Birth story - Clair and baby Edwin

I had used hypnobirthing with our first child and had a positive water birth in a midwife led unit so we began reading ‘Practical Ways to Make Your Birth Better’ and listened to the guided relaxations daily from around 16 weeks pregnant this time around.

On Friday night at 9.30pm, I felt a ‘pop’ and my waters broke. Mild surges started through the night but they weren’t frequent and didn’t build in intensity. On the Saturday morning I was having surges every 10 minutes or so and felt like things were progressing so my parents came to collect my 4 year old son and dog. I rang the birthing unit to let them know that my waters had broken and they contacted the community midwife.

At around 11am, the community midwife came over and brought all of the home birthing kit with her in preparation for birth. She explained that doctors allow 24hours after waters breaking before suggesting a hospital birth as the risk of infection increases. My husband and I were really keen to have a home birth and wanted zero, to little, medical intervention if possible, so this news was a real blow to us. The pressure of having a time limit meant I was clock watching and labour slowed right down.

My husband and I went for a long walk, went shopping on the hunt for clary sage and I tried a lot of nipple tweaking in a desperate attempt to get baby moving. Unfortunately, surges weren’t increasing so we went into hospital at 9.30pm so baby could be monitored. After about 90 minutes of monitoring, the doctor strongly suggested that we be induced and have baby in hospital. My husband and I declined and explained that we wanted to go home for the night and see if anything happened, agreeing to return the following afternoon for further monitoring.

We arrived home at 11.30pm and I got myself into bed, using the opportunity to stock up on sleep before labour really started. This rest was cut short as, at 12am, surges became really intense and I was no longer able to lie down. I went downstairs and began timing surges using the Freya App whilst leaning over the kitchen counter. My husband began preparing the birthing pool and setting up the room with candles and my favourite essential oils. After an hour, I was having the all important 3 surges in 10 minutes and they were lasting a good 45 seconds. My husband called our community midwife who arrived at 1.30am, just after I had got into the birthing pool.

I was lucky enough to have my midwife there who knew my birthing preferences inside out so she didn’t offer me any vaginal examinations and pain relief wasn’t even discussed. Both midwives and my husband supported me through each surge, pouring warm water on my back and ensuring I was fully hydrated throughout. The midwives talked every stage through with my husband so he was able to support me and guide me through each surge and stage of labour.

At about 4am, baby began to crown and I felt their head. I then listened to my body and let each surge push my baby along. When baby was born, I reached through to pick them up and brought them straight up to my chest. My husband looked to tell me we had had a baby boy. We delayed cord clamping and I had a physiological third stage, delivering the placenta in the pool.

We are so pleased that we had the home birth that we’d dreamed of and it was all down to our midwives being on board with our birth preferences and supporting us with hypnobirthing. Our little boy, Edwin, weighed 10lbs 13oz and I had no pain relief, using only my breathing and essential oils to ease the surges.