My Home Water Birth Story (Positive and Unmedicated)

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I recently had my baby!

Everett Scott Gundersen was born on Tuesday, April 21 at 2:30am. He was a big boy, weighing 9lbs 4oz and 23in tall! That’s in the 95th to 98th percentile, crazy right?! It’s been 2 weeks now and I wanted to jot down my whole labor story while it’s still fresh in my mind. I was able to do an at home, unmedicated water birth as originally planned and I’m so glad everything worked out! Giving birth during a pandemic can be stressful, but I’m so thankful for the choices I made and for the overall positive birth experience. 

I’ve always loved hearing other people’s birth stories so if you’re pregnant or just like to hear birth stories like me, keep on reading! My husband and I will also be doing a separate video where we’ll share more in-depth details. We had completely different perspectives of that day so stay tuned for that. Okay, let’s move on to the birth story! 

 On Monday 4/20, I woke up to a contraction, which was new for me. The contractions continued throughout the morning, but weren’t consistent or super painful. I texted my birth instructor letting her know, but she told me to go about my day and ignore it until I couldn’t anymore. I had an appointment to see my acupuncturist at noon and was planning on driving myself there. However, as the morning progressed, I had more painful contractions where I would have to pause for a few seconds. This was also new since I had only had the Braxton Hicks contractions before. Just to be on the safe side, I asked Patrick to drive me to my acupuncture appointment. During the appointment, I noticed that my contractions were starting to get more consistent - about 15 minutes apart. This time, I let my midwife know and she told me to keep her updated. She was at another home birth, but I wasn’t too worried about it as I didn’t think that the baby would come that day and continued to go about my day as normal. Then around 2pm, my contractions started to speed up and became more and more uncomfortable. I had been timing them with an app called Contractions and had noted that my contractions were happening every 5 to 6 minutes. This continued for a few more hours until about 5pm when my contractions sped up to every 3 minutes. That’s when I finally admitted, “Okay, maybe this is forreal,” and Patrick started to get our room ready for the water birth. We were told not to inflate the kiddy pool until the midwives got there, so Patrick just rolled away the area rug, covered the bed with plastic and gathered all our birthing supplies, etc. I labored for a few more hours and then at 7pm, I asked Patrick to contact my primary midwife, Lindsey. She was still at the other birth so her partner (also a qualified midwife), Ashlee and her assistant, Sarah came over shortly after. By that point, I was really focused on my contractions and didn’t even notice them blowing up the pool and filling it up with water. I had heard that getting into the pool slows down labor so I decided to wait until the very last minute. Then around 9pm, I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to get into the pool. By that point, my contractions were happening every minute or so and definitely more intense in pain. I would update Patrick with a number on the scale of 0 to 10 (with 10 being the highest) and I would say I was about a 6 or 7 at that point. This continued and gradually intensified until about midnight and then I started to feel the urge to push. It started off light then progressively got stronger with each contraction. Then around 1am, my primary midwife Lindsey arrived so there were a total of 5 people in the room, and of course, my pup Rylie. Rylie was actually amazing and stayed calm throughout the entire process. She mostly chilled on our bed and would occasionally come in to check up on me when she noticed I was in pain. She would rub her face on my hand and sniff my face, which was so comforting. Luckily, all of my midwives were dog people and absolutely loved Rylie! Okay back to the birth, I pushed for an hour and then became absolutely exhausted. I started thinking this wasn’t going to be possible and quietly thought that I may have to be transferred to the hospital (I believe this is called “transition” of the birthing process.) That’s when my midwife told me to put my hand down there to see if I could feel his head and when I did, I could feel the top of his head inside the water sack!! I suddenly had a new surge of energy and decided to get into a squatting position. I pushed for about 30 more minutes and then after one final push, Everett was born! I remember feeling a RUSH of adrenaline and felt super alert and energetic. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before! 

Now for the not so great part of the story - when Everett came out, the umbilical cord was wrapped around him twice - once around his neck and the other around his armpit. His face was purple and his body was limp and he did not cry when he came out. My midwives quickly unwrapped him and moved his limbs until he was able to take in oxygen. He soon let out his first cry after that! Luckily, I was so out of it at that point that I don’t remember this very well, but Patrick said it was the scariest thing. I am SO thankful for our incredible midwives for acting quickly and knowing exactly what to do.

After delivery, they had me lay on the bed and brought my baby to my chest. It was absolutely WILD that my body had just pushed out this glorious 9 pound baby! Labor was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done, both physically and mentally, but it’s also the most incredible and rewarding experience. 8 hours of active labor and 1.5 hours of pushing was freaking INTENSE, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because it brought me the love of my life! Here are some photos that our wonderful midwife Lindsey took. I will cherish these forever!

It’s been two weeks since this day and I honestly don’t remember the pain of labor anymore. Luckily, recovery has been pretty smooth. I had a few first degree tears, which healed pretty quickly and also have received a ton of help from our family and friends. I am so incredibly thankful for the lovely village we are surrounded by! We truly could not do it without their help and are so thankful for everyone’s love and support. 

Patrick and I are so crazy in love with our babe and are soaking up this time with little Everett. It’s still unreal that we get to keep this cute guy & that we’re parents!!