Homebirth Transfer Before Labor: Embracing a Natural Hospital Birth with Doula Support in SWFL

With warm gratitude to first-time mom Erin for trusting us with her unique and beautiful birth story—thank you for allowing us, as your doula team, to be part of such a special journey and for sharing it with our community!

Before I even got pregnant, I knew I wanted to have a homebirth. I heard about it on social media and started to listen to birth story podcasts. I fell in love with the idea of birthing my baby in the comfort, safety and privacy of my own home. My husband and I are not huge fans of hospitals and after becoming educated about birth, we strongly believed in a woman’s ability to birth without intervention. 

We found our homebirth midwife, Jamie, with Peaceful Beginnings and debated hiring a doula. We didn’t want to hire her “just in case” we had to transfer to a hospital but our midwife told us about all the benefits and spoke very highly of Tara Hoverson. When we met with her, we instantly clicked and knew she would fit right in with our birth team and provide the support we needed as first time parents, birthing at home.

I had a very healthy pregnancy, taking care of my body with movement, nutrition, positive attitude and chiropractic care. We also took a hypnobirthing class to help prepare us for an unmedicated birth. As I kept getting closer to my due date, everything was looking good; baby was head down and healthy. 40 weeks came and went.. I was keeping active with stretching, curb walking, spinning babies exercises, etc.- only with the mindset of preparing my body, not inducing labor. I trusted my baby to come when she was ready.

Once I hit 41 weeks, I ramped up labor prep activities but despite all efforts, baby was cozy. I hadn’t had many Braxton Hicks at this point but I was showing other signs that I was progressing. Nonetheless, 42 weeks was quickly approaching. No provider can care for you after 42 weeks and as I got closer to this “deadline,” we discussed a plan for an induction and hospital birth..

I was devastated.

I felt like my body had failed me, like my baby didn’t want to meet me earthside. Tara & my midwife really helped me through this grief, reminding me that “nothing is wrong with my body. Lots of women go 42+ weeks” and that Tara’s assisted in plenty of beautiful hospital births.

At 41 & 6, after a big steak dinner, we made our way to Cape Coral hospital. Our birth team had coached us that this hospital was very natural minded and was great with homebirth transfers. At this point, my goal was to have a vaginal birth with no epidural. I got started on a very low dose of Pitocin to get labor started. The nurses recommended we ramp up the Pitocin but we politely declined, wanting to give my body time to react. I had the Pitocin drip for 13 hours before contractions really started to kick up, running on very little sleep and only Jell-o and broth to eat. After about 6 hours of stronger contractions, we asked Tara to come.

Up to this point I had labored mostly on the bed, using the tub twice for some pain relief. I was listening to my hypnobirthing affirmations and music, clutching a birth comb to ride contractions and my husband was refreshing a cold washcloth that I would hold over my face. A nurse recommended I do the side lying release for a few contractions on each side & I think this really encouraged labor progression.

Once Tara arrived around 12:30 am, I was 7cm and contractions were every 3-4 minutes. She jumped right in, setting up a fan and getting out a heating pad. As everything was progressing, I went into the small dark bathroom, where Tara followed. She held the heating pad to my hips and back, applying pressure for each contraction, providing words of encouragement. I think this was probably transition.

The nurse kept coming in trying to get me to wear the uncomfortable monitor & asking me to get on the bed to do some practice pushes but at this point I was already feeling the urge to push- switching from a squat for contractions to hands and knees for rest. I was getting pretty vocal and eventually I could feel my baby’s head with my hand. This was very encouraging & I told Tara but I wasn’t ready to tell anyone else yet. The nurse was very persistent that I get on the bed for the practice pushing so finally I made my way to the edge of the bed, on the ground in a squat & announced that I could feel the head and that it was almost out. I think the nurse was in disbelief and got a little flustered since this wasn’t typical protocol. My homebirth midwife was no longer able to act as my care provider but she was able to be there as a support person and once she saw the head was crowning she urgently told the nurse to get the doctor.

A whole team rushed in, and the delivering doctor met me on the floor to catch my baby girl. After the head was out, I waited a couple contractions for the shoulders and with one more push she was born at 3:33 am, 10lbs 4oz. This was also the moment my water broke. I stood and got in the bed and my baby was placed on my chest. I was so ecstatic to be staring at my beautiful baby, unaware of everything else going on. Apparently, I lost a lot of blood so after 9 minutes, they cut the cord and I delivered my placenta.

It turned out to be a blessing that I was in the hospital due to the amount of blood loss. They were able to administer some extra meds and IVs that wouldn’t have been available at home. A lot of the nurses were also very impressed I pushed out a 10+ pound baby naturally and how well I managed the pain so I think being able to show others what a woman’s body is capable of is another reason I was meant to birth my little girl at the hospital.

So while I had to grieve the homebirth I dreamed of, I am over the moon with how my baby’s “mostly natural” hospital birth played out.

Authored by first time mom Erin F.

Our doula best,

Tara and The Mindful Birth Doulas