Birth story - Claire and baby Felix

I had my daughter (Alice) in 2016 after a pretty quick labour, delivered her in hospital on my back with an episiotomy with no pain relief and generally panicked throughout the whole of labour - I was absolutely terrified and hated the experience. I was keen to feel more in control second time around, so when a friend recommended the online course I quickly paid up and got watching!

On the 2nd May, I had been having what I was calling "uncomfortable Braxton Hicks" all morning, so got Ian to work from home just in case. I took Alice to her swimming lesson, then to vote in the local elections, to the park, and to Tesco for lunch. My midwife came round at about 3pm and I was 1.5cm dilated and she did a sweep, by 3:30 I was thinking hmm...these are real contractions... My parents collected Alice at 5:30 (after finishing their cups of tea) and I was talking through contractions and said I was sure it was a false alarm but if they could have her for a sleepover that would remove some stress... Ian then had a conference call from 5:30-6:30pm. At 6:45pm we were eating dinner, pausing every 5-8 minutes to breathe through contractions. At 7pm my waters broke during a particularly strong contraction and I phoned labour line, they said I should stay home until I was in "proper labour", but I said I really want to come in... to which they said they'd phone the hospital and check they had space as they were busy that evening.

Whilst waiting for the call back I suddenly felt like I needed a poo so dashed to the downstairs loo, sat down, felt another contraction starting so stood back up again quickly and realised the contractions had changed to "pushing" contractions and panicked... During this, labour line called back so I threw my phone at Ian and told him to speak to them... I said "I need to push" which he relayed, then "I'm pushing!" They told me to get on all fours on the floor, and then I realised...ok, this is happening now, and here, and we are not going to hospital! As soon as I thought that I felt totally matter of fact, sort of "right ok, we are doing this!" It also hurt a lot and I figured the best way to make the pain go away was to let my body get on with birthing my baby, so I focussed on breathing my baby out and letting my body do what it had to do.

I remembered at some point that my midwife had told me that if things were progressing very quickly I should tell labour line I was under "the Genesis team" - so I said this and she said "the home birth team?" to which I replied "no, I'm not having a home birth!" - how wrong I was!

I had been texting my midwife to let her know what was happening as she was on call that night, and I got a message at 7:11pm saying "Oh crumbs. Remember if you feel pushy stay at home. Do you feel ok?" to which I replied at 7:15pm "very pushy" - that was all I could type! She replied at 7:17pm "Hold on if you can. Ambulance on way, I will be there asap" which I didn't read until many hours later...

At 7:20ish (no real idea of timings but my call with labour line ended at 7:21) the first responders arrived - a paramedic and a student paramedic - they were pretty terrified and not a whole lot of use (they suggested I might like to slow things down till the midwife arrived, and also that I might like to leave the bathroom and lie down on my back so they could examine me... neither of those things was going to happen!), however they did bring gas & air, which I had never used before but found really good.

I could feel Felix moving down with each contraction then slipping back up, until he was crowning and I reached down to feel his head, which was the most amazing feeling ever! The ring of fire was *not* such an amazing feeling, but then his head was out... After a couple more contractions it became apparent that I was going to have to push a bit to get his body out, so I did so and out he came, at something like 7:31pm. He needed a bit of oxygen to get him crying properly, and we tried to bundle him up in some towels etc. The placenta followed a few minutes later, and at 7:40ish the second ambulance crew arrived, who helped Ian cut the cord.

Around 7:50pm my lovely midwife arrived and helped me get up off the floor and into the sofa and things started to get sorted out... Luckily we didn't have to transfer into hospital so after lots of lovely skin to skin and some not so lovely examinations (2nd degree tear which they decided to leave unstitched), I had a wash in my own bath and was tucked into my own bed with my new baby beside me in his crib - best feeling ever!

The best things about the course for me were the knowledge of what my body was doing and why, the breathing techniques, and the affirmations about relaxing and allowing my body to birth my baby, trusting in my body, and knowing that my surges cannot be stronger than me because they are me.

I felt very anxious in the last few weeks of pregnancy and had a bath every evening and listened to the affirmations on a loop - always ended up feeling a million times more relaxed, calm and empowered. Despite the whirlwind nature of Felix's birth, I found it a hugely positive experience and feel hugely empowered, powerful and proud. Good luck to all of you waiting to have your babies - you can do this! Roar those babies out!