Keiran's Home Birth Story in Central Pennsylvania
Being on call makes me jumpy. Every little sound has me searching for my phone, and as it is, I check it every 10 minutes or so - my kiddo’s toys playing their jingles, my partner watching reels on his phone, even “phantom phone calls,” make me SWEAR I heard my phone ring, even when it most definitely did NOT! It is a completely unique and wild experience, and fitting that the reason for it, is one of THE most wild and unique experiences for human beings: Birth.
Read about little Keiran’s birth below, as told by his mama a few days after the birth (there are some sensitive topics and images in this post, regarding an emergency transfer).
”I’ve always wanted a home birth but for various reasons I never had the opportunity. Pregnant with my 6th child I finally got my chance! In October 2020 my husband and I discovered we were to welcome another child into our family in June. This would be our second rainbow baby following an 18 week loss in August 2020.
For my own peace of mind I was followed by maternal fetal medicine along side my homebirth midwife. At 10 weeks we found out our newest addition would be a boy. We chose to name him Keiran. Months turned into weeks and scan after scan all brought excellent news. He was perfectly healthy and looking to be another big baby like all of his siblings before him. The doctors all gave their praises as we planned to move forward with our home birth. After a few weeks of prodromal labor I woke up on June 18th, at 38 weeks and 6 days, around 2:30 am confident we would welcome our baby that day.
Labor stopped and started but I was able to labor as I felt comfortable, surrounded by great people, both friends and family. Around 6pm things started to get more intense so I decided it was time to utilize the birthing pool for some pain relief. Labor moved quickly from there. My husband caught our baby in the pool at 7:57pm. Labor and delivery could not have gone more smoothly.
Unfortunately things did not move smoothly from there. Our little boy was floppy and purple from lack of oxygen. My birth team made the call for transfer and he was admitted to the NICU. They handled everything with such grace I did not even realize how serious his condition was until we were in the ER watching many many doctors surround his bed placing tubes and IVS. He had to be ventilated at 100% oxygen.
Our perfect little boy (who we found out weighs in at 9lbs 6oz) has made such great progress in less than two days. We don’t know yet what caused him to decline so rapidly but he is completely off of all oxygen and doing amazing. We are still in the NICU to rule out any heart or lung issues but he has made amazing progress in a short amount of time and his siblings are anxiously awaiting his return home!”
[ Postscript:
Baby Keiran is home with his family after a 12 day stay in the hospital. Mom and babe are both doing well <3
Homebirth IS safe. As with any birth, there are things that happen out of anyone’s control, and it is VERY important that you have a birth team that are capable, and that you trust to handle potential emergency situations. K’s birth team worked efficiently, and effectively to make sure that baby Keiran received the best care that he could, and when that meant a transfer to the hospital, that’s what they did.