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

Oct 28

Blair's Home Birth Story: A Tornado Warning, Failed Pagers and a Baby Born Before Sunrise

Episode 423: Rain or Shine Podcast
Host: Kelsey Reidl, The Rain or Shine Podcast

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.

In This Episode:

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

Key Takeaways:

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.
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.
Prepare your gear early. Inflate and test a birth pool before labour starts. Filling and heating it takes a long time.
Build a team you trust. Confidence in her midwife grew late in pregnancy, and it made all the difference when it mattered.
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.

Memorable Quotes:

"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."

Resources Mentioned:

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

About the Guest

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.

Kelsey: Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the show. This is an episode I've been wanting to record for many years, because we've been praying for this baby for quite a while. After going through a miscarriage and not knowing when we would conceive our second child, I just didn't know. Will I ever be recording this podcast? What will the story look like? Will it be similar to Freddy's, or different?
So I'm so grateful to be here at the end of September 2026, recording the home birth story of our second baby. And it's a baby girl, which is so exciting.
I did a full birth story of how Freddy was born. It was an adventurous, wild night, Christmas Eve into Christmas Day back in 2023, which is hard to believe. I'm so happy I recorded it while it was fresh in those first few weeks, because I love listening back to it.
I'm also someone who loves watching birth videos on YouTube and listening to birth podcasts, especially when I was hitting my due date. They were so inspiring to me. As weird as it might be to record a birth story, I know it's personal, and I'll leave out any detail I don't feel comfortable sharing.
But I've always believed in sharing it forward and being open, to a degree, about what's going on. My brand is more than marketing and strategy. It's also my life and who I am as a person, a mother, an athlete and a friend. I'm someone who sometimes makes different decisions, or just follows my own curiosity and wants to share that forward. Perhaps the world would be a better place if we all let our authentic expression flow freely through us. So I'll do my best to share this in a way that feels right for me, with as many details as I can.
Of course, this episode isn't for everyone. It's not an interview with a Canadian entrepreneur, which is the typical content here on Rain or Shine. But I'm on maternity leave, taking a couple of months off, and I'm excited to create content through the lens of motherhood and the changes we're going through as a family: moving homes, changing careers and navigating life as a family of four.
So this is the episode where I want to share a few thoughts about my birth experience, and about trusting that your body will eventually give birth. Because when you're overdue, you get a million texts saying, "You still pregnant with that baby?" And that can be a little wild.
Scripting my dream birth
First, something a little woo-woo. You know I sometimes go into that realm. Before giving birth to Blair, our baby girl who's three weeks old now, I downloaded a PDF guidebook where you script out your dream birth experience.
I kind of knew my dream birth already, because I'd done this with Freddy. I took a hypnobirthing course when I was pregnant with him and planned a home birth, so I had a lot of visions swirling around my brain. We didn't know whether this baby would be a boy or a girl, but preparing for her arrival, I got back into that whole world of preparing for a natural birth.
I watched home birth vlogs. I got a couple of the classic guidebooks to natural, unmedicated birth from the library, like Birthing Better. I read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, which is amazing if you haven't read it. I think that's what it's called, anyway. I'll have to triple-check. I really immersed myself in it.
When I mapped out my dream birth, I knew you can't plan any of this. But you can hope and wish for it a certain way, and I really wanted a successful home birth, because with Freddy I had to transfer to the hospital right before I was about to push.
I also wanted the same moodiness as Freddy's labour. By the time I went into labour with him, it was dark outside, cold, dreary and foggy. It was Christmas Eve, and it felt like the world had shut down. There were no cars on the road. Everyone was at family dinners, and by 11 PM most people were in bed with the lights off. He was born by 2 AM.
So I started labour in the dark and birthed him in the dark, and the world felt quiet. I remember that morning, Christmas morning, nobody on the road, foggy outside, and it felt like there was nowhere I was supposed to be but inside, cuddling a baby.
So when I was manifesting my second birth, I thought, "I want the same thing. I want to go into labour when it's dark and have the baby before it gets light outside." I realize that's very specific, but that's what I wanted. I also said it would be a blessing if the weather was bad. With Freddy's late-December due date, I knew the weather would be crappy. But with an end-of-August due date, if it's bright and sunny, it feels kind of weird to be inside. Maybe that's just my thought process. But I wanted bad weather, with everybody inside, sheltering.
Nine days "overdue"
So let me rewind. August 25th was my due date. August 27th is what I think my actual due date was, based on conception. Remember that the dating ultrasound is a best guess, and some of you might know your exact due date based on conception.
I hit nine days overdue, which in my head was only seven. But you go by what they tell you. And the word "overdue" really kills me, because it's so normal not to go into labour on your due date. So to be "overdue," quote unquote, it's almost like you've done something wrong.
People start to get worried. You can almost lose trust in the baby's timeline because the world is putting pressure on you. That can be a lot when you're getting texts like, "Hey, how are you doing?" and "Now you need to come in for more appointments," and "What are you going to do? Are you going to get induced? What happens if...?" And, "Oh my gosh, aren't you so uncomfortable? Can't you wait until this baby comes out?"
And yes, maybe 1% of me felt that way. But I have a deep trust and reverence for the woman's body, for how we can grow a baby. Of course it knows when it's ready to come out. We don't need to force it.
When you look at the risk of being seven or 10 days overdue, it's very, very low. Anyway, do your own research. I did mine. Being overdue is not for the faint of heart. But because I was seven days over with Freddy, I knew in my heart of hearts everything would work out and no intervention would be needed.
By the time I was a week overdue, I reminded myself every day that this was bonus time. I got to do so many extra adventures with Freddy as a family of three. We soaked it in. We did big mountain bike rides. We went on hikes every day. Dave and I went canoeing down the river the day after my due date. We went on lots of coffee dates and took Freddy to parks. We just made memories as a family of three.
The storm
At nine days overdue, it was a Wednesday night, September 2nd. We were going to go to opening night of the local fair. On the way home from picking Freddy up at daycare, we were hanging out with friends, and all of a sudden we started getting crazy alerts on our phones: storm warning, tornado warning, shelter, shelter, shelter.
Everyone was like, "Whoa, where did this come from?" People were checking cameras at their cottages about an hour away, where the storm had already hit. It was starting to seem like a serious tornado threat, not just "Hey, there's some bad weather coming." That was around 4:35 PM.
That morning, I'd had a stretch and sweep at the midwife. If you don't know what that is, it's a way to try to get your cervix to start pulling back a little. She said, "Based on what I felt, you're not ready to go into labour yet. I've been wrong before and I could be wrong again. But honestly, you're zero centimetres dilated. It doesn't seem like your body's ready."
I heard that and thought, "All right. No problem." Dave and I went out for coffee, chatted with a really lovely lady and had an enjoyable day. Then we biked to pick up Freddy. I remember waving at a friend and saying, "I'm still pregnant." We stopped at a friend's place on the way home, planning to go to the fair around 6 PM.
We got home for dinner before the fair, and the tornado warnings kept rolling in. Then a massive storm came. It was pouring rain, and the weather took a turn for the worse. So we said, "Okay, I guess we're not going to the fair." We sat on our front porch with Freddy and watched the storm. He was enamoured with it. I was feeling a little crampy, but nothing crazy.
When the storm was over, we went for a quick drive, because so many tree branches had come down. We circled the neighbourhood and saw a huge tree down, with the fire crew already there helping. Our friends were there too, so we stopped and chatted. Freddy loves watching fire trucks and big trees. That's when I started to feel a bit more crampy and achy and uncomfortable, but not to the point where I thought I was in labour.
We got home around 8 or 8:30, and I told Dave, "I think I'm going to have a bath. I'm not feeling the best." He was watching the Blue Jays game, and Freddy wanted to come in the bath with me. We had an hour-long bath together. I was still a bit crampy, but nothing I was worried about.
We finished our bath and put Freddy to bed, and I told Dave, "I think I'm just going to go to bed, too." I watched a show and went to sleep. I think I'd taken two Tylenol, because I thought, "Just get rid of these cramps, please."
12:01 AM
At 12:01 on the dot, I woke up to a pain that was more intense, closer to real contractions, if I remembered Freddy's right. It felt different from the Braxton Hicks I'd been having all week, and stronger than period cramps. My body just jolted awake. It was now a minute into September 3rd.
I lay in bed for about 20 minutes. I turned the light on, started assessing what was happening and timing these weird pains. I think I knew deep down: this is happening.
Dave was sleeping downstairs to give me some space, because when you're that overdue, you need the bed to yourself. So I went downstairs and woke him up. I knew he'd just gone to bed, because I'd heard him around 11:30. He immediately jumped up and started prepping the house.
I got into our bathtub in the basement. Our whole plan was to have a home birth and deliver the baby in the basement. I got in the tub with my phone and started timing contractions. Within the first half hour, they were already coming every two to three minutes.
I really sank into the experience. I was in the dark, eyes closed, allowing every contraction to dilate me. I breathed, I hummed, I moaned, and I let everything release. It was a crazy first hour because things progressed so quickly. I basically started labour with contractions three minutes apart, which is wild.
The birth pool
Dave was setting up the birth pool I'd rented. Shout out to The Doula Tree in Norfolk County, who rented it to me. I didn't have one with Freddy, so this was my first time trying a birth pool. We'd practised blowing it up and had to get special nozzles to hook it up to the washing machine to fill it. Thank goodness we practised once, because it was still chaotic.
I'd highly recommend that if you're doing a birth pool, blow it up before you think you'll go into labour, so it's done. The electric pump is loud. It takes a long time to fill and a long time to heat. Thankfully we have a bath in our basement bathroom, so I laboured there. It's a big bath, but it feels small when you're trying to spread out.
All this time, Freddy was asleep upstairs. He'd gone to bed at nine, and I went into labour at midnight. Once the house was ready, Dave set up the room and the birth pool and supported me with coconut water and apple juice. I think I ate a CLIF Bar in the first hour or two.
Then he started timing contractions with me. They were about two to three minutes apart, and I said, "Oh my gosh, we do need to call the midwife." I didn't want to call too soon, but by the time we decided together, it was probably too late.
When the pagers went down
This is where the story gets interesting. Remember, this was the night of a crazy storm, probably the craziest we've had in five years. There were actual tornadoes in the area.
Dave calls the midwife office. They operate on pagers, and by now it's 2 or 2:30 AM. The message says they'll call back within 10 minutes. He waits 10 minutes. No call. He pages again and leaves a message. No call. He calls a third time. No call back.
After about 35 minutes, he finally gets a call from our backup midwife team, who asked, "Why are you calling us? You're supposed to call your primary midwife." He said, "I've paged them numerous times, and she's not calling me back. What do we do?"
They didn't really understand what was happening, but the backup midwife called my midwife's personal number in the middle of the night, and luckily she picked up. It turned out their pagers had gone out. For the first time in the practice's history, the pagers weren't receiving calls, because of some interruption from the storm.
Dave didn't tell me what was going on. I kept asking, "Do you have an update? Do you have an update?" He was paging with no response, and he didn't want to worry me. Thankfully, the backup midwife reached our midwife, and she only lives about 20 minutes away, so she was there by about 2:30 AM.
I'd also called my sister by then. She was always going to be part of my birth team. She's busy, so I didn't know if it would work out. Would it fall on one of my nieces' birthdays, which are both around then? The first day of school? They were going camping for a night. But I called her around 2:30, she picked up right away and said, "I'll be right there." She lives about 40 minutes away.
So by 3 or 3:30 AM, the whole birth team was there. I was labouring well. It was dark. Freddy was still asleep. I was coping pretty well with the pain, with no pain medication, no laughing gas and no TENS machine.
I did have laughing gas with Freddy, but I think midwives haven't been able to use it for the last couple of years, so it wasn't an option. I'd rented a TENS machine but didn't even want to use it. The bathtub was the most helpful. I'd cover my head, plug my ears and hum through each contraction. That was how I coped.
Seven centimetres
I was progressing fast. Once my midwife was there, I asked her to check my dilation. Sometimes they don't want to interfere, or tell you you're only two centimetres and discourage you. But she said if I wanted to know, we could check.
I moved from the bath to the bed, and she found I was already seven or eight centimetres dilated. That was shocking, since I'd been at zero that day. Right after, I got back in the bathtub. The birth pool was still heating, so my sister and Dave were boiling kettles and pots on the stove to fill it while I laboured.
With every contraction, one of them was by my side. It was so helpful to have my sister there as a backup person. Once the birth pool was warm enough, I got in, and honestly, it was amazing. I had so much room to move and change positions. That was a game changer compared to the bathtub. The warm water helped so, so much.
I was only in the pool for about half an hour. My sister and Dave took turns holding my hands and doing hip squeezes, supporting me through each contraction. If you know, you know: sometimes it's nice to just grab onto someone so tight.
The contractions were getting closer and starting to merge. That's when you know you're in transition: one long contraction that never ends. I kept leaning into my tools, breathing and going inwards. It was the strongest mental state I've ever needed to be in, and the strongest faith in my body I've ever held. All I can describe it as is going completely and utterly inwards.
At some point, maybe around 4:30 AM, I hit transition, and that makes you feel like a crazy person. I started yelling and jolting, and the pain was more intense. I started to realize these were the final moments. I think I was encouraged by how quickly I was progressing.
A loss before a gain
I forgot to mention that in the earlier stages of labour, I had a moment of deep, deep sadness. I don't know if you've had this with a second, third or fourth baby, but it was a strange mourning of our current family unit. I scrolled back through all my photos of Freddy from the last two years and eight months and thought, "I love this child so much, and the life we've created together."
I knew what was on the other side of this birth would be beautiful and amazing. But I was so content with how the last two and a half years had gone. We're such a unit. You have so many routines and rituals, and it was almost scary to feel all of that would be disrupted. Not in a bad way. It's just what happens.
I think I had a beautiful closing of that chapter, honouring the fact that this baby wanted to come through at a certain time, after two miscarriages. The family we're meant to have was taking shape. It was never a loss with a miscarriage. It was moving through so the soul meant to join us could join us. So it was a really interesting moment of deep sadness, almost like a loss before a gain.
Pushing
Back to the birth pool. I was dilating well and in transition. The backup midwife was called and arrived because I was moving fast. They were monitoring the baby's heart rate in the water, and at one point it spiked. My midwife thought the water might be too warm and suggested I get out of the pool, which was totally fine by me. I was going with the flow.
We all moved to the downstairs bedroom. Almost immediately, I ended up side-lying on the bed. I think she was doing a check and was going to move my last bit of cervix out of the way. If you've pushed out a baby before, you know that insane feeling. I had to put everything into pushing. It felt like my insides were coming out.
There was no option to be lazy in that moment, which is really cool. You know you have to harness every ounce of energy, every molecule, every cell, and push it all downwards. It's the craziest feeling.
Finding the right midwife
In that moment, I was so glad to have such a supportive midwife team. The backup midwife had arrived, and I felt really confident in the team. If I'm honest, I didn't at first.
When I found out I was pregnant, in early 2026, one of my midwives was without a partner. I met her and hoped we'd be aligned, but I had trouble figuring it out. Her partner came back, then went off on leave again a month later. So right up until I gave birth, I really only had one midwife.
But something clicked in the last few months. When Dave came to some appointments, he said, "Wow, I really like our midwife." That flipped a switch in me, and I noticed I felt extremely comfortable with her as my home birth midwife.
And here's what's crazy: the day she gave me the stretch and sweep was the day she got back from vacation. She was off from my due date until I was nine days overdue. She was back on call at 8 PM that evening, and I went into labour at midnight. If I'd gone into labour any earlier, I don't know that I'd have had a team I felt so confident in. I know the entire practice is amazing, though.
Follow your intuition
Back to the pushing. Dave and I had set up the bed in case I gave birth on it. I didn't know if I'd give birth in the pool or on the bed, and we just flowed with it. I followed my intuition the entire labour, and that would be my advice for any woman.
That's my advice for any decision around birth. I was talking with a friend about home birth versus hospital birth, unmedicated versus having something, pushing in the pool or on the bed. Tune into your gut. Don't follow herd mentality or what you think you're supposed to do, or cave to the fear-mongering that you need to give birth in a hospital. I'm going to go off the cuff here.
I had people tell me that birth is a medical emergency, and that anyone who does it outside a hospital is crazy. I have a very different opinion. I think for many years, women gave birth at home in community, with other women supporting them, and that was the most natural way.
I believe a lot of intervention and complication comes from the harshness of a hospital. When you're at home in a dark, dim, calm environment, you can let your body do what it needs to do without much intervention. But I'm not a medical expert, so don't take my advice.
Listen to your intuition, follow your gut and trust yourself. Trust that you'll know what to do in the moment. So when my midwife said, "Let's get out of the pool," I was totally aligned. I had no preference between the pool and the bed.
"It's a girl"
On the bed, Dave and my sister were both holding my hands during pushes. I was still side-lying, with one midwife holding my top leg and my main midwife coaching me, which was so beautiful. I remember her words and her encouragement. Her coaching really resonated and helped a ton. Some people hire doulas for this, or their partner coaches them. But she was so reassuring: "We're almost there," or "This is what I'm seeing."
The fourth push felt like an eternity and like the hardest thing of my life. The noises that come out of you, and how uninhibited you are in transition and pushing, are wild. I remember my sister looking at me with a worried but confident face: "You've got this, Kels. You're almost there."
Dave was so excited, but also fearful. He said it's really hard to see your partner in the most pain she's ever been in, with nothing you can do except use your words and your support. When there's no pain management, it's just, okay, let her keep doing her thing.
On the fourth push, I felt the relief of the head coming through. On the next push, the body came through, and that was it. She was out. My midwife caught her and showed her to Dave. We didn't know yet if it was a her or a him.
I laid back and closed my eyes. I did the same with Freddy. I needed a minute to myself before I could even engage with the baby. It's odd, but it's the truth. (I've got baby girl on my chest right now, so you might hear her squawking.)
My midwife showed the baby to Dave and said, "Well, what is it?" He took a minute, looked and said, "It's a girl." It was so crazy. She immediately pulled her straight up onto my chest. Baby Blair. Dave said, "Okay, and what's her name?" And I shouted, "Blair!" It was just amazing.
From that moment on, it was peaceful. They asked Dave to cut the cord. They wiped her off and left us to enjoy a moment with our baby girl. Very little intervention. Then I birthed the placenta, and we just hung out, celebrated and sat there in disbelief.
5:13 AM
She was born at 5:13 in the morning. And that was another sign from my mom. I'm literally just realizing this now. My parents' address is 513, and she was born at 5:13. Oh my gosh.
I don't know which order these episodes will be released in, but in my episode about buying our new home and moving, there were little signs from my mom all along the way. We're still in our old house right now and moving next week. So here she was showing up in my birth, too, and I hadn't even noticed. 5:13 in the morning, and 513 is the address of the home my parents lived in when my mom died. My dad's still there.
Freddy wakes up a big brother
The midwife stayed for two hours to make sure everything was okay. But they really just left us, and it was so beautiful and relaxing. Freddy didn't wake up until 7:30 that morning, so when he woke up, he had a baby sister. Thank goodness he had a good night's sleep. He was on the upstairs floor and we were in the basement, and he went through the whole birth with no idea. It was really special to have him there, but not there.
My mother-in-law came in the morning and got to meet baby Blair, then took Freddy for 24 hours so we could have time with our new baby girl.
A redemptive home birth
What a crazy story. It felt like a redemptive home birth. Not that I was upset about Freddy's birth. If you listen to that episode, I look back on it as the most adventurous, fun and amazing experience: being in the hospital on Christmas morning when nothing was open, so we had to get Subway, the only thing open on Christmas morning, because we were starving. The hospital was dead, because not many C-sections get booked on Christmas Day. We had a shared room to ourselves for a while, and we just cozied up. It was the best thing ever.
But this time, having a successful home birth was the best thing ever, too. Birth stories are so unique and so fun. It's like a business story: every story is unique, and every story deserves to be celebrated. Sometimes it goes as planned, like Blair's. Sometimes it doesn't, like my emergency ambulance ride on Christmas Eve with Freddy.
I think that's a metaphor for life. You can plan, but you have to be open to changing, shifting and pivoting. Making a change or shifting from the original path doesn't mean things are wrong or bad. Detaching from the outcome while enjoying the journey is truly the most important thing.
Life as a family of four
We've loved our time as a family of four so far. Newborn life is the life for me. Yes, it's exhausting. No, I'm not really sleeping well, between a toddler and a newborn who sleeps in our bed. She does not like her bassinet. She does not want to be on her own. That's okay.
But every time I look at her... I texted Dave this morning, "She doesn't feel real." It's like I'm living a dream life. Sometimes I glance down while I'm baby-wearing her and think, "Whoa. Who is that?" What a crazy rollercoaster it is to bring another child into the world. It's fun, exciting and tiring.
I've had very little time to work on the business or in the business, but I'll be back in time. The most important thing for me right now is to keep Blair safe, make sure she's happy and be there for her.
The after-effects of a home birth are pretty uneventful. You're just relaxing at home. I came upstairs and eventually had a shower. I had a green smoothie right after I gave birth, because I needed health. We ordered in from one of our favourite local restaurants, and I got fish and chips because I needed carbs. I think I had a beer that night. You go so long alcohol-free, and that beer tasted so good. And everything has been unfolding from there.
So I'll wrap it here. Thank you for listening to the birth story of baby Blair. If you have a birth story you've recorded, or are thinking of recording one, I highly recommend it. I cry every time I listen back to this one, or the one I recorded with Freddy three years ago.
That's it for now. I wish you all the most wonderful day.