Homebirth BLiss

My Birth Story

Each morning closer to our guess date I felt no change, Pipi (our pēpi’s womb name) seemed quite happy on the inside still. On our guess date I spent all morning in my own somatic yin practice and tuned into Pipi and got a very clear whisper ‘Don’t rush me mum!’ 😆

This was exactly what I needed to hear - Pipi was teaching me so much already! So I relaxed into the mystery even more and trusted Pipi would come when Pipi was ready.

8 days later I was off for a massage with a witchy wāhine at Waihī Beach. I had an inkling perhaps after the massage things might kick off. On my way home I felt called to go look at the ocean. There’s beautiful connection between our sexuality and water, and I felt the ocean had a message for me. It was rough seas and overcast, yet there was so much beauty.

When I got home I fell asleep for a few hours. It was the late afternoon. When I woke I started to make dinner.

Midway through chopping onions my waters broke. Gushing waters. I got excited! Luke was almost home. I took off my pants as they were sodden and carried on making dinner. When Luke arrived, I showed him my pants and then more gushing waters came! We finished making dinner, lit a candle under the stars and got excited for what was to come. We went to bed early, knowing the both of us would need all the energy we could get for the birthing journey.

I mostly slept through ‘early labour’, waking a few times and feeling like ‘that was a bit more intense than before’ then would dose off again. I checked the time at 4am but still went back to sleep. 6am we got up, made a hot cacao and headed off to the beach to take our dog Tui for a walk. It was a moody day, mystical and magical.

The sensations in my cervix were getting more intense. Every 5 minutes or so I was thrown to all fours, each time I came back to my breath. It felt wild and primordial.

Once we were home, I took a shower. Again I was thrown to all fours. The waves were getting more powerful and consistent. And with each wave, through the intensity there was joy. My pēpi was journeying to me. 

Luke set up a mattress by our French doors so I could feel the breeze. I found myself in a puppy yoga pose for most of the day, with my bum up - I was leaning over my yoga bolsters. This shape seemed to be the only way to feel comfortable as it relieved the pressure on my cervix.

Tui was always by my side, cheering me on.

Luke had a hand written list of all the things he had to hold. On that list was making sure I had plenty of my homemade labour aid to keep me hydrated and to keep me feed to keep my energy up.

At one point he made me some avocado toast, cut into 4 small pieces and I couldn’t even finish one piece before another wave came. I never finished the last piece. Instead, I had a strong urge to go toilet. This is when my body purged out the rear end lol. I felt like things must be getting close, but in the same light, I had no idea how far along I was and had the mental game that this could still be just the beginning. None the less, I said to Luke, I think you better set up the birth pool.

From here, it’s like a wild dream, traveling to the depths of a dark cave, where I enter a meditative state. I visualised a beautiful sacred vault that was spinning to unlock. With each crashing wave, I roared and the vault opened further. At one point, I yelled OH FUCK, and that was when I felt my cervix at its most open.

Meanwhile, Luke had called the midwife who listened to me go through a wave and said she’d be right over. Just as she arrived I felt the urge to push. She came in and checked me and said I was fully dilated and that the baby would be here any minute. In hindsight from further learnings, I don’t feel there was any need to check me, as it got me out of my meditative mode and into a position that was really painful, and it was obvious baby was coming!

Luke started scrambling to make sure his list of to dos was done, including putting organic rose petals in the birth pool 🌹😆

I headed straight into the water at this point, and my goodness was it a change in sensation. I was also now in ‘transition’ so the waves were no longer coming one on top of the other. I felt floaty and blissful. I knew Pipi was so close. 

I asked Luke to get in the pool behind me to hold me up (I was in a crouched goddess pose) and with each wave, I breathed down and pushed. I felt Pipi’s head crown. And then it would slip back in. And then back down. And then back in. I got a little impatient and said to myself, the next wave I want to meet this little being! And so, with the next wave I gave a bigger push and his head was through.

And in that moment I experienced what’s known as the ring of fire. Although, I think I said, ‘this is more like the tunnel of fire’ lol.

And with the next wave, Pipi flew out and I caught this slippery wee soul and brought him (we didn’t know he was a him however!) to my chest. The umbilical cord was around Pipi’s neck, so the midwives helped with the untangle and then he really nestled in. I felt like a goddess with this perfect, precious little being. We got lost in this moment, we didn’t check Pipi’s sex for some time.

Tui had her head over the side of the birth pool intrigued. This all took place in our dining room.

Eventually we got out of the pool and made our way to the couch. We’d discovered Pipi’s sex, he was a boy! Once on the couch he latched on straight away, and not too long after that I birthed our placenta.

I had a small tear up my labia - not my perineum (the perineal massage must have worked haha 😂) and the midwives did a quick embroidery job. Once I’d done a wee they left us too it.

We left Pipi’s umbilical cord attached as we wanted a lotus birth to allow him a gentle separation from his womb mate. The cord dried up after just a few hours. But we waited until 24hours later to have a little ceremony to seperate Pipi and his pito. We said a karakia and cut his cord together with a pepi pito cutter made from pounamu and tied off his end with a miko pito tie.

We were so in love. The whole universe was in his eyes. Such a tiny wee soul who’d chosen us. He was so calm, his very essence was gentle. We felt so blessed to be his parents. On his 5th day on this planet we knew his name, Bodhi Stephen Mexted ♥️

Special thanks so much to my darling husband, Luke. I didn’t mention him much in the story above as I was so in my own world. He nailed his list of to dos and was a great birthing support. The birth happened so quickly we didn’t really sink into all the tricks for supporting the intense sensations. However, he did do some acupressure points and some hot towels somewhere along the way. That feels like a blur. I also had homeopathies and CBD magic for anyone who was curious 🧚‍♂️