01 Oct 2019

Our beautiful & positive home birth

We are happy to share with you all that we welcomed baby Arthur into the world on the 1st October and this is our positive homebirth story.

Where to start?! At 41 weeks pregnant and two nights of teasing surges the Tuesday morning I woke up having mild surges.... hooray they hadn’t stopped this time. My lovely midwife was due to visit for my 41 week check (a sweep would have been offered). My husband took our little girl to school, I had a bath, listened to some calm spa music, listened to my recordings, shut the blinds, set the ambience, lit my lavender candle my beautiful friend bought me and my husband gave me some relaxing massage he had been shown by Anna, he then got the birth pool ready so I could take a dip (it had been up a few weeks so just needed water!).

Things started to build, by the time the midwife & student midwife arrived at 1.30pm (I told her to put her gloves away ha ha) I was rotating on my ball through each surge using my wave breathing, at one point I vanished to the back door, stood looking outside at the rain and listening to the thunder. I didn’t like being watched.

The midwife checked my blood pressure and baby’s heartbeat and said to update them later on, she was confident baby was coming that day. We decided to arrange for our daughter to be picked up from school. I went to bed and caught up on some sleep only to be woken by powerful surges that seemed to be coming one after the other, I spent my time between the ensuite toilet and the end of the bed rotating and breathing through them. We were just thinking that maybe we should call triage when at 4pm my midwife called to see how I was doing... we hadn’t been counting the contractions or timing them but I put her on loud speaker and Dave took over the conversation... needless to say she said we will be with you soon!

Within 20 minutes the community midwife Anna arrived at our door, followed closely by my midwife Debbie and student midwife Beth. So happy my own midwife was able to come.

They monitored how I was doing and were just there in the background, Beth crouched beside me, all extremely calm quiet and reminding me to breathe through the surges. Whilst Dave decided he had better top the hot water up in the birth pool, Debbie held my hand and Beth remained by my side and Anna in the background. It felt like I had private healthcare.

They monitored baby’s heartbeat regularly but were not invasive. My birth plan was on the table, so they knew my wishes without asking. I relocated to the pool and enjoyed the warmth in the comfort of my dining room, being offered a drink regularly.

They couldn’t hear baby’s heartbeat on the doppler and after several failed attempts in between surges they asked if I minded getting out so they could have a feel. I lay on the sofa in the conservatory so they could feel my tummy, I could feel baby moving but they needed to check, it wasn’t easy in between surges but they changed the doppler and it picked up a perfectly calm heartbeat, it seemed that the water had got into the other.

Once up I needed a wee so went off to the toilet.... this was when my body started to push! I had a wobble and shouted my husband in (didn’t want a toilet baby) then he reminded me of my calm breathing which calmed me down quickly and he guided me back in the conservatory to the sofa which the midwives had covered, I had my head hidden on his lap breathing through my surges with just a towel draped over me. By this time by body had taken over and started to push so I didn’t feel like I wanted to get back in the pool, my waters broke (lucky those wilko shower curtains were there) I still had my head buried on my husband’s lap and was knelt on the sofa, lights low and I think the spa music was still playing! Had my lucozade on the window sill. I could see it was starting to get dark.

I had already had some sensations so I knew crowning had begun earlier but this time the extremely powerful surges took me by surprise but again with gentle reminders to just breathe and calm voices around I continued.

Before I knew it my back was opening up, midwife Anna suggested I lift one leg up to allow more space for baby and before I knew it they asked if I wanted to feel babies head.... I said I could already feel it thank you and we all laughed. Next thing baby’s head was out followed by an upwards push feel and our came our baby, we heard crying straight away.

I could feel them navigate baby out and I was given my beautiful baby on my sofa in the conservatory (also playroom) and lay back cradling my baby. I then asked what we had... they said they don’t know have a look... it was a boy! My little pumpkin was actually a boy... Daddy looked in shock and happy tears started to flow, he was wide awake looking up at me. The midwives looked emotional too.

Dave called his parents to bring our daughter Ava home to meet her new sibling. I lay cuddling baby whilst we waited for the cord to finish pulsating. They then clamped it and Daddy got to cut it.

Arthur weighed in at a healthy 8lb3 and I had him at 7.53 pm.

Big sister came in to meet her baby brother. She then went with Daddy into the lounge whilst I delivered the placenta. After moving slightly & a little push out it came. I was happy to hear I hadn't torn and my active labour was just 2 hours 35 minutes.

I relocated to upstairs to clean up and get my pjs on. The midwives stayed a while to ensure all was well and they cleaned everything up.

It also dawned on me after I had zero vaginal examinations during my labour and zero pain relief! So happy we didn’t need to go to hospital. I got my perfect relaxing home birth.

I would highly recommend Anna at Rock your birth for private hypnobirthing classes which gave us more knowledge and my husband the confidence to say he wanted to deliver our baby at home. I also enjoyed listening to my hypnobirthing recordings daily.

Thank you Anna and go all you mommas out there you CAN do this!

Home BirthOverdue