First for home births

By Angela Thompson
Updated November 5 2012 - 9:26pm, first published July 17 2009 - 11:37am
The Illawarra's first publicly funded home birth meant a peaceful arrival in a Coledale cottage for baby Rueben, with midwife Ceri Thomson, mum Claire and midwife Christina Spence. Picture: GREG TOTMAN
The Illawarra's first publicly funded home birth meant a peaceful arrival in a Coledale cottage for baby Rueben, with midwife Ceri Thomson, mum Claire and midwife Christina Spence. Picture: GREG TOTMAN

Baby Rueben won't remember his arrival into the world, but he won't have to go far to see where his life began.The region's first publicly funded home birth went off in the still of a crisp Coledale dawn on Thursday, a world away from stark white hospital wards.After a three-and-a-half hour labour, mum Claire was able to nurse her new baby at 7.03am with a bush soundtrack playing in the background."Everything could just happen on its own, there was no rush to clear out a room," Claire said."I came into the lounge room and gave birth on the floor in front of the fire, at dawn with the kookaburras in the background. "It had a real sense of the sacred. I just have a feeling that that's very close to how it's meant to be. To be surrounded by women who are very present and just let nature take its course."Claire is among a small percentage of women whose pregnancies are considered sufficiently low risk to qualify for the new home-birth service, which is only available to women accepted into the popular Midwifery Group Practice program.Being at home meant no pain relief and ample supplies of hot water.The pregnancy was closely monitored from beginning to end by program midwives Ceri Thomson and Christina Spence, who were Claire's midwives when she gave birth to her first child 31/2 years ago.The first home birth had heralded much excitement at midwifery group HQ, Mrs Spence said."We haven't invented the wheel, but we feel like it wasn't far off," she said. "We're looking forward to many more."Ms Thomson said the experience was the highlight of her career."It was an absolute privilege. We'll never forget this."The Midwifery Group Practice, where the same midwives work with expectant mums before, during and after birth, is made up of nine midwives whose intake is supposed to be capped at 40 clients at a time.The program is booked out for births until March 2010.

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