Birth story - Cheryl and baby Jude

So after seeing the midwife at 40+2 on Wednesday and her telling me baby was high, back to back and cervix was closed, and basically no sign of him coming soon, I booked some acupuncture for next week and got.my husband to do some DIY reflexology on me Wednesday and Thursday night in the hope of getting things going.

Friday morning I was getting some mild pains that came and went all day every 15 minutes or so. I didn't think they would come to anything. My son was in nursery and my husband and I went out for lunch (curry!) and a walk round the shops. The pains died off. We came home around 3pm, put a film on and they gradually returned. I was really excited something was happening! They weren't regular or particularly painful so I went to get my son from nursery at 5pm. I told my mum and she headed down anyway. At 5:45pm I had my show. By 6pm I was sure that I was in labour as I was having to up breathe through the surges and they were coming more frequently. We got my son to bed and my husband started setting up the pool. I put my playlist on to relax me. I got my tens on and at 6:30pm my waters went with a powerful surge.

At 7ish I called the midwives and they said they would call at half 7 to get someone to come as it was shift change. I was breathing really well through every surge but they were now a lot stronger, coming about every 3 minutes. They called my husband at 7:30pm and told me they were short staffed and no-one was available to come right now. So I had to either wait while they tried to pull someone from hospital or go in. I cried at this point as I knew I was unable to wait and my homebirth was slipping away but my husband reassured me we could have a positive experience in hospital. We had our birth plan and we knew what we wanted. His support really helped. My mum arrived to stay with our 2 year old and we got ready to leave. Surges were now coming every 1.5 minutes and very strong. I couldn't even get to the car before another came.

Looking back I think I hit transition at this point. I told me husband I couldn't do it and I needed drugs asap. He reassured me again and supported any decision I would make. He assured me I was feeling this way because we are close to meeting our son (I wasn't convinced) We got to hospital and I had to stop 3 times en route to the ward for huge surges where I got on my hands and knees. I could no longer up breathe through them and I was panting and moaning loudly with each one. A nurse grabbed me a wheelchair and my husband wheeled me to the lift.

Suddenly I knew he was coming there and then. I got on my hands and knees in the lift and managed to pull my knickers down. My poor husband tried to get me out of the lift but it wasn't happening. He wedged the door open and grabbed a passing family who found a registrar on her way to start her shift on labour ward. She quickly told more midwives (who came back with towels) and ran to deliver baby in the lift. I had no control over the baby coming and I don't even remember it being painful as I birthed baby's head. It was actually the most amazing empowering feeling I've ever had. I then waited for the next contraction and baby was born into the registrars hands in the lift at 8:19pm! I kept apologising to everyone for the mess in the lift as I was wheeled round to labour ward where I had a natural 3rd stage and 2 stitches.

Baby Jude Alexander Buckley weighed 8lbs and was perfectly fine! It wasn't the home birth I wanted but I couldn't have had less intervention if I tried which was my main aim, to deliver the baby on my own without assistance which was amazing as I never felt this with my first son (epidural and forceps). So overall I had a really positive (if a little intense!) experience by remembering everything I learnt through the hypnobirthing course. My labour was written down as 2 hours 19 minutes!