In this episode, Brooklynite Lindsey shares all about her home birth experience with midwives. Lindsey walks through her decision-making process, from being inspired by a doula friend in LA to navigating a long, multi-day labor that nearly ended in a hospital transfer. She shares candid details about the surprise of welcoming a baby girl after months of "boy energy," and the mostly peaceful postpartum period that followed. She also opens up about breastfeeding support, postpartum care, and the very cool bond that formed between her newborn and the family dog.
Written Birth Story (Shared with Lyndsey's Permission):
Pregnancy and Deciding on Home Birth
I found out I was pregnant in August 2024. After talking to my friend Sam, a doula in LA who has worked in both hospital and home birth settings, I decided to pursue a home birth. Sam’s insights into birth made me realize the importance of having a supportive and values-aligned team. I had never considered an unmedicated birth before, but hearing about the risks of working with a misaligned team opened my eyes to the power of choosing the right people to support you during birth. I would describe myself as an experience junkie. I've always been someone who values the journey as much (or more) than the destination, and so the idea of being able to embrace the birth experience for all that it is vs. numbing myself through it just to get to the baby at the end, was very appealing to me.
I decided to work with Chloe and Jenna at Cosmos Midwifery. I loved their energy and the fact that there were two of them in the practice, so I'd definitely know the person delivering my baby. I also hired a doula (and meditation teacher) named Lou Read and her energy was also a great fit. I also loved that she had had her own home birth for her son the prior year so she could relate even more.
Pregnancy was fairly uneventful and I felt pretty good the whole time. I was lucky to not get major morning sickness and I was exercising pretty much the entire pregnancy. As I approached the 40th week, I started slowing down and began focusing on self-care—treating myself to acupuncture, massages, and long walks to help prepare my body. As a side note, I feel really great about all of the practitioners I worked with throughout the pregnancy - all of them were women with amazing, supportive energy and I really think that choosing the right people majorly contributed to a positive overall experience. I joke that I had this team of witches around me - it felt like the biggest life hack compared to the highly medicalized experiences of my other friends.
Labor
On April 8th (3 days after my due date), I had a few cramps that slowly intensified. By the night of April 9th, I was sure labor was starting, but it still didn’t fully progress. On the morning of April 10th, my contractions became more regular and painful, so we called the doula and midwives. My husband Kendall was eager for them to arrive, but in retrospect, we definitely called them too early.
Chloe arrived that evening to check in on me. She offered to check my dilation, and although I was curious, I didn’t want to know if I hadn’t made good progress. She told me I was about three-quarters of the way there, but when she shared this with me, I assumed she was lying and that I was only about halfway dilated. In retrospect, she told me I was actually six centimeters.
Labor continued throughout the night, and by early morning on April 11th, the contractions intensified. Chloe suggested I try resting, so by 5AM, Kendall and I attempted to sleep for a few hours, but I couldn’t get comfortable due to the pain. At this point I was extremely exhausted and doubting myself. Labor had been going for days and now it was slowing down - I wasn't even confident I'd have the baby on the 11th. Chloe recommended an IV to help me regain some strength and as I sat in the living room on Friday morning, I chuckled seeing the IV bag hanging from a plant in my apartment. We also brought in Stephanie, the acupuncturist and Chinese Medicine practitioner I had been working with. She performed acupressure, acupuncture and used herbs to keep things moving. Despite the very mentally challenging labor, I have a very one memory of that morning with all of my witches puttering around the apartment, brewing herbs, giving me counter-pressure, administering needles. It felt like how birth was supposed to be.
Later that morning, Chloe and Lou left for a while to give us space, which was disheartening but also necessary. We needed a reset. As soon as they left, things started picking up again and I intuitively started laboring on the toilet. It was the place I could be most comfortable - completely relaxes and in a small dark space. Kendall sat with me there for a few more hours and things really started speeding up. Chloe returned and checked me once more. Despite feeling the urge to push, I wasn’t fully dilated yet. At this point, Chloe accidentally ruptured my waters, and things started to move quickly after that.
Finally, I got into the birth pool (which had been inflated and filled since the night prior), but the baby’s heartbeat was dropping with each contraction. I pushed a few contractions in the pool but then Chloe urgently got me out of the pool and indicated that she thought it would be safer if we transfer to the hospital, which would likely involve a vacuum delivery or possibly even a c-section.
At that moment, I was open to whatever it took to bring my baby safely into the world. Somehow I mobilized and started gathering my things to move to the hospital. Kendall was visibly stressed, but I was just ready for it to be over. But then, just before we left, Chloe checked me again and realized things were progressing and the baby was tolerating contractions out of the water enough to try pushing at home one last time.
I could feel the baby’s head coming down, and at that point, there was no way I was leaving for the hospital with my baby so close to being born. I pushed on my side in the living room, and after what felt like an eternity, my baby was born. At 7:09 PM on April 11th, Callan Eden Dabaghi arrived—healthy and perfect. The best surprise was that she was a girl - we had been convinced from the beginning that it was going to be a boy. It was the best culmination of the marathon labor.
Afterwards
One of the best parts of the midwifery model is the immediate postpartum care. I immediately got skin to skin with my baby on my living room floor and she latched pretty quickly. The midwives tended to my very minor tear and then they gave us a tour of the placenta. They showed us where Callan had been living for 9 months. They did the baby exam, gave basic instructions for caring for a newborn and then moved us into the bedroom, where we ate dinner prepared by my doula and cuddled up with Callan for our first night of co-sleeping. We didn't leave the house for 7 days after that and it was the most blissful week of our lives :)
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