Deck the Halls for Holiday Home Births Part III

Miquela Skinner’s parents travelled from their home in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Ottawa for the birth of their first grandchild. Her mother arrived first and her father flew in on December 19, 2013, the day before his granddaughter was born and the day before Ottawa received more than 10 centimetres of snow.

The baby was born a few days earlier than expected and Miquela and her family joke that she waited for her grandfather to arrive before she made her appearance.

The first-time grandfather was nervous about the idea of a home birth, but when Miquela shared the research evidence about the safety of home birth with him it helped calm some of his fears. Even so, when Miquela was upstairs in labour with her husband and mother, her father was downstairs praying and texting his son, who was travelling from Montreal, and relatives in Hamilton. His wife left the bedroom regularly to give him updates.

Since the safe arrival of baby Inika, her grandfather has been a vocal advocate of midwives and home births.

“For him to be able to come into our bedroom two minutes after the baby was born when she was lying on my chest and still be part of that moment, even though he wasn’t right there for the birth. That’s something he’ll never forget,” says Miquela.

Miquela’s brother arrived from Montreal just after the birth and someone went out to get chicken and French fries. The family ate dinner on the bed with their midwife.

“After the midwife left we all just sat around on the big bed together and slowly, but surely everybody fell asleep, exhausted,” remembers Miquela.

Miquela says not having to leave the house and not needing to take her new baby out in the cold and put her in a car seat were among the best things about having a home birth. The midwife came to the house to check on Miquela and Inika the next day and also visited three and five days after the birth. During one assessment, the midwife talked to the parents about the possibility that little Inika had a tongue tie. This was later confirmed by a lactation consultant and the tongue tie and a lip tie were corrected by a dentist. Breastfeeding improved immediately and Miquela breastfed Inika until she was 18 months old.

“To me the most amazing part of having a midwife is that you get to have her come to you when you’re postpartum and dealing with all the emotions of that and the healing and you don’t have to go anywhere. Your midwife can see you breastfeeding when you’re in the comfort of your home and not in a stressful, difficult environment. That was so helpful,” says Skinner.

Baby Inika didn’t leave her parents’ bedroom for the first 48 hours of her life and didn’t go outside into the Ottawa cold until a week after her birth, when her parents took her on a quick outing to Starbucks.

Inika’s paternal grandmother arrived the day after the birth (they didn’t want her to drive through the snowstorm in the middle of the night) and the proud family enjoyed talking about the amazing experience they’d shared.

“We spent so much time sitting around the living room telling the story over and over and over again. It all seemed so surreal. Now every time we come back to the holiday season, it’s her birthday and everybody remembers that magical night,” says Miquela.