Deck the Halls for Holiday Home Births Part II

Kelly Budarick had finished baking chocolate crinkle cookies in her Kingston home when she went into labour on December 16, 2014. She and her husband, Milo, had done a dry run with their birthing pool the day before, but since she wasn’t due until December 18 and it was her first child, she thought the baby would arrive at New Year’s.

When the midwife arrived, she helped Milo fill the pool with water and during the contractions Kelly and Milo walked around the pool, hand in hand. At 7:40 p.m. Kelly’s second midwife and her photographer arrived and she was ready to get into the pool to push.

Their baby girl was born in the caul (when the infant is born inside the entire amniotic sac), which occurs in less than one in 80,000 births and is considered a sign of good luck. Milo cut the umbilical cord and within minutes the couple was snuggling with their new baby in their own bed.

The midwives continued working (assessing mom and baby and showing Kelly how to latch her), the photographer was taking pictures, and Kelly and Milo were getting to know their new baby.

“It’s really just us, stunned, that this baby is here who was born on her grandma’s birthday. We’re just in bed cuddling skin-to-skin with this baby girl we named Poppy,” says Kelly.

Later the couple skyped Milo’s mom who lives in Trinidad, and was celebrating her birthday, a birthday she now shares with her new granddaughter.

When the midwives came to see Kelly the next day, they noticed that the baby wasn’t latching properly and helped correct the technique. Within three days, Poppy had regained her birth weight. Kelly is still breastfeeding Poppy and says the midwives set her up for success.

On Christmas Day, Kelly and Milo took nine-day old Poppy to her great grandparents’ house for dinner, thankful that she could spend her first Christmas with them. Three months later, the couple, who work for the Canadian military, found out that they were being posted to Winnipeg.

Kelly says the day Poppy was born was the best day of her life.

“It was the most beautiful, peaceful experience. We’re excited to share it (their birth story) with anyone who will listen because we feel really fortunate to have had such a calm, relaxing home birth. The midwives were amazing. They truly let you have the birth you want,” says Kelly.