Caroline birthed her first baby at home as part of the midwifery group practice (MGP) homebirth program at the Mercy Hospital for Women , which was introduced in October 2024.
We welcomed our baby girl, April, into the world six days early (at 39 + 2) via a powerful and transformative home water birth through the new MGP Mercy Women’s program.
She was born at 8:15 am, right in our living room.
It was the hardest, most intense, and most rewarding experience of my life—and I’ve never felt more powerful as a woman.
Labour lasted around nine hours, but I’d been having a week of false starts and intense Braxton Hicks beforehand, which was such a mental game!
On Friday night, I was lying on the couch with my husband and our dog, still in denial that I was actually in established labour. I told him to go to bed and get some rest while I paced around with the TENS machine, thinking it would all fizzle out again—but by 11:30 pm, the surges were intensifying.
Later, when we debriefed, my husband described it as “spinning plates”—he was trying to tend to me, fill the birth pool, and run around the house like a madman. He said it felt like trying to care for a toddler in labour!
By 12:30 am we called our doula, and I got into a hot bath to work through the contractions, which were around 45 seconds long and a few minutes apart. Around 3 am our doula arrived and tried calling my primary midwife at Mercy who I told was rostered on that weekend —no answer… Then she called the backup midwife—also no answer (!). This is all on speakerphone while I’m labouring, mind you. Eventually, the call diverted to the hospital, and someone answered. My doula said, “I have Caroline Miller, she’s in established labour and needs her midwife to come over.” The hospital staff replied, “Caroline who?” – Tell her to come into the birth suite now,” and I just yelled into the phone in between vomiting, “I’m having a FUCKING HOMEBIRTH!!” That got the message across. They replied, “Ok we are sending the midwives out now”.
From that point on, my husband, doula, and I worked through contractions like a superpowered trio. By 4:30 am, we were still waiting for the midwife to arrive but I couldn’t wait and I got into the pool—which my husband had only just managed to fill less than a minute before!
Midwife Rose arrived first—I’d never met her before, but she had 35 years of experience and instantly put me at ease. I laboured in the pool for just under four hours, with my husband jumping in for the final two. He worked through acupressure points with me, which was a game-changer.
The second midwife arrived just 15 minutes before her head crowned—my husband had to jump out of the pool in his watermelon swimmers to answer the door.
Second stage of labour took everyone by surprise as it was only 15 minutes of pushing!
Eventually, I felt April move down, and I pushed and lifted her straight up into my arms to everyone’s surprise, especially my husband! I just cried out, “I did it. I can’t believe I did it.”
One of the most magical moments was lying on the couch in our living room, holding my daughter as she latched for the first time, while my husband made pancakes for all of us. Absolute bliss.
I’m so incredibly grateful I got the birth I wanted—even though I did ask for the epidural about a thousand times. But I was too far along to get out of the pool for an exam, and when the midwife quietly asked my husband if I really wanted it, he just said, “No, just ignore her”.
Tools I used to work through the surges:
What made you choose a homebirth?
My intention for my birth and labour was to change the narrative for my daughter—how she will perceive birth when it might come her turn—and to highlight the power and beauty that come with being a woman. I wanted her to trust in herself and know she is more powerful than she realises. If her mum could show that courage, and a father who supported her fully then I hoped it would set a positive example for her future. I also wanted to give birth in a setting and around people I felt most comfortable and at ease with. Hospitals can feel very impersonal, especially during an event where you are feeling raw and vulnerable, and I wanted to enter motherhood with all my instincts intact.
It also helped that during my pregnancy, my husband and I had been through some smaller home renovations, pouring love into making our wee space ours and suitable for a baby. This created a strong connection to our home and helped us build meaningful memories in the process.
Did you feel supported by those around you in your intentions? What about the wider culture – did you have negative or positive feedback about your plan for your birth?
The best decision I made was finding a doula from the outset. I chose Emilie Darlison from Eden Births, and she completely transformed how my husband and I viewed birth. Since we don’t have family in Melbourne, I didn’t want to burden my husband emotionally, and having a doula provided us both with the support and continuity we needed to support our decision to birth at home. My husband was incredibly supportive from day one. When the new home birth MGP model of care was offered to us at the Mercy, we went away and did our research together on low-risk pregnancies. It also helped that we live just 10 minutes from the hospital, should anything go wrong. My husband is my biggest supporter; a lot of people compare birth to a marathon but because we’re cyclists, he likened birth to one of our all-day bike rides. He’s a great coach—always pushing and encouraging me to go beyond my limits—so I knew he was mentally prepared to see me uncomfortable and hold space for me to work through it. His confidence in me, gave me further confidence in myself.
Says Caroline’s partner: “I was a bit hesitant at first – a homebirth sounds risky, what if something went wrong? Also – isn’t homebirths only what ‘spiritual’ people do? We initially looked at the MGP homebirth program as an opportunity to have a dedicated midwife for continuity of care, however the more we researched homebirths the more we realised this was a preferred option. We had finished some renovations in our place – particularly a garden that wraps around most of the property, including a fern garden directly outside our living room (where the homebirth would take place). Having a homebirth in a comfortable and familiar setting would lower stress for Caroline and result in an easier, more natural birth. This is exactly what happened.”
For any first-time mum choosing a homebirth: It’s hard but absolutely worth it.
April is such a happy and healthy bub and I strongly believe it was her entry into this world that has made my postpartum experience full of endless bliss.
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