Birth story - Jessica and baby girl

I had my first baby in 2019 and wrote up the story for this group. She was born at 42+2 after an induction.

I bought the digital pack in 2019 and planned to read the book this time, as a refresher. However I didn’t get round to it as I was either looking after my almost-4-year-old, working or sleeping. So all my hypnobirthing knowledge was whatever I could remember from 4 years ago. Thankfully it’s like riding a bike 🤣

This time round, I wanted a homebirth because I knew I would be more comfortable at home. I was also a little worried about making our way to hospital while in labour as we live around an hour from the hospital (it can be longer if traffic is bad), and also I just wanted to be in my own bed afterwards. With my first daughter, I had spent the first 18 hours of her life on the postnatal ward at the hospital and I didn’t sleep at all despite being exhausted from labour, because of the noise on the ward. I hadn’t appreciated that newborns are super sleepy when they’re first born, and I wanted to maximise the chances of being able to sleep while the baby sleeps this time!

As soon as I was booked into the midwife service at 8 weeks I asked to be assigned to the homebirth team. I was allocated to a home birth midwife straight away, who came to my house for all my antenatal appointments. This was amazing because it meant I could be quite flexible with my appointments as I work from home and I also found that my midwife had more time with me because she didn’t have the next person sat outside in the waiting room each time. This made such a difference as I felt there was always time to discuss any questions/concerns and get to know each other.

By 41 weeks, the baby still hadn’t made her appearance so I booked an induction for the following week and had two sweeps that week in the hope of getting things moving. By 42+1, baby was still showing no signs of making an exit so I attended my induction appointment as I was done with being pregnant. My midwife Rachel was really clear that the homebirth team would still support a post date birth if I wanted to stay at home, but by this point I felt like I’d rather just have the baby even if it meant being in hospital.

At the hospital I was put on the monitor for a while and then the pessary was inserted at 7.30pm. My cervix was 3-4cm dilated and had come forward slightly. When inserting the pessary, the midwife commented that baby’s head was slightly tilted to the side so the presenting part of the head wasn’t quite the right part. (This is relevant later)

Disappointingly, the pessary didn’t start my labour but in hindsight that wasn’t so bad because the entire unit was really busy that night. 24hr later, things had quietened down and it looked like a space was going to be available on labour ward so I was hooked up to the CTG again.

At 10.30pm a midwife came to get me to take me to labour ward and break my waters. I was pleasantly surprised that the midwife, Charlene, was a home birth midwife who was picking up an extra shift in hospital and had seen my name on the list and recognised it. I’d met Charlene a couple of times as she had covered for Rachel twice when Rachel was on annual leave. It was great to see a familiar face and someone who I knew would get my birth preferences.

Charlene had set up one of the rooms already but I asked if I could swap rooms and go to room 10 as it has a birth pool (it’s the only room on labour ward with a pool). Technically it was against guidance to use the birth pool for a post date labour however Charlene was happy to run it past the doctor and I was okayed to use the pool.

After Charlene broke my waters (which didn’t hurt and wasn’t even uncomfortable), she left the room and watched the monitor from the office. My husband fell asleep on the sofa but he didn’t get long as my contractions started straight away and it wasn’t long before I had to breathe through them. I woke him up to call Jen (our doula) and Sarah Hall (our friend who is also a photographer and wanted to come along and take photos). I was surprised that the midwives let me have my husband, doula and photographer as that’s 3 birth partners but they did!

By the time Jen and Sarah arrived, I was totally in the zone, using a TENS machine, and not capable of having a conversation anymore. Around 1am I asked to use the pool, which Charlene filled quickly. Once it was ready I practically leapt into it between contractions and it was a huge relief. I laboured in the pool for a while and my contractions changed, my body started to push. I tried the gas and air in the pool but something about being in the pool made me feel that the gas and air was too difficult to use so I only had one breath. After a while I didn’t feel like the baby was coming down as she should and I got out of the pool to see if gravity would help.

I got up onto my knees on the bed, which is the position I found most comfortable in both labours. Jen suggested I try the gas and air again, and it hit the spot. It didn’t necessarily make the contractions less painful, but it did make me care less about the pain and I was conscious that I felt quite “high”. Charlene offered me an exam which I gladly accepted as I wanted to know what was going on. My cervix had got to 9.5cm with a small lip at the edge, and baby was being pushed into it repeatedly but wasn’t able to get through. This was probably because the presenting part of her head was slightly off to the side. On my next contraction, Charlene tried to push the lip of the cervix out of the way. It didn’t work and I continued to labour for a while longer.

The wireless monitoring kept losing the baby and when it was being picked up, the baby’s heart rate wasn’t fully recovering after each contraction. Another midwife, Hannah, came into the room. Hannah had a much more directive and assertive communication style and told me she wanted me on my back so they could attach a monitor to baby’s head. I couldn’t quite get onto my back as it was painful so I moved more onto one hip. Hannah spoke to me during contractions (which was quite off putting) and pressed the wireless monitor into my bump to try to pick up the heart rate, which was quite painful. I’m not sure if that was just her style or if there was a sense of real urgency because of the decelerations, but when she said to me “sorry, I’m going to be quite irritating” I said “at least you know” 😬🤣.

Hannah tried again to move the lip on my cervix past baby’s head and this time it worked. Hannah asked me to push as hard as I could on the next contraction, which I did and I managed to almost get baby’s head out. I was told to get baby out as fast as I could. On the next contraction I pushed again even harder and the head was born. On the following contraction, the shoulders and body were born. She was born with the cord around her neck which explained the decelerations. Baby didn’t cry straight away so was given a vigorous rub until she made a noise. She was born looking a bit blue/white, not pink, which was worrying but she soon came around. I lost some blood and was recommended to have the vitamin K injection to get the placenta out asap, which I agreed to. I had a small internal second degree tear, which wasn’t stitched. It has healed fine and there was no pain at all which was amazing.

Baby was born at 3.15am so around 4.5h labour in total. After she was born she had her first breastfeed and cuddles, then I handed her over to my husband so I could shower. We were able to stay in the room until after 8am which was amazing as we were both able to get some sleep on the sofa and it was so quiet. I asked to leave the hospital as soon as possible but was advised to stay for at least 8 hours to monitor baby as she had an initial apgar score of 6, so we arranged for my husband to go home and sleep in the morning and come back for me after lunch.

Charlene was working the next day so she offered to come to my house for the newborn checks, as this is what would usually happen if baby had been born at home and I was still under the homebirth team even though I hadn’t actually had a home birth. Amazing!

I had such a positive experience and am really pleased with how my birth went.

✅ homebirth team were amazing and it felt like having private care!

✅ Jen (doula) knew exactly what to do/say/offer in labour and was so helpful and understanding

✅ the photos are amazing and I’m really glad Sarah offered to come along

✅ thanks to the PBC I understood the physiological side of birth and was able to advocate for myself as needed