Positive Home Birth Story: The Birth Of Noah Sol [Part #1]

13 min readJun 3, 2022

I’m sitting here with Noah Sol looking at me like an angel on my lap + today I decided, it’s time to write his birth story! I’ve journaled 20+ pages on his birth story, but for some reason typing it up + sharing it with the world feels that much more “permanent.” It feels like I’m truly closing the chapter of this pregnancy + our home birth story, + I don’t know if I’m ready to do that! It truly was so incredibly special + I’m so grateful for everything.

All Things Pregnancy

Starting at week 5, I journaled every single Sunday throughout pregnancy. I highly recommend doing this! For me, pregnancy was such a rollercoaster + once it was over, I was like “wait, what exactly happened?” I’m so grateful I documented in the moment, + now I’m able to process everything from a more holistic lens.

Why I Chose A Home Birth:

Years ago [probably 5 years ago at this point!], I saw an instagram influencer had a birth in a blow up tub at her house + I was like oh my gosh this is the coolest thing ever — I want that. I found out it was called a “home birth.” I had never hear about home births up until that point. Then, a few years after, a friend of mine had a home birth + it even further confirmed my desire to have one. I personally get really anxious at hospitals— so giving birth in the comfort of my home felt glorious. I never questioned it.

I know a lot of people choose home births because of the natural route, individualized care, + incredible support of midwives. These are amazing benefits that I didn’t even realize until later. I literally just wanted a home birth because I wanted to have our baby at home in the water. California has abundant resources for home births [compared to Chicago, which only has one option that I know of], so when we found out I was pregnant — we knew that we’d eventually move to California to birth our baby.

All of this being said, we had a hospital back up plan in place + I was very open to however Noah wanted to come into the world. I truly went into labor [+ pregnancy for that matter] with no expectations, + I really think it helped me with just focusing on “the next right step.”

The Week Before My Due Date

I experienced no “signs of labor” [other than nesting lol] up until a week before my due date. I woke up that morning with a weird intuitive feeling like… “this might be the day.” I went to the bathroom + I had a little bit of loose stools. I knew that loose stools were a sign that labor could be close, so I immediately texted my midwife + let her know [see below lol].

I told Isaac + he started getting excited. We hadn’t done anything to prepare for our home birth — so we cleaned our house, went to the farmer’s market for flowers, wrote letters to each other, blew up the tub to see what room we wanted it in, + set up our birth room so that we’d be ready TONIGHT if it happened. The whole day we intuitively felt very strongly that contractions could start at any time. We went to bed, + I got up to go to the bathroom every hour wondering, “has it started yet?” [side note: I do not miss having to pee all. the. time. during pregnancy!]

… I woke up the next morning, + my loose stools were back to normal. The intuitive feeling of going into labor was gone.

Looking back, I think Noah was saying — “GET READY, I’M COMING SOON!” After that experience, we really savored each day even more, knowing that the last days of “just Elisabeth + Isaac” were upon us.

My Due Date [4/17]

My due date was 4/17… 9 months from our wedding anniversary + Easter Sunday. I had a feeling that labor was days away… that maybe I’d go into labor by the end of the week. Ever since the loose stools day, I experience zero labor signs. So many people told me — “you’ll know when you’re close to labor because you’ll start feeling signs: nauseous, loose stools, cramps, losing the mucus plug, fatigue, etc.” I truly felt nothing but amazing.

That day, we went to Easter Mass, had croissants at a bakery, went to the farmer’s market, I did a Melissa Wood Health workout while Isaac went on a hike… it was a perfect Sunday. It was interesting, because that Sunday I was journaling in the room we had set up to give birth in + said: “Everything finally feels done.”

Up until that point, we were still *doing things* to prepare for the birth. The day before Isaac spent all day cooking postpartum meals for me with recipes from the book The First Forty Days [highly recommend!]. I had spent every day the week leading up to my due date [starting the day we set up our birth room after the loose stools day] drinking red raspberry tea, eating dates, making our birth playlist, + preparing for how I wanted this room to feel. We had done everything on our “end of pregnancy bucket list”:

Go on a hike
Go to the beach + jump in the ocean
Get dressed up + go out to dinner
Have a picnic
Record our pregnancy journey

Finally, on my due date, I realized that I felt *ready.* However, I felt like he just wasn’t coming for a while because I felt so good physically + had zero labor signs. So I decided that I would start asking him: “What do you want me to do today, prior to your arrival?” I thought that there might be things that Noah wanted me to do, I just had to dig deep + try to communicate with him to understand what those things were.

Well… clearly there was nothing else he wanted me to do because my water broke THAT NIGHT. Yes, on my due date! I was shocked.

The People Who Were Present At Noah’s Birth

Before I get into all the juicy details lol, I want to thank all the people who were present at Noah’s birth. I seriously feel beyond blessed with our home birth team — every person felt very much divinely guided. I am so so grateful for each of them!

Midwife Team — Abby [@lamidwifeabby]. Abby was the midwife who I started working with as soon as I moved to California [February… 2 months out from birth]. I interviewed her in December + knew instantly that she was *the one.* THANK GOD she had an opening. I can’t wait to hopefully do a full 9 months with her one day, fingers crossed. I cannot say enough good things about Abby, + highly recommend her as a midwife if you live in LA. Her assistant Johanna [@birthwhisperer], who is also a midwife, was also present… + she truly is the “birth whisperer” — she’s been a part of 1900+ births, truly amazing. Johanna also prepared my placenta pills + I plan on doing a “closing of the bones” ceremony with her. They also had a midwife in training present, Emily, who was super sweet.

Doula — Amy [@amyowenyoga]. Unbelievably enough, Amy is a part of our yoga community in Chicago… she was actually Isaac’s yoga teacher trainer! I had been interviewing doulas in LA, but when my friend Bridgett told me that Amy was in LA for the winter, we reached out to her. It’s so crazy because Amy literally left to go home to Chicago two weeks after Noah was born. It was so special to have a piece of the Midwest + our yoga community with us throughout this process. Also, Isaac + I did a few prenatal yoga sessions with Amy which were the best.

Photographer — Zoe [@thealohamamatog]. I found Zoe on instagram… looking through a home birth hashtag maybe? I honestly don’t even know. As soon as I saw the instagram + all the YELLOW, I knew she had to be the photographer at our birth… even though she lived in the OC + even though she had another home birth around the same time as my due date. It all worked out! Aside from photographer [that were all absolutely incredible], Zoe was also my prayer warrior. More on that later.

My #1 Support — Isaac. Isaac was with me every step of the way… everyone reflected how it was so beautiful to watch him truly be an active participant throughout all of labor [as much as he could be!]. I don’t think he ever left my side. ❤

*Something else that I wanted to mention was that I had a backup OBGYN [Dr. Phabby who is also absolutely incredible!]. It’s not necessary to have a backup OBGYN, but this is something I chose to have in case of a hospital transfer — I wanted to be familiar with whoever was delivering our baby! They are unfortunately still limiting people in the hospital in California, so it would have only been Isaac + our doula allowed in.

My Water Broke…

Isaac + I had just sat down for dinner on Easter. He made us a big steak + rice bowl… yes, steak lol. I’m still not sure if this was the best decision I made that night or the worst decision I made that night. Right when we sat down, I got up to the go to the bathroom. When I wiped, I noticed that there was a little bit of blood. I was like, okay that’s weird… but I didn’t think anything of it because it was such a small amount of blood. I sat back down to dinner.

2 minutes later, I was like… I think I have to go to the bathroom again? I got up, had a little bit of soft stools, but this time there was blood + mucus. Then I was like ohhhh I’m losing my mucus plug! I knew that the mucus plug could be lost as early as 37 weeks + it doesn’t necessarily mean labor is super close — it could still be days [or weeks] away… so again, I didn’t think much about it. I texted my midwife + doula to let them know that I thought I was probably losing my mucus plug. I sat back down to dinner.

1 minute later, I literally had to go the bathroom AGAIN. This time, it was moreso diarrhea. Then, all of a sudden, whoosh. A ton of liquid came out of my body, but it didn’t feel like it was pee. Did my water just break? On the toilet?

I immediately called our midwife — “I think my water just broke?! What do I do? I still don’t feel anything!”

She told me to put a pad on. If my water really did break, I would keep leaking. [Which it did!] Labor would most likely start in the next few hours, so try to get some rest.

After that call, I stress ate the steak + rice bowl. Even though in the back of my mind, I was like I probably should be eating chicken soup lol.

We called our doula. We called our parents. We said a prayer. We recorded a video for our “future selves.” It’s so funny because in the video I was like, “I think I’m feeling a little bit of back pain… I wonder if this is a contraction?” YES IT WAS. It was a preview of what was to come… literally back contractions the entire time.

Isaac went to Whole Foods to get coffee for the morning + told all of the staff that his wife was going into labor lol. I texted our friends… it’s happening, pray for us! We cleaned the house. I journaled. I wrote an instagram post about going into labor + showed it to Isaac who was like, please don’t post that. lol We took our final bump pics… + then we went to bed. Well, at least Isaac went to bed. I was up the entire night…

My Birth “Plan”

Before I share what went down, I want to share my birth “plan”. Like I mentioned above, I really didn’t have any expectations going into it. I knew contractions were going to be painful, but I also knew that they were typically only one minute long + that you always had a break in between contractions.

I had read that unmedicated labor was the “ultimate workout,” so I was actually kind of excited, wondering what is this going to feel like?! Ultimately though, my plan was to trust + be open to whatever comes. Of course I hoped to have a home birth, but if I had to go to the hospital for whatever reason, I would!

While I didn’t have much of a “plan” per se, I did have intentions —

Read our letters that Isaac + I we wrote to each other when labor “started.” I also wrote a letter to myself.
Listen to two birth playlists that I made — a “relax” playlist + a “push” playlist
Watch a video my mom made me once labor started
Journal throughout the process — I imagined during every contraction to “let go” of something that wasn’t serving me
Maybe I would FT people during labor? [lol]
Essential oils, visualize the color yellow, talk to my spirit guides, say affirmations, have hypnobirthing meditations available in case I wanted to listen to them
Be super present to whatever arises

I also thought my labor would be relatively fast — Noah was low, low, low for awhile + even our backup OBGYN said: “Isaac you better be prepared to catch the baby.” That, compounded with the fact that I had a forward facing placenta + hadn’t felt any Braxton Hicks contractions, made the OBGYN think I wasn’t going to feel contractions until I was much further along.

Is This A Contraction?

As I laid in bed, my mind went wild. I was still so shocked that my water broke. At first, I was just so curious… I enjoyed paying attention to the sensations. Soon enough, my back pain was starting to intensify + started getting uncomfortable. I kept wondering, is this a contraction? I had always heard that contractions would feel “wave like” + I thought I would feel a hardening in my stomach — so I was waiting for a sensation like that in my belly

I listened to a “Blissful Birth Meditation” to try to help myself fall asleep + get into a more relaxed headspace… did not work. I said Hail Mary’s + Our Father’s whenever I felt pain to try to distract myself. I took super deep breaths. I wondered how the heck Isaac was still sleeping while I was tossing + turning. I started timing the pain on the clock on my phone… it was always ~30–60 seconds, so I would look at the timer + countdown the seconds, praying for the pain to be gone soon. Somehow, I did end up falling asleep for like 2 hours [no idea how!].

When I got up, + the pain was still there, I finally realized — this is back labor.

That Morning [4/18]

I texted my midwife at 6am, sharing that my contractions don’t seem super consistent, but that they are definitely the “can’t talk just breath” contractions. I asked a bunch of questions — Should I keep resting? Should I move? Should I text my chiropractor or acupuncturist to come over to speed things up? Do I only have 24 hours to labor at home since my water broke before going to the hospital? Should I eat oatmeal or a smoothie?

She told me to keep resting, to eat oatmeal, + to download a contraction app [I used: Contraction Timer]. I had Isaac use the Hypervolt on my legs + hips when a back contraction came on, + that definitely helped distract from my pain. Isaac made me oatmeal, but I think I only took like two bites. At this point, I was timing my contractions + was in a lot of pain. Isaac called our doula, + we talked to her for a bit, + she listened to me go through a few contractions. She said that she’d come over whenever I wanted.

Isaac said — “I really think Amy [our doula] should come over.” I kept saying — no I’m not ready yet. In hindsight, I don’t know why I had so much resistance. I think I just felt like it was still very early on + I didn’t want her have to be at our house for a really long time. I’m not sure! Even though we told her she didn’t need to come yet, she said she was currently 90 minutes away with traffic… so she’s going to start making her way to our house right now.

I ended up texting my chiropractor + accupuncture to come over to help move labor along. I also saw A BUNCH of texts on my phone from friends + family asking how I was doing + if baby was here… lol… since I had texted everyone at 730pm the night before + everyone assumed the baby would arrive in the morning. Next time: *Tell people to NOT text me [or I just wont text anyone lol]. Thankfully I didn’t think too much about it because my mind was already super “in the zone” + singularly focused on one thing: get. this. baby. out.

To Be Continued…

xoxo, Elisabeth