Birth story - Frankie and baby Milo

Firstly I have to thank everyone who has posted their positive homebirth stories because every one that I read filled me with more confidence to fulfil my homebirth wishes and I feel so lucky to have had such an amazing, positive & natural experience.

Following a week of first trimester symptoms returning and what I can only describe as morning sickness with vengeance on Thursday 30th May, I was having a restless night which was normal for me, throughout my pregnancy. I was always awake and up & down so I didn't think much of the constant toilet trips and pacing around the nursery and took myself back to bed to try get back to sleep but my body had other ideas.

My waters spontaneously broke in bed at 4am, only a small amount and they then continued to go in gushes over the next few hours. At this point I was not having any contractions (I refer to them as contractions during the early stages rather than surges because I had broken up how I anticipated labor to feel and I was saving my positive birthing reference for when I felt like they were getting tougher.)

I called the labor line and informed them of what was going on and I was given the choice of going in the be examined or staying at home and hope that things progressed naturally within the next 24 hours and of course I chose option 2 to stay at home. So I woke my partner and we got up and went about our morning and day like normal, we stayed house bound as we weren’t too sure what to expect but we just got on doing every day things that needed doing at home. I packed a hospital bag just incase. (the baby's had been packed for a while but not mine) My contractions soon enough began and I downloaded an app to track them and keep my homebirth midwife updated on how things were going. By 10.30am they were coming regularly every 5-7 mins for 40-50secs long each time. At 12.10pm they were 2-4 mins apart lasting 50+ seconds each.

By 2.30pm my midwife had been to check in on me and decided we might be in for a long night and left to go home for a nap ahead of returning whenever I felt like I needed her to. I was still feeling pretty comfortable at this point, I put my tens machine on as I could feel my contractions switching to mild surges. I had been harvesting my colostrum since 37 weeks and so I decided with all that was going on expressing would encourage hormones and labor and I began expressing which was very successful and saw a few syringes into the freezer with ease which meant I had hit my target on my wanted stock before baby's arrival.

My surges were becoming more intense at around 4pm and lasting for over a minute at a time, I decided to remove the tens machine and have a shower. After a shower at about 5.30pm I was having to hold onto the sink and breath through my surges, this was one of the best things I took from my hypnobirthing course. It helped me to stay mind over matter that the surges were temporary. I knew when they had peaked and when they were ending and this made every one so much easier. My partner called the midwife to return and said we would start filling the pool. I got into the pool at 6.20pm and continued breathing through my surges.

The midwife returned at about 7.30pm and quickly noticed things had rapidly progressed since her earlier visit. She allowed me to continue as I was for a short while before deciding to examine me, I was 4cm dilated. My surges turned into a build up of pressure and I chose to try gas and air however this did nothing and was not really something I had wanted to use so I just held onto it as something to squeeze through my surges and bite down on. I became really exhausted after a little while in the pool and began dozing on the side. My surges were slowing and much shorter and my midwife highlighted this to me and was wanting to possibly head off again for a short while (she only lives 5 minutes from me) until she was needed again. However, I knew my body felt like it was almost ready and although my surges were as she was stating they were much more intense and full of pressure still which led to a want to push and within half an hour that's exactly what I was doing. With every surge full of pressure I was pushing and I was doing this for a while until the midwife requested I get out the pool for her to examine me as she couldn't quite see what was going on from outside the pool.

I laid on the sofa to be examined and I was fully dilated and the movement from the pool to sofa had bought baby down massively meaning with every surge I was pushing down into my bottom and I could feel baby crowning. Baby was slightly stuck but with a lot of determination and a little persistence they arrived unassisted at 1.39am on May 31st.

Baby was placed onto my chest and the cord was left attached until it stopped pulsing (delayed cord cutting). Once my partner had cut the cord my placenta delivered instantly and naturally without the need for an injection. I needed no stitches and lost very little blood. My recovery has also been really good and while writing this I'm only on day 4, I really feel this is down to the positive mind set I had throughout and the calmness and reassurance hypnobirthing had given me along with the use of a birthing pool.