Wisconsin home birth: Ruby

August 2, 2011 by Gillian Haas · 6 Comments

Monday July 25th 1:30pm: I was cutting up some chicken to make my friend Steph’s famous chicken enchiladas for dinner that night. When I stood up to put the chicken on the stove, I immediately felt a gush of liquids leave my body. At first, I thought I might have peed my pants, but then after going upstairs to change, I noticed that it didn’t have any smell & it was completely clear, which is what amniotic fluid is like.

I first called John to let him know that I thought my water broke & then I called our midwife LeAnn to let her know. She asked me a few questions & then told me to call her back around 3:30 to let her know if more liquid leaked out or if anything changed. I called John back & by that time, he had researched all kinds of websites for me to look at to see if it really was amniotic fluid. I laid down for a bit to rest & then I drove to John’s work to pick him up & called LeAnn as well. She said that she wanted to see me in her office as soon as we could get there, to test if it was amniotic fluid, so we left right away. We got to Winona around 4:30 & had a short chat with LeAnn & then did two different tests, which both confirmed that it was in fact amniotic fluid. My water had broken! We didn’t know any kind of timeline as to when things would start happening, but at that point, I hadn’t had any contractions & was still feeling like my usual self. LeAnn suggested we take the night easy, eat dinner, do our normal routine & try to get lots of rest.

Wisconsin home birth, Silvan's Birth

Silvan’s Birth Story…

For several years before my husband and I even decided on children, I knew that in the event we decided to go ahead with reproducing, I wanted a homebirth. I watched the documentary The Business of Being Born on Netflix, and boy, did it open my eyes. I have personally never been a fan of hospitals to begin with, but after watching that, I just knew that homebirth was going to be the way for me. As long as there were no complications, of course. Luckily for me, my husband, Jake, was fully supportive of this idea.

Fast forward a few years, through the many discussions to finally deciding to try for a baby and taking the leap. A few months after that, we were blessed with a positive pregnancy test.

That’s when the hunt for a midwife began, who was near us, with whom we felt comfortable sharing this life changing experience. I did a few thorough Google searches and my first result was LeAnn in Winona. Only a ½ hour away from our home! There were some others that we interviewed, but LeAnn was the first, and she was most definitely our first choice. She made us feel comfortable in both her knowledge and understanding of where we were coming from, and what we were looking for. It was like talking to an old friend, or family member. She just put us at ease.

I had a remarkably easy pregnancy. I didn’t have any of the typical pregnancy ailments: heartburn, swelling, excessive pregnancy sickness. I definitely counted myself fortunate. Since this was going to be my first child, the closer we got to my “due date” the more we discussed the likelihood that my son would go well past the “due date.” So I was not expecting his sudden arrival 3 days early…

September 18th, 2015 was going to be my last day of work before leave, so I got up as usual and took my 2 ½ mile walk. I wasn’t 5 blocks into my walk when I started having pains. I didn’t think they were contractions because they were centered down in my lower pelvic area, not my entire abdomen, which is what I would have expected. So I powered through them, walking them off as I went about my route. The closer I got to home however, the stronger they became. Still though, I didn’t think much of them. Neither did Jake, when I got home and told him was what happening. But just to be sure, because they were definitely different than what I had been experiencing before and coming at somewhat regular intervals, I called LeAnn before hopping into the shower. She agreed that it didn’t exactly sound like labor and that we would just have to see where things went from there. We said good-bye and I went about getting ready.

The pains continued, getting so much stronger that several times I had to stop and concentrate on breathing through. When I got out of the shower, I vomited. A typical transitional sign. I headed to our bedroom to get dressed but was overcome with another strong pain so I had lay down on the floor and that’s when I noticed for sure that my entire abdomen was tightening with each pain. Again, I vomited.

After a little bit of me trying to get through these “pains,” Jake came upstairs to check on me. I didn’t realize it, but I had been up there for a bit. He asked if I was ok and I remember saying, “I’m trying to be.” I asked for my phone and texted LeAnn to let her know that now I could tell there was tightening and that I had vomited. With that, Jake helped me back to the bathroom so I could use the toilet. I checked and sure enough, there was pink. I looked at Jake and told him that I definitely thought I was in labor now. I texted LeAnn again.

Jake asked if he had time to go grab a coffee, since he had just woken up. I told him that I thought so and he ran off to grab a cup. He wasn’t gone long. Later he told me that he jogged down the block and back to be sure that he was going to be there for me. When he came back upstairs, he calmly suggested that we get down to the bed so if things progressed we would be where we needed to be. I agreed and we started our decent. About ¾ of the way down, my water broke and I was hit with the strongest of (what I now knew were contractions) the pains that I had experienced thus far. I howled and Jake spoke soft, comforting words to me. It was all he could do at the time since we were on our narrow stairway. Once again, I texted LeAnn to now let her know that my water broke. She called back immediately and let us know that she was on the way.

Wisconsin home birth: January

January Enters The World

September 30, 2014 by Gillian Haas · 10 Comments

I had a feeling that this baby might be an early one since Ruby was born at 38 weeks, so I did all that I could to prepare for an early birth. I did all the usual nesting-type activities…made bazillions of freezer meals, washed & organized baby clothes & diapers, cleaned everything in (& out) of sight,. I prepared so much that I literally had nothing left to do after 36 weeks. It was my intention that I would have a few weeks to do nothing but relax & enjoy time with our family of three before we became four, but I wasn’t prepared for the waiting to drive me crazy!

Southeast Minnesota Home Birth: Indira

Let me start out by saying the body does amazing things. I truly believe that had I not had issues Thursday late night early Friday morning with our noisy neighbors being up I would’ve gone into labor on Friday instead of Saturday. I told my husband Friday morning to be prepared because I felt labor would start between that day and Saturday. I called my midwife LeAnn Friday night and told her I had been having stronger contractions and wanted to give her a heads up, I believe my body knew just how exhausted it was because right around bedtime Friday night all contractions stopped and I got one of the best night’s sleep I had in a long time. It did help tremendously that my husband went out and warned the neighbors that we would not be having any issues with them being up late and being loud that night.

Rochester, MN, Two Great Homebirths - Benjamin and Hazel

When my husband Nathan and I found out we were expecting our first child in 2012 we immediately decided on a home birth.   With my husband being a chiropractor,  we truly believe that the body is designed to work for you and functions at  its best when there is less interference.  Planning a homebirth meant that we had a better chance of a drug free "natural" birth, a healthy mom and healthy baby!

Being pregnant for the first time I was excited but had normal concerns like any expecting woman.   Early on in my pregnancy I had some bleeding and I was worried.  I made my initial prenatal appointment at Mayo and met with the midwives a few times.  We had also been searching for our homebirth midwife.  We liked LeAnn right away and decided that we wanted her to be our midwife.  For the first 20 weeks I saw both LeAnn and the Mayo midwifes.  There was a distinct difference in the care I was receiving.  I decided it was unnecessary to be under Mayo's care and did the remainder of my prenatal care with LeAnn.  

Southeast Minnesota Home birth story: Aubrey

When my husband Danny and I learned that we were pregnant with our first child in 2011, we did what a lot of soon-to-be parents do:  we called an obstetrician. Over the subsequent nine months, we did everything how we were “suppose to”. We went to our prenatal appointments, ultrasounds, and rushed off to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning after my water broke.  Everything about our first pregnancy and birth was something you’ve seen in any depiction of modern birth. Although everything had gone “textbook”, I felt as if my wishes and I hadn’t been honored and respected in the way I thought they should. I walked away from the experience of my first birth as just another woman through the revolving hospital door and it took me a long time before I could remember back to my beautiful daughter’s birth and not have that twinge of disappointment. I knew when we took her home that our next birth would be different. It would be on my terms.

Rochester, MN Home birth Story: Micah

Micah, our third child to bring into this world.  We started off with the typical hospital plan, but when things with that plan did not go as we would have liked we looked for another option. Home Birth. I had some experience with home birth. My oldest sister was currently finishing training as a midwife and birthed both her sons at home. My other sister had her third child at home as well. When I called my dad to tell him that I wasn't sure the original hospital plan would be working out, he immediately said we would be having our baby at home then. I am very lucky to have such support. My husband wasn't sure about the plan at first either, but once we explored all our options, it seemed to be the best one.