Not only are my prenatal visits in depth, a venting session, informative even with the 3rd, and downright comfortable... she lets the littles help and listen to their baby sibling!!! This home birth 'thing' is by far is the best choice (x3) that I have made for our family! 
Thanks for being awesome LeAnn!! 

Minnesota home birth 

After 21 hours of labor, we had CFL at home on September 6. My labor began with my water breaking on Tuesday at 10:15 p.m. (September 5). After contacting the midwife, we went to bed and tried to get some rest. Contractions began around midnight and by 4 am, they were becoming regular. I was nauseous and throwing up intermittently (this continued throughout my labor, making it difficult to keep food and liquids down). Dehydration was a concern but I kept drinking liquids between every contraction. 

Wisconsin home birth: Willis

My midwife recommended that I write out my birth story and my thoughts on my birth. I already have run over it so many times in my head that I am more than happy to oblige.

Monday morning around 3:30am I had started feeling what felt like a menstrual cramp in my  lower back turn into a charlie horse in my stomach and run all the way to the top of my belly. It kept coming every 20 min or so. I started whimpering because it was quite intense. Tom sleepily put his hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me as I started to cry that I wouldn’t be able to do this if this was early labor and it only got more painful from here on out. (As it turns out, these were my hardest contractions to manage. It was only at the very end did I think the contractions were comparable, but it might have been because I didn’t have time to breathe through these early ones and woke up in the peak of the contraction). I decided I was starving so I got up and showered and made myself a protein shake. Then I went back to bed. I had another contraction that Tom tried to comfort me through that ended up with me in the bathroom puking. I text my boss that I wasn’t sure if I would be at work today but not to count on it, then text my midwife that my contractions were 9 min apart and lasting a minute, and then went back to bed.

Rochester, MN home birth: Kyla

It all started one week ago, the morning before her due date. Ironically, I tried not to tell people Kyla’s due date, since it’s so easy to get fixated on that date and feel anxious as it approaches or disappointment as it passes. I woke up around 2 AM on Sunday, March 6th with some cramps and just restlessness. I got up every hour until 8 in the morning and then slept in. Nick and I spent the rest of the day relaxing around the apartment. My mom, my sister Dawn, and nephew Everett came to visit in the afternoon. We got coffee from the coffee shop below our apartment and went for a walk outside. The cramps and frequent trips to the bathroom continued throughout the day, but I was still in denial that this could actually be the start of labor. My midwife LeAnn called me around 6:30 pm and I told her things were fine - no noticeable pattern of cramping, but they were slightly stronger than earlier in the day.

Minnesota home birth: Summer

I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to be writing the story of my home birth. I know it's something not everyone gets to experience, no matter how much they may want to. Which is one thing I would advise anyone considering a home birth to think about. Yes, home births are safe when performed by a qualified midwife but even then, there's always a possibility for something to happen that you have no control over. You have to mentally prepare yourself for the worst scenarios. That being said, you then have to put all of those negative thoughts out of your mind when the time comes and just focus on your labor. Trust not only in your body's ability to do what it is made to do, but also your midwife to monitor your labor and step in if need be.

Basically, you better trust the crap out of your midwife! Lucky for us, we stumbled upon LeAnn and had the most perfect home birth experience!
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I had been experiencing Braxton-Hicks for a few days but nothing serious. Finally, it's Baby's due date, February 29th. I woke up just before 6 am with contractions. Days before, the contractions came and went and were almost nonexistent by late morning. I was hoping to keep contractions going so I went for a walk around the block a few times while my husband got ready for work and our son (who just turned two on Valentine's Day a few weeks earlier) snoozed in his crib. I loved being pregnant but I was getting anxious to meet our baby, to find out if my son would get a little brother or sister. The morning came and went. My husband checked in on me throughout the day. Around 3 pm I told him the contractions were hanging around but still infrequent. At around 4 pm is when I began to notice the contractions more. I wasn't yet timing them, but I was getting hopeful and decided to call my mom. The plan was for our son to stay with my parents who lived about an hour away.

My mom arrived and my husband came home from work soon after. It was nice to finally have adults around. Although he was the best, cutest distraction, my two year old wasn't a huge help during contractions. My husband started timing contractions and we soon figured out they were about 5 minutes apart. It was almost 6 pm and my mom said to my son, "Time to go! Mommy's going to have a baby!" I remember thinking, "But he's my baby!" After well wishes and hugs and kisses, off they went.

Getting my two year old ready to stay at Grandma & Grandpa's for a few days​

Wisconsin home birth: Ruby

August 2, 2011 by Gillian Haas · 6 Comments

Monday July 25th 1:30pm: I was cutting up some chicken to make my friend Steph’s famous chicken enchiladas for dinner that night. When I stood up to put the chicken on the stove, I immediately felt a gush of liquids leave my body. At first, I thought I might have peed my pants, but then after going upstairs to change, I noticed that it didn’t have any smell & it was completely clear, which is what amniotic fluid is like.

I first called John to let him know that I thought my water broke & then I called our midwife LeAnn to let her know. She asked me a few questions & then told me to call her back around 3:30 to let her know if more liquid leaked out or if anything changed. I called John back & by that time, he had researched all kinds of websites for me to look at to see if it really was amniotic fluid. I laid down for a bit to rest & then I drove to John’s work to pick him up & called LeAnn as well. She said that she wanted to see me in her office as soon as we could get there, to test if it was amniotic fluid, so we left right away. We got to Winona around 4:30 & had a short chat with LeAnn & then did two different tests, which both confirmed that it was in fact amniotic fluid. My water had broken! We didn’t know any kind of timeline as to when things would start happening, but at that point, I hadn’t had any contractions & was still feeling like my usual self. LeAnn suggested we take the night easy, eat dinner, do our normal routine & try to get lots of rest.

Wisconsin home birth, Silvan's Birth

Silvan’s Birth Story…

For several years before my husband and I even decided on children, I knew that in the event we decided to go ahead with reproducing, I wanted a homebirth. I watched the documentary The Business of Being Born on Netflix, and boy, did it open my eyes. I have personally never been a fan of hospitals to begin with, but after watching that, I just knew that homebirth was going to be the way for me. As long as there were no complications, of course. Luckily for me, my husband, Jake, was fully supportive of this idea.

Fast forward a few years, through the many discussions to finally deciding to try for a baby and taking the leap. A few months after that, we were blessed with a positive pregnancy test.

That’s when the hunt for a midwife began, who was near us, with whom we felt comfortable sharing this life changing experience. I did a few thorough Google searches and my first result was LeAnn in Winona. Only a ½ hour away from our home! There were some others that we interviewed, but LeAnn was the first, and she was most definitely our first choice. She made us feel comfortable in both her knowledge and understanding of where we were coming from, and what we were looking for. It was like talking to an old friend, or family member. She just put us at ease.

I had a remarkably easy pregnancy. I didn’t have any of the typical pregnancy ailments: heartburn, swelling, excessive pregnancy sickness. I definitely counted myself fortunate. Since this was going to be my first child, the closer we got to my “due date” the more we discussed the likelihood that my son would go well past the “due date.” So I was not expecting his sudden arrival 3 days early…

September 18th, 2015 was going to be my last day of work before leave, so I got up as usual and took my 2 ½ mile walk. I wasn’t 5 blocks into my walk when I started having pains. I didn’t think they were contractions because they were centered down in my lower pelvic area, not my entire abdomen, which is what I would have expected. So I powered through them, walking them off as I went about my route. The closer I got to home however, the stronger they became. Still though, I didn’t think much of them. Neither did Jake, when I got home and told him was what happening. But just to be sure, because they were definitely different than what I had been experiencing before and coming at somewhat regular intervals, I called LeAnn before hopping into the shower. She agreed that it didn’t exactly sound like labor and that we would just have to see where things went from there. We said good-bye and I went about getting ready.

The pains continued, getting so much stronger that several times I had to stop and concentrate on breathing through. When I got out of the shower, I vomited. A typical transitional sign. I headed to our bedroom to get dressed but was overcome with another strong pain so I had lay down on the floor and that’s when I noticed for sure that my entire abdomen was tightening with each pain. Again, I vomited.

After a little bit of me trying to get through these “pains,” Jake came upstairs to check on me. I didn’t realize it, but I had been up there for a bit. He asked if I was ok and I remember saying, “I’m trying to be.” I asked for my phone and texted LeAnn to let her know that now I could tell there was tightening and that I had vomited. With that, Jake helped me back to the bathroom so I could use the toilet. I checked and sure enough, there was pink. I looked at Jake and told him that I definitely thought I was in labor now. I texted LeAnn again.

Jake asked if he had time to go grab a coffee, since he had just woken up. I told him that I thought so and he ran off to grab a cup. He wasn’t gone long. Later he told me that he jogged down the block and back to be sure that he was going to be there for me. When he came back upstairs, he calmly suggested that we get down to the bed so if things progressed we would be where we needed to be. I agreed and we started our decent. About ¾ of the way down, my water broke and I was hit with the strongest of (what I now knew were contractions) the pains that I had experienced thus far. I howled and Jake spoke soft, comforting words to me. It was all he could do at the time since we were on our narrow stairway. Once again, I texted LeAnn to now let her know that my water broke. She called back immediately and let us know that she was on the way.