423 Blair's Home Birth Story: An Unmedicated Home Birth at Nine Days Past My Due Date

Quick summary

Host Kelsey Reidl shares the home birth story of her daughter, Blair Elizabeth, born at 5:13 AM on September 3rd, nine days past her due date. Labour started at midnight after a tornado-warning storm knocked out the midwives' pagers. Five hours later, Blair arrived in the family's basement while big brother Freddy slept upstairs.

• Why Kelsey shares personal stories on a business podcast
• Scripting a "dream birth" and the books she read to prepare
• Being "overdue" and trusting your baby's timeline
• A stretch and sweep at zero centimetres, then a tornado warning that same night
• Waking at 12:01 AM with contractions already two to three minutes apart
• Setting up a rented birth pool, and why you should practise first
• How the storm took out the midwives' pagers, and how Dave reached them
• Going from zero to seven or eight centimetres in one day
• The unexpected grief of closing the family-of-three chapter
• Learning to trust her midwife, and following her intuition throughout labour
• "It's a girl": four pushes, side-lying, and naming Blair
• A 5:13 AM birth time that felt like a sign from her late mom
• Freddy waking up a big brother, and life as a family of four

1. Trust your body's timeline. Going past a due date is common. Kelsey used the extra days as bonus time with her family of three.
2. Hope for a birth, but don't grip it. Script your dream birth, then stay open, because you can plan but you have to be ready to pivot.
3. Prepare your gear early. Inflate and test a birth pool before labour starts. Filling and heating it takes a long time.
4. Build a team you trust. Confidence in her midwife grew late in pregnancy, and it made all the difference when it mattered.
5. Follow your intuition. Pool or bed, home or hospital: Kelsey's advice is to tune into your gut rather than what you think you're supposed to do.

• "The strongest faith in my body that I've ever held was exactly what I had in that moment."
• "Every story is unique, and every story deserves to be celebrated."
• "Detaching from the outcome while enjoying the journey is truly the most important thing."

• Kelsey’s Instagram: @kelseyreidl
• Kelsey’s Website: www.KelseyReidl.com
• Freddy's birth story episode: https://podcast.show/visionarylife/319-from-diapers-to-podcasting-my-life-as-a-new-mama-in-season-13/
• Episode 422: We Are Moving
• Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
• Birthing Better
• Hypnobirthing course (taken during her first pregnancy)
• The Doula Tree, Norfolk County, which rented Kelsey her birth pool
• A "dream birth" scripting PDF guide

Kelsey Reidl is an entrepreneur, fractional CMO, and host of Rain or Shine (formerly Visionary Life). She's been podcasting for 8 years, helping entrepreneurs show up consistently and build sustainable businesses. She runs the Wave Mastermind and specializes in marketing strategy, website design, and business growth. Kelsey is a mom to a 2-year-old, an avid mountain biker, and a firm believer in the "rain or shine" mentality.