A Very Fast Twin Home Birth with Transfer for Mom

Edited to Add: I have read through this birth story many times and discussed it a bit with the mom and others at the birth. They all backed up my original thoughts. Mom’s body and her babies were working together perfectly. It was time to birth! Her labor was going fast, because that is what they needed. Breaking the waters (for both babies) and pulling on them to speed things along in an already fast labor, was interference not needed and may have played a role in the 3rd stage issues. Also, please know that if a cord snaps it must be clamped right away. I was not there, so can not judge or presume to know why things happened how they did.  These are things to consider in preparing for your birth and to discuss with your midwife (if you are going that route). That is the positive of sharing these stories…to learn and grow from each other. -Mrs. BWF

Homebirth and hospital transfer of twins: Olivia Grace and Kamille Johanna

8/11/11 – 3 1/2 hours start to finish, babies 25 mins apart.

I’ll start from the beginning, seems right 😉 My son at the time of conception was 19 months old. His birth took place at a freestanding birth center in Savannah GA. Pretty simple, long but simple. 29 hours of labor, 8 of which were the ‘difficult’ ones and 25 mins of pushing…good experience, however, when I got pregnant the 2nd time I knew I wanted to plan a homebirth. I researched my area and found a local homebirthing midwife. I presented Frank, my husband, with the info I found. He agreed to interview her and see if our wants meshed well with her.

We met Lisa Coomer and I connected with her right away. I was early along, only 4 weeks. I KNEW I was pregnant though and even the exact date of conception (Frank knocked me up then fled to Canada on business 😉 We often laugh about that!) We contracted with Lisa and began the process of planning our homebirth!

Frank and I went back and forth on whether to find out the sex of the baby, he wanted to, I didn’t. To me, the baby was going to be born at the change of seasons so I knew we would spend of lot of time home. We didn’t have to gender items…in the long run though, I agreed to have an US. I was ‘due’ August 30th, so 1/2 way through we attempted to schedule the US. Each appt kept falling through and 20 weeks had come and gone. I took that as sign to just skip the US ,but I’m stubborn, so we finally get an appt…I’m 23 weeks at this point.

It was a GIRL…not just 1 but 2! I told the tech to literally shut up!. She didn’t know what to say, then I burst out in laughter and tears (I will NEVER forget the look on hubs face!!). I immediately was filled with sadness thinking my homebirth was out of the question, but it wasn’t. Lisa had delivered twins earlier in her practice. Plus another midwife in the area had experience with twins. So we hired her too, however never got a chance to meet her. Now we’re expecting 2, at the same time! I wasn’t afraid though, my body STILL knew what to do.

Here’s the story of how I birthed my twin girls at home on the side of my bed…

D day came sneaking up on us in a very literal way! I was technically 37 weeks 6 days when our girls arrived. The night before, 8/10, I had a fairly healthy meal…fried hotdog, spicy homemade chili and salad 😉 Don’t judge, I had a few slips! I was tired and hungry ALL the time. I hit the sheets early, 9ish or so. I woke up to pee at 2 AM which was normal for me, kissed hubs (working on a project for work that had him on night shift at home for 6 months), grabbed a handful of grapes and a glass of milk and went back to bed.

The next time my eyes opened was 8 AM. My son, 2 years, was already awake. We ate a bowl of frosted shredded mini wheats together and I had a giant glass of OJ (it is my all time pregnancy craving!) I was feeling heavy and like I needed to have massive BM. I told my mom how I was feeling, who later tells me she noticed my legs were vibrating at that time. I was in active labor and seriously had no clue! I had not had a ‘normal, intense contraction’ at all, but instinctively my body knew it was show time.

I go to the bathroom and now I’m feeling crampy. I go to my bedroom to wake up my husband (who had only slept for an hour at that point). I explained that I think I may be in early labor, but I wasn’t entirely sure, ‘Go back to sleep, this can’t be it’ I told him. I just couldn’t shake that heavy feeling. It’s around 9:30 now, I called the MW…no answer. I called my doula, Farah told her of my situation, thinking I need to poop but not sure if was labor. She could hear in it my voice and was at our house by 10 AM. Around 9:45 I talked to my MW, she’s now on her way. My husband is calling the rest of the team and Farah and I are ‘laboring’ on the side of my bed.

Here is where I need to break down my labor…seriously, I can recall a handful of true contractions before Baby A was being birthed! 2 of them were timed, they were a min and half long 3 minutess apart and that’s as intense as labor got for me. My transition consisted of me starting to cry and telling Farah that I was scared. She of course talked me through that and I had a few more contractions, but they weren’t very intense. So, I’m sitting on the bed and felt like I needed to go to the bathroom, but I knew if I stood up Farah was going to be catching those babies 😉 Lisa arrives and checked my progress which was a very loose 9 cms. Seriously! And I still didn’t feel like I was in labor.

It’s time to push for Olivia, so I turn to the side of the bed towards Lisa and begin pushing. She ruptured the first bag of waters and in less than 10 minutes, baby A was born. She had a very short cord, maybe 12 inches. Somewhere between my legs and chest her cord was snapped. I still don’t quite know what happened, but she lost a lot of blood. I’m forever grateful that she is okay! She had to have some oxygen, but other than that she was fine.
Lisa ruptured the next bag of waters and I was immediately pushing for Kamille. 25 mins later I was holding her in my arms. 2 babies and no tears, it was way easier than the birth of Aiden! I received a pitocin shot as a precaution of hemorrhage. They were perfect! 7 mins later I pushed out a giant placenta. I began nursing my beautiful babies, eating good food and enjoying the fruits of my labor, but I just didn’t feel right. My opinion is that when Olivia’s cord broke I began to bleed on the inside. The placenta side of the cord went back up inside of me and was never clamped off…
This is where my easy labor and delivery take a turn…I was not feeling right at all, I felt so sleepy and disoriented. I was hemorrhaging, only there was no external blood it was all internal. I tried to get up to go pee but I was to weak. I was throwing up everything I was trying to eat, everyone was confused! I was laying on my left side with a cold wash rag on my neck and was begging God to protect me and heal me quickly. I had WAY to much to live for and I needed more time on this earth. He heard me 🙂
I began to pass blood clots, I mean placenta sized clots. The paramedics were called and I was transported to the ER. My hemoglobin was a 5, I needed a blood transfusion. I had had a double hemorrhage, I received 2 bags of blood and my level came up to a 7. I had a long way to go but again, my body could do it 🙂
The next day I went home, anemic but alive! Words will never describe how thankful I am. My homebirth was fantastic and fulfilling but some things don’t go as planned, that’s okay it’s called LIFE!

8 Comments

  • Crystal

    Lovely! Thank you for sharing and showing others that its okay to believe in yourself… and for believing in your body’s ability to have babies <3

  • Shary

    This made me cry a bit. Probably because I’m anemic and blood loss was a major concern in my childbirth experience. I too had to get post-birth pitocin and was terrified of bleeding to death. I was weak for a while after my daughter was born and nearly passed out when I got up to shower! I am so glad everything worked out for this mama!

  • Natasha Hall

    I am 11 weeks pregnant and have found a homebirth midwife that is comfortable and confident with both a breech delivery and twins. When I was interviewing it was important to me to know that if those things arose I would still have a homebirth. I just can’t imagine finding out at 23 weeks that I’m having twins!!!! I too don’t want to find out what were having and am not wanting an us unless necessary. I just hope we know sooner than later how many babies are inside me!!! 🙂

  • Farah Rains

    That’s my girl! So proud of you Kristy and those precious baby girls! It was an absolutely amazing experience and I’m so blessed to have been your doula. Love ya tons!!

  • Venus

    Those are two beautiful babies you got! I’m glad you were able to get to the hospital quickly and get the help you needed. I also needed to transfer after giving birth at home, and some people have acted like they’re sorry I didn’t get the homebirth I wanted. But I did! I didn’t go to the hospital until several hours later, and that was necessary and not something I regret or felt anyone forced me into, I was still able to go home and sleep in my own bed that night with my new baby, so in my opinion it was still a perfect homebirth. If course it would have been nice to just stay home the whole time, but life happens, and sometimes doctors and hospitals are necessary. Congrats!!!!!

  • Jimi

    Kristy, I love reading your story! Your girls are precious and I know they are an amazing addition to your family. It wad nice to get to know you and frank a bit in our time in our class together at the birth center! You are truly a blessed mama!

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