Danielle’s Water Birth

For her first homebirth, Danielle wanted a waterbirth. Her contractions came on suddenly and progressed quickly and she was calm through it all. No one realized that she working through transition. When I thought things might be shifting a little, as she lay on her bed and breathed through contractions, I quietly asked her, “Danielle, let me know if you feel like anything is changing.” She opened her eyes for a moment and whispered, “I feel like I need to push.” And the tub was simply not ready.

In her second homebirth, Fernando, her husband, was not playing, not taking any chances. That birth tub was set up and filled even before the midwives arrived. But this time, we waited and waited as labor took some time to build, and Danielle walked the streets around her house to get labor going. It wasn’t until night fall, when the other two children were in their beds sleeping, that Danielle finally got into active labor. She climbed into the warm water and without a hitch gave birth to her little boy.