Lily and Caleb

The reason I chose home birth was not the location, but rather the intent of care. I was seventeen years old when I gave birth and I quickly came to learn that because of my age most caregivers assumed they knew more about my body than I did, and I felt neglected and unheard in the birth space. When I was 41w3d along, in the middle of the night my water grossly ruptured as I was trying to get back to sleep,  just like the movies. I quickly tried to put on a postpartum pad to help contain some of the mess and realized that my water was not clear.

I quickly FaceTimed Jess in a panic and she assured me she’d be right over, when she arrived she agreed that it seemed meconium was in my water. I was heart broken, the birth that I had planned for months went out the window in seconds and I was terrified I’d have to give birth with strangers in a space I didn’t feel heard. Jess hugged me in my kitchen and calmed me as I cried, and we made the drive up to the hospital. My labor was long, exhausting, and at times scary. It ended up being 74 hours in total, and for the entirety of those 74 hours, Jess held my hand, held me when I cried and kept me strong. For the entirety of those 74 hours I truly felt a shield of womanhood around me as my birth team advocated for every single thing I wanted and let me and my body dictate my labor.

Nicole caught my sweet baby boy and put him on my chest, at 3:10am, after all those hours. Somehow the labor that sounded all wrong became the best experience of my life, because my body knew what me and my son needed and my birth team knew how to make sure it got it. Birth is truly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever gone through. When I look back now years later I’m so thankful to have had a team that made a scared young mom feel heard and seen in the space she needed it most, because I knew what my body could do and they’re support in that never wavered. Thank you for all you do.