Birth story - Emma and baby Jack

*Trigger warning* - mention of contractions (not negative to me)

I previously had a wonderful homebirth with my first baby Max in 2018 (story is on here somewhere!) and knew I wanted to have another homebirth with my second! I was a little less organised this time and only started revising the PBC online course a few weeks before birth, but it helped so much to get my head back into that zone!

My pregnancy was pretty uneventful and low risk - I suffered less with sickness this time than my previous pregnancy so I feel I got away pretty lightly! Of course having an almost 4 year old was tiring whilst heavily pregnant and I did suffer towards the end with pelvic pain and hip pain which thankfully went fairly quickly after birth!

I found the lead up to birth harder this time, with knowing what to expect and hoping for a similar experience. I suffer with anxiety and much of it is linked to my health so I always knew Homebirth’s were the best thing for me and my babies.

On Tuesday 2nd August I had an almighty meltdown, saying I was scared and I couldn’t do it - to which my husband very promply reminded me I had done it before and can do it again! It must have been the start of things as by 2am the next morning I woke up with regular tightenings. I tried to sleep for a while but by 3am I needed to get up and start bouncing on my ball.

My eldest was upstairs asleep at this point so made sure to ring my mum to tell her to make her way to us!

I continued to bounce on my ball downstairs watching friends and put my TENS machine on - which I loved for my first birth and again found it so incredibly helpful! I instructed my husband to get the pool ready while I used the Freya app to time my contractions. They were coming regularly but they didn’t feel too strong but as it was my second birth I phoned the homebirth team to keep them in the loop. The midwife decided to come and see how we were doing.

The first midwife arrived at 6am who had been on the night shift - I accepted an exam to see how far along I was as I didn’t feel like the contractions were particularly painful or strong - the midwife confirmed I was 3-4cm and had a very stretchy cervix! I continued to stand and sway with my tens machine and used up breathing to get back to green. My mum turned up soon after and my eldest appeared around 6.30am. I found it hard getting through contractions with my son in the room as I didn’t want to scare him, so my mum quickly got him ready and took him out for some breakfast and then took him to nursery.

When my son had left my contractions started to ramp up and the second midwife arrived. I was worried about getting in the pool too early but the midwives assured me they wouldn’t be leaving - so I got into the pool which was a lovely relief as I had been standing and swaying for a few hours. I kept feeling like things weren’t progressing but not long after being in the pool I started getting stronger contractions and started to think I didn’t want to do it anymore - which I knew must be transition. I accepted some gas and air and started to feel the urge to push. My body started pushing on its own but I felt like the contractions weren’t quite doing the job.

The midwives suggest I get out of the pool and lay on the sofa. Unbeknown to me, I wasn’t fully dialated but my body continued to push - the midwife then tried to help by sweeping the rest of the cervix out of the way. At this point I was starting to feel like I was losing control a bit and was uncomfortable. We were lucky enough to have a third midwife arrive as the first was supposed to finish her shift, but she chose to stay to see the birth of our baby boy

My positioning wasn’t quite working and the midwives were discussing what they should try next. In comparison to my first birth I was far more aware, my previous birth I was very tired and went into my own little world. Because I was aware of the midwives discussing what we needed to do next, I took every opportunity to keep pushing as long as possible. I then heard the midwives point towards me and say “don’t worry I think he has other ideas!” although it was more me feeling over it and wanting him out! At 10.38am his head was born and with another push his body was out and he was on my chest! My recorded labour was just over 7 hours from start to finish with a very quick second stage.

I had had a small bleed in the pool and so the midwives suggested I have the injection to encourage the placenta to come which I accepted. I enjoyed some cuddles with my little boy and we enjoyed our first feed. The midwives did a quick examination and confirmed I had no tears - the same with my first birth which I was incredibly grateful for!

Jack was born the day before his due date, just like his big brother. The Shingleton’s are prompt!

I thought I would feel disappointed not having a water birth again but it didn’t bother me in the slightest. Again I would like to thank the positive birth company for preparing me for another positive birth. We aren’t planning to have any more children so I feel so grateful for having two very straightforward positive Homebirth’s.