Whenever I shared that I did a home birth, I always get asked to share more. So here’s the most local, unfiltered story on how a pair of first time parents put together a home water birth. We’re just regular people but we decide to birth and parent in a way that’s unusual, yet the most authentic and wild. I don’t believe that being a first time mama means that you know nothing. This angers me as it undermines the parents who bothered to get educated. I want you, even as first time parents to trust that you have all the wisdom in you your body knows how to birth.
Trust your body, trust your baby, trust the process.
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November 2022 to August 2023
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I remember reading about some articles where they had water births. I was intrigued and it was unlike anything I’ve seen or heard about births. It looks totally calm and cosy, an experience that I would love to have should I have a kid. This was many years prior to conception of Leo. That was years before I was ready for a child.
When pregnancy comes, I looked into water birth again. I heard from others that only Thomson Medical (TMC) and National University Hospital (NUH) has them but NUH stopped providing water birth facilities during COVID. I then search for a Pro Natural gynae and got myself an appointment with Dr Paul Tseng. That was in 2021. TW: pregnancy loss.
When the 2nd pregnancy came on End Nov 2022, I know I still want a water birth. I contacted Ginny Phang of Fourth Trimester about having her as my Doula and to my shock she was on a long maternity leave. It was a shock to me as for the past many years, she’s the only doula that I heard of. It was also then that I know that I no longer have a birth center option. It was scary, but it has to be an home birth. No other way around it.
I grapple with working through myself to fully acknowledge that it has now turned into a home birth and also started to look for other doulas that will support me. I started on a hunt to get all the information about home birth so that I can feel safe to birth at home. Surprisingly, despite the first pregnancy loss, I was very confident that this is a healthy pregnancy. I think I can credit this to the Wholy Mama course that I took, which touch on the Spirit Babies book and it’s meditations. The initial meditation that I did that connects me to Leo was very assuring.
Through my search, I got to a discovery appointment with Gem & Alexia from Wonder Birth. They were very forthcoming and are totally excited when I talked about wanting to have a home birth. I knew they were the right people to partner with when Gem is very open and transparent when we asked about how many home births she has attended. I love their vibe, and of course I love that they’re the top few doulas that Dr Lai works with. Gem has since open her own company, Maia House, which also serve as another birthing center option in Singapore. 🎉
Somewhere along the line, I also found my birth photographer. It also came from reading up on others’ home birth and then I realised that there’s only ONE birth photographer is Singapore, and that’s Keidi from theunisonphoto. My stand is, if we spend so much time and effort on wedding photography, birth photography is also a must. That was why I included photography into my must have item too. I’m so glad that I always have these photographs to remind me how powerful I am in birth.
At the end of the day, I knew that I need to choose my birth team wisely. I am not one that stands up to authority so I needed to ensure that whoever’s attending my birth works well together and is in sync with my vision. Which is why I’m very happy that my doula team and Keidi are familiar with each other.
Accumulating knowledge about various parts of pregnancy & birth were also an important aspect of preparation for me. While I cannot tell you how many podcast episodes I’ve listen to, positive birth stories that I’ve seen on Instagram, but I can share with you some of these resources that has helped me to stay rooted in my decision to have an unmedicated home birth. I absorb these information like a sponge, and these has since became knowledge that I can tapped on to come back to whenever the situation calls for.