57 Meet Brook Machin: She switched to a homebirth after planning a hospital birth due to COVID

In late 2019 when Brook found out she was pregnant, she had to decide where to birth since her trusted birthing center had closed. Little did she know that the coronavirus was about to impact this decision. Brook chose a hospital birth with her favorite midwives and hired a doula. As the pandemic spread, Brook made the secret decision with her husband to switch to a home birth. She received parallel care throughout her pregnancy with both the hospital and homebirth midwives.

About a week before the birth, Brook experienced classic prodromal labor that would start every night and last until about 2 am before she would be able to go back to sleep. On the day of labor, she knew it was different when she couldn’t go back to sleep and she had a bowel movement at 3 am.

Brook had a long labor for a second baby laboring all through the night and the next day. After she put her older son to bed that evening surges increased to 4-5 minutes apart. Her midwife described her tension ring when she got to 5-6 cm dilated and she was holding on to her previous birth experience. Brook had to let go.

Brook labored in and out of the tub and her water was still intact just before pushing. She pushed for almost 4 hours before her son was born at 1:23 am. Her midwife and doula gave her permission to let go and get primal and roar her baby out. And that is exactly what she did. Brook achieved a beautiful homebirth despite the pandemic in the comfort of her own home surrounded by her family and support team.

Her favorite baby product is the Hatch Light which is a sound machine and a phase to wake clock.