17/05/2026
Maggie shares her experience as a midwife having a homebirth for the first time 💜✨
Just under one month ago, I gave birth at home to my fourth child. I wasn’t a midwife when I had my other three children, so experiencing pregnancy and birth as a midwife was both a blessing and a curse.
During labour, I found myself repeating the same words I tell all of my women: “Just breathe.” At times, it felt impossible, and it gave me a deeper understanding of birth than I’d ever known before.
My early labour lasted just over 12 hours, and for much of it I thought I was once again experiencing prodromal labour — something I had been dealing with since 33 weeks.
I was fortunate that my active labour was just under two hours. The intensity is something I’ll never forget, but my body handled it, despite using no pain relief.
I didn’t have a “calm birth,” possibly because I didn’t prepare enough for it, or maybe because after weeks of false labour, my body was simply done. But I wouldn’t change my primal birth for anything.
There were moments throughout the day when I doubted myself and doubted my body. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I worried that the TENS machine and hot shower wouldn’t be enough. But in the end, I trusted my body, and it birthed my baby exactly as it needed to.
