Birth story - Kim and baby Albie

Christmas Eve:

Two days before my due date. I woke up around 8am needing a wee, for what felt like the hundredth time, and discovered what I thought may be my mucus plug, and after googling and reading descriptions, it pretty much confirmed it. Although I was excited that this may well mean I could give birth very soon, I kept calm as I had read that it could be several days after losing your plug that labour could start. I carried on as normal for the rest of the day; I made fudge for Christmas presents, I went for a walk and in the afternoon, made my first ever batch of homemade sausage rolls (these play a part later on!). Later that night, again, I noticed more of my mucus plug.

I had planned a home birth and had hired a birth pool, which would be set up in the lounge, so I decided it may be good idea to make some last minute organisations: I made sure there were new tealights in each of my candle holders, my aromatherapy candles and diffusers were out, my birth playlist was ready to go on my phone and my posters with all my reminders from the hypnobirthing pack were clearly on display. Although I didn’t think I would go into labour that night, I felt confident my environment was how I wanted it to be, should it actually happen.

I went to bed around 10:45pm (much later than my normal bedtime throughout pregnancy!) I woke in the night (seeing it was 1:41am on my phone) after experiencing period pain style cramps. I had had these randomly in the last couple of weeks, but these felt stronger and were happening much more frequently than before. I decided to try and get back to sleep, but couldn’t manage to. I put on my positive affirmations track, really trying to focus on the ones that had resonated with me so strongly. Around 2:30am, I decided to wake my boyfriend, James, and told him that I thought my contractions had started and that they seemed to be happening quite regularly.

He suggested I start using the Freya app to time them. They were averaging around 45-50 seconds and I was having 3 in every 10 minutes, so I text my midwife at 3am to let her know. She asked me when they started and if I was ok. I said I was managing to breathe through them using up breathing. She said it sounded as if I was in early labour and to just keep monitoring the contractions. She suggested taking paracetamol and having a bath if I felt would help, but to call her if my waters went or the baby’s movements concerned me. The contractions continued fairly regularly, getting more intense over time, but I continued to use the up breathing technique. I remember some contractions quite literally taking my breath away and therefore couldn’t hold my breath for the number of seconds, but it was so helpful having a constant counting to bring me back to focus.

It was at this stage where I felt as though I had a dodgy tummy, so went to the toilet, and indeed experienced the normal symptoms of a dodgy tummy! I remember panicking, thinking that the sausage rolls had given me food poisoning! What a thing to happen whilst in labour! However, James reassured me that diarrhoea was completely normal during labour (how had I never heard of this?!)

I asked James to get me a hot water bottle and some warm milk, but remember it feeling as though he was taking ages and desperately wanted him back next to me! Around 5am, he suggested I have a bath, so again, he left to sort this out. Getting into the bath was such a relief! It is true what they say about the water supporting you, so the next contraction didn’t feel half as intense as those whilst lying down. James text the midwife again to say contractions were happening every 2-3 minutes and were getting more intense. She called us and I spoke to her on speaker. I had a couple of contractions whilst on the phone, but she said that because I was able to talk to her through them, she still wasn’t concerned I was in established labour, but she said she would text the next midwives on duty at 6am and let them know that things had started, even though they didn’t officially start their shift until 7:15am. I had a couple more contractions in the bath, before James suggested getting out and trying to get some rest, as we didn’t know for sure how long this would be going on for.

There was no denying the contractions were coming thick and fast now, and I had to squeeze James’ hand when they peaked. The sensations then changed and I had an urge to push. The up breathing went out the window and it was now time for down breathing! There was no way to stop myself from grunting! I remember visualising the movements of the uterus that Siobhan had demonstrated in the hypnobirthing videos-all the muscles had moved up, so now it was time for them to move down and get this baby out! I kept telling James “I need to push!” so we made our way back to the bath.

In the bath, the urge to push intensified and I remember feeling so tired after only having 2 hours sleep! There were definitely moments of doubt, where I said to James “It’s so intense, I can’t do this!” but he reassured me I could and told me to just keep focusing on breathing. Around 6:45am, I told him that I couldn’t stop myself from pushing so to call the midwives! I got up onto my knees, holding on to the edge of the bath whilst I could hear James on the phone in the background. It was at this point where I remember saying very loudly. “He’s coming!” and as I felt down between my legs, I could feel his head there, covered in hair! When James repeated this to the midwife, I was alarmed to hear her say that if I felt the head or the head comes out, we needed to ring an ambulance. There was no way that an ambulance would get there in time: this baby was coming now!

A text at 6:50am told us the midwives were on their way. I continued to push and experienced the phenomenon of ‘the ring of fire’! I uttered my one and only swear word at this point! I then heard a knock at the door, which coincided with the next urge to push. I felt the ‘ring of fire’ again, which lasted longer this time. My determination to get the baby out gave me the energy to continue to push and then I felt him emerge out into the water, just as the first midwife entered the bathroom at 7:10am!

I scooped him up and held him in my arms just as he let out a big cry! He was absolutely perfect. The midwife told me to keep his body submerged in the water whilst they checked the cord over. They said it was short, so needed to be careful in getting out of the bath. They assisted me into the bedroom, where I lay on the bed having skin to skin with my new baby. I told them I wanted delayed cord clamping and to deliver my placenta naturally, which I was able to within 30 minutes. They checked me for any tearing and told me there was none, just a slight graze internally. My perineum was ‘perfect’ so all that massaging had paid off! We were left to experience the ‘golden hour’ in the comfort of my own bed, whilst the midwives completed the paperwork downstairs.

It then hit me that I had just given birth by myself, with the support of James by my side. No internal examinations, no monitoring of mine or baby’s heartbeat, no pain relief, no need for the hired birth pool, candles, fairylights, birth playlist or posters! My body knew what to do and I was in utter awe of it!

After a while we pulled open the curtains to see a beautiful sunny Christmas Day morning and the sunlight streamed in over my gorgeous boy. I count myself so lucky to have had a home birth (although slightly different than I had expected!) which allowed me to feel so positive about birth. I would thoroughly recommend the hypnobirthing digital pack to anyone who is pregnant and feeling nervous about birth, as it helped both me and James approach birth in a very positive way.