Erin's Birth Story

My husband and I hired Nicole for the birth of our second baby. After a positive experience having our first daughter at a birth center, we felt that we were ready to plan a homebirth for our second. I loved the idea of a home birth, and my mom had two of my siblings at home, so it was a familiar and comfortable concept.

But, despite feeling positive about home birthing all of my life, I will confess that something about finally planning it out began to feel a little scary. There is such a stigma out there that home birth is "irresponsible", and I felt the weight of my decision heavily when my friends raised their eyebrows at our decision. Still, I knew that home birth isn't dangerous for low risk pregnancies like mine, and I knew deep down that I did not want to plan a hospital birth unless any complications should call for it. We moved forward with the plan to have my baby at home.

At every prenatal appointment, Nicole made me feel more comfortable with the plan we had chosen. She was calm and confident and talked me through my anxieties every time I brought them up. She took every little hint of a complication extremely seriously and monitored everything closely to be sure I remained low risk and eligible for homebirth.

In the third trimester, some growth scans showed that our baby was measuring on the small side, so we monitored the baby weekly with more scans. While the placenta proved to be functioning well every time, the baby stayed in a low percentile. One day, after the scan showed an overall drop in percentile, we had a serious conversation with Nicole about the risks of staying pregnant until 40 weeks (or more) versus inducing sooner, in case the baby needed to be born in order to grow better.

Nicole talked us through all of our options thoroughly. It was possible the baby was just small, but healthy. It was also possible the scans were off by a few percentile points. Or, it was possible that the baby was small because of some other reason we couldn't know while she remained in utero, and she could be born unwell.

Because the baby was not yet in a dangerously low percentile and the placenta appeared to be functioning well, we were still candidates for home birth. However, because we didn't know what we might see at the next growth scan, Nicole suggested we choose a deadline for scheduling a hospital induction before 40 weeks. She helped us think of every safe and natural at-home induction method to try in the meantime, to hopefully beat that deadline. We appreciated Nicole being honest with us about potential risks and making suggestions as she talked us through our options. We especially appreciated her letting us know that the choice was ultimately ours.

It was a scary decision, especially because I'd already had my underlying anxieties about planning my home birth. But my husband and I felt strongly about keeping to our plan, if possible. While we didn't want to be reckless, we felt in our hearts that our baby was ok and we chose not to give up our home plan just yet.

On March 6 2023, Nicole came by to do my third and final membrane sweep in an attempt to get things moving. After she left, my husband and I picked our deadline, which was 3 days away. If I didn't go into labor by the end of that deadline, we would schedule an induction at the hospital. On the evening of March 6, I was incredibly relieved when my Braxton Hicks contractions got noticeably more intense and I suspected I was in labor.

When Nicole arrived at my house, I was 5cm dilated and contractions were in full swing. It was definitely labor and our home birth plan was on! During this time, I was so grateful and excited about labor beginning, that I completely forgot to worry over any of my home birth anxieties. Never once during the experience did I feel scared for myself or my baby's well being. Everything about the timing and my environment just felt right and I trusted the process.

While there were no health scares or complications during labor, it didn't exactly go as I expected. I labored over night, and things slowed down in the early morning hours. I became really discouraged by this, because I was in a lot of pain and just wanted things to pick back up and move along. My contractions stayed sporadic and spread out the entire time, yet continued to get extremely intense and more painful. This made it difficult for me to figure out my progress and I worried that I might be far from the end.

Nicole and her birth team remained calm and confident the entire time. I felt their presence around me through the night and early morning, yet they gave me space to cope and work through contractions, only stepping in to check the baby's heart or make occasional suggestions for progress. They also respected my wish of having my toddler present, and were very sweet with her.

I know the calm of the birth team played a big role in my ability to stick with it and not lose hope. I remember when Nicole told me that my body was in a rhythm and that meant progress would keep happening, even though it had slowed down. I desperately needed to hear that and it encouraged me a lot.

Around 10am on March 7, Nicole asked if I wanted her to check my dilation a second time. She told me I was 8 centimeters, but more dilated on one side than the other. She suggested I lie down on my right side to get the last centimeters dilated. This was extremely uncomfortable, as I preferred to be standing and moving to manage my pain. But Nicole knew what she was doing. After about 5 contractions in this position, I said I couldn't do that position anymore and wanted to get into the birth tub. After just a few minutes in the tub, I felt the urge to push.

Nicole monitored me closely but let me do what my body wanted while pushing, and gave minimal instructions. After about 15 minutes of intense pushing, I suddenly heard her say, "Reach down and pick up your baby". I couldn't believe it. Was my baby really out? Was I really done? I reached into the water and there was my little girl, a sweet baby with lots of dark hair and covered in vernix. I was beyond relieved. I picked her up and Nicole helped me sit down safely in the tub with the baby on my chest. Within seconds my baby coughed and cried. That cry was such a beautiful moment. That was when it struck me that we had previously been concerned about my baby's health, wondering if she would come out crying or if she'd need resuscitation. I realized I was holding a healthy baby in my arms, a baby who came out kicking and screaming like we'd hoped and prayed. She weighed 6lb 6oz and was 19.5 inches long. A beautiful, perfectly sized and not too-small baby.

Our immediate postpartum time was beautiful, with skin to skin, breastfeeding, delayed cord clamping, and lots of support for me to get cleaned up and back in bed. Nicole and her team cleaned up the birth room and set me up with all kinds of supplies and instructions for healing.

Nicole's wisdom, intuition, confidence, and care made this experience so beautiful and rewarding. I'm so glad we trusted her as our guide, and so glad she trusted us as her clients. I can't thank her enough and I'm so, so grateful.