “Is that bub’s head?” “Yep.” “Ru, get in here!”

I wanted to birth the placenta in the pool, but had to get out for the bleeding. I waddled to the lounge. Hamish watched closely (“Whoa, mum!”) as I birthed the placenta with some gentle help from Jo. I ate toast and honey tea as I soaked in the beautiful bub I’d just birthed, surrounded by the love and support of my incredible birth team.
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Jo measured Evalie and tied the cord, Willow cut the cord, Hamish cut our mother’s blessing bands and then we ate birth‑day cake that Jacquie made with the kids while I laboured. We dressed Evalie and I showered (no pain!) and got into bed. Everyone said their goodbyes while Jacquie brought dinner. The kids were so overtired and excited! We chatted through how I felt and I couldn’t stop beaming – I was so proud, happy, and in awe of our perfectly complete family!

Homebirth NSW 
How are you going? We truly hope you are well, safe and breathing a sigh of relief as restrictions ease a little. Been missing those cafe babyccinos? Maybe your kids have created SO MUCH ART and there's no more fridge door room for their creative genius. Well, good news, we want your kids' art! 

KIDS ART COMPETITION 
Is your child the next Picasso? Fancy their artwork being the cover of our next Birthings Magazine? Of course you do! What an incredibly beautiful keepsake it would be to have your own child's drawing, collage or painting of your family's homebirth as the cover of our timeless Birthings Magazine. Surely that's a future family heirloom, am I right?! Not to mention, the money we raise will go towards our efforts in advocating for ease of access to homebirth. It's all about intrinsic motivation these days, and what more reward would a kid love than having their artwork gain them fame by it appearing on an awesome magazine? Wait, maybe that's extrinsic motivation, oh well! Better than ANOTHER Bluey sticker book. 

 All entries by gold coin donation via Paypal to treasurer@homebirthnsw.org.au 
SUBMISSIONS BY 01 SEPTEMBER 2020
Send artwork to fundraising@homebirthnsw.org.au






Did you know that last week was National Volunteer Week?
Here at Homebirth NSW, we are all volunteers who work hard and devote our time to changing the limitations and restrictions women face when it comes to choosing a homebirth. The theme of Volunteer Week was 'changing communities, changing lives'. The options available to families and the way women feel about their birth experience is foundational to building communities and changing lives! Homebirth NSW wanted to offer a huge thank you in particular to the incredible Virginia Maddock for her 11 (and a quarter!) years of dedication to our committee. As Virginia leaves our management committee, she has been presented with a lifetime membership with Homebirth NSW! Thank you so very much, Virginia, for:
 
• taking on almost every different committee position at different times
• attending and organising numerous rallies
• being involved with sooo many Birthings magazines
• running stalls at various conferences and events

...and much much more! Virginia runs her own amazing business too and you can check out all she offers here: Natural Beginnings - Holistic Health, Doula and Placenta Services. 

Our advertisers and partners - Your logo could be here!
Advertising with us is a great way to support homebirth advocacy whilst reaching a wider audience for your business! To find out more about how you can become an advertiser, friend and/or sponsor, simply reply to this email and we will send you everything you need to know! 

Homebirth Q & A - We recorded it! 
Did you miss out on the amazing opportunity to listen in or ask your questions at our Homebirth Q&A session? Now you can check it out at whatever time works for you! We have it recorded and ready for you, just click here. Two highly experienced, wonderful privately practising midwives speaking all things birth in the comfort of your own home? Did your Sunday just get a million times better or what?! Join Janine O'Brien and Jo Hunter as they share some invaluable insights! Janine and Jo answer all the homebirth questions you could think of! I learned so much from listening to this! 
 
Thank you so much to our members for being a part of our community and supporting our advocacy work!  We can't wait to see the beautiful homebirth artworks your kids create. Stay safe and reach out to us if you have any questions at all about homebirth and Homebirth NSW. 

Claire Heenan (Communications)

Homebirth NSW 
Your voice matters. Your experience in choosing where to birth matters. Your responses to our survey are a step towards advocating for what birthing families want. 

Have your say & help expand homebirth services nationally 
             
We have a game-changing, short survey live now, and would love it if you could add your voice.
Please click here to tell us about your experience accessing and planning a homebirth in your area, wherever you are in Australia.
Whether you ended up choosing a planned homebirth or not, your response matters! We want to hear from anyone who has actively considered a homebirth in the past, even if you didn't ultimately choose homebirth. We're interested in exposing the limitations and barriers to homebirth, as well as any perceived shortfalls of the hospital maternity system versus homebirth. 
We'll use the results to highlight the issues in our advocacy efforts, working towards more choice and more availability of homebirth for women and families in all parts of Australia. That's gotta be worth 10 minutes of your time, right?! 
By telling your story through surveys like this we hope to see:

• public-funded homebirth programs introduced in more hospitals across Australia
• existing public-funded homebirth programs expanded to cater to more women and babies
• medicare rebates for intrapartum care provided by Privately Practising Midwives, to make homebirth more affordable
• increased understanding and normalisation of homebirth as a safe and highly satisfying birth choice.

The survey takes no more than 10 minutes to complete and is completely confidential.
Thanks for participating, your responses are deeply valued: click here!

Claire Heenan (Media & Communications) and Kathryn Bell (Secretary & Intern supervisor)