I can’t say enough good things about Liz Derry and her team. I had an awesome natural home birth and I am here to share it. With my first daughter I was induced. The doctor gave me an epidural and my whole labor felt like a big blur because I was so drugged. I also fainted after the birth of my daughter which I really think was due to the epidural. I just knew if I had another baby I wanted a different experience.So in April 2011 my husband and I found out we were pregnant. I knew I wanted a natural birth with a midwife this time around so I called around and found Liz. When she told me she only did home births my first thought was, “Oh No!” I knew my husband wouldn’t go for it. He always thought people who had home births were kinda crazy. So when she met with my husband and I she answered all of our questions. Liz put our minds at ease about the decision of a home birth.
The whole time during my prenatal care with Liz I kept thinking, “My goodness! I am getting the best care ever.” Our visits were typically an hour long and if I had questions she answered them for me. If she didn’t know she would do her research and let me know by that evening. I just know when I had an O.B all my appointments were typically 10-15 min. long after waiting an hour in the waiting room. If I had questions they would give me the Ol’ welcome to pregnancy speech and never really answer any of my questions.
Ellie with big sister
So December 9th came around which was my due date. I started to get some pretty strong contractions at 8pm that evening but I thought this can’t be it because I had some strong contractions the whole last month of pregnancy. Well my contractions got very strong where I couldn’t even talk through them. So I told my mom to call my husband who was at work to get home immediately. When he came home he thought he should wait to call Liz and the doula Cassie. When he noticed I was having contraction after contraction he called Liz.
Liz and Cassie showed up 45 min. later and I had a few strong contractions when they got there. Liz and Cassie thought I should get in the tub. When I stepped into the tub I started to feel a ton of pressure and then my water had broke. Immediately after that I felt the need to push. At this point it was pretty intense and I felt the strongest burning feeling down there. I started to panic but Liz was so calm and made me feel calm. I knew I had to trust my body and God. Within 5 minutes after my water breaking out came our beautiful, chubby, 9 lb 1 oz baby girl. It was such an amazing moment! My husband actually got to catch our baby girl. I was so over joyed and balled like a baby.
This was the experience I wanted and had always wanted. My husband and I are going to treasure that moment forever. Liz Derry made me learn to trust my body during labor and without her I don’t think I would have been so calm. Now I can’t even imagine having a hospital birth after my wonderful home birth experience.
