Lucia’s Two Special Home Births
I’d love to share my two home birth stories with you…
I come from South America, where home birth is quite rare and C-sections are very common. Now I live in Queenstown, where we only have a maternity unit, not a full hospital. That means no epidurals, and if anything goes wrong, you’re transferred by helicopter to Invercargill or Dunedin. Your partner has to drive, which means they could miss the birth. Because of this, many mums choose to head to Invercargill as soon as labour begins.
After hearing some scary stories, I initially planned to have my first baby in Invercargill. I booked a house months in advance and even arranged a midwife there.
But everything changed about a month before my due date. I met a doula while getting a pregnancy massage, and she shared so much knowledge and confidence with me. At first, I decided to stay local and give birth at the Queenstown maternity unit—but as the days went by, I felt more and more certain that I could have a home birth.
And that’s exactly what happened.
In January 2023, I had the most incredible home birth experience. Labour was fast and intense—just four hours in total. We barely had time to fill the pool halfway! My doula was amazing, helping with massage and keeping me calm while we waited for the midwife to arrive.
Two years later, we welcomed our second baby… and once again, he chose his own timing.
After a long afternoon and night without power, when everything finally went back to normal, we told him he could come whenever he wanted—and he took that very seriously.
At 2:30 a.m., contractions began out of nowhere. I tried to keep sleeping, but they quickly intensified. A strong kick made me jump out of bed and start preparing everything for his arrival.
I used heat to cope with the pain while setting up the living room—the birth pool, the postpartum space, everything ready. In between contractions, I rested on the ball and timed them. Just as Elena woke up, the app told me it was time to go to the hospital… but I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
I tried to settle her back to sleep, but my nerves had taken over. I woke Bruno with a shout and asked him to get her down and get ready—our baby was on his way.
I called the doula and midwife around 4 a.m., then got into the shower, searching for some relief while waiting for them to arrive.
Everything happened so quickly. While Bruno was filling the pool, I stayed under the hot water, breathing through each contraction, trying to remember what had helped me the first time.
The midwives arrived just in time—only 15 minutes before I started pushing. My waters broke right there in the shower, and I couldn’t stand anymore. I crawled out and refused to move to the pool—I was having him right there and then.
A few minutes later, Balta was born on December 6th, 2025, at 5:03 a.m.
Another fast, intense, and incredibly empowering home birth ✨
Lucia
