Birth story - Lauren and baby Edith

Triggers - hospital transfer for suspected 3rd degree tear (confirmed as 2nd degree at hospital), use of ‘contractions’

I can’t believe it’s finally my turn to share our positive birth story!

A bit of background: my pregnancy was totally straightforward until 36 weeks. Due to raised BMI, I was referred for serial growth scans and our 36 week scan showed that baby had dropped below the 10th centile. I was immediately put under a lot of pressure to be induced at 36 weeks. I declined, instead opting for additional monitoring and repeat doppler/growth scans to keep an eye on baby’s growth. I was prepared to ask for a section at 38 weeks of baby’s growth was still dropping, but our scan showed baby was back up to the 30th centile! Nobody can say whether the 36 week scan was an anomaly or if baby had a big growth spurt, but all of a sudden we were back on track for the home birth we’d been planning.

I was always expecting to be a ‘slow cooker’ so wasn’t at all surprised that baby wasn’t here by our ‘due date’ of August 29th. I had already decided that I would decline induction until 42+1, possibly longer if scans and monitoring showed all was well with baby, but I was anxious about going over as I knew I would get lots of grief from the hospital over it! Fortunately baby didn’t keep us waiting that long and latent labour began in the early hours of September 9th with what I was adamant was trapped wind pains! I think by that point I had convinced myself I would end up being induced so didn’t want to believe baby was coming on their own

I managed to grab snatches of sleep through the early hours of Wednesday but probably not more than half an hour to an hour at a time. Contractions continued throughout the day ranging from 5mins to a couple of hours apart, then from about 6pm everything died off. I watched Dirty Dancing, put some clary sage in the diffuser and bounced on the ball in the hope that I could get things going again, but in the end decided to go to bed at 8.30pm and get some much needed rest! I did however call the maternity line before I went to sleep, as I wanted to let them know that things seemed to be starting and to make sure they had staff available to attend me at home!

I was woken again at about 11pm by more contractions. I tried to get some more sleep but soon realised things were progressing. I used Freya to time the contractions and up breathing to get through them. I also stood in the shower, in the dark, for half an hour which was amazing pain relief! My husband helped me to set up the TENS machine - I can’t say whether or not this really helped, but it definitely provided me with a distraction during contractions. My husband took our dog to his parents at around 2.30am then came back to start moving furniture and inflating the birth pool! By 3.45am contractions were 3 in 10 so I called the maternity department and asked them to send out the midwife.

Our midwife Debbie arrived at 5am and was AMAZING! She observed me contracting for a while and commented that I seemed to be coping well. She even asked if I’d done any Hypnobirthing! She asked if I was happy for her to give me an examination, I used BRAIN and decided I was happy to consent to this as I wanted to know that things were going in the right direction. Debbie confirmed I was a ‘stretchy 4cm’ at 6am and told my husband to start filling the pool! This took a while as we have a water tank and had to wait for it to re-heat a couple of times! Timelines get a bit wobbly here but I think I got in the pool at around 7.30am. The relief from the hot water was immediate and immense. I also asked for gas and air at this time which I found hugely helpful - again, I’m not sure how much pain relief it provided, but it offered a real distraction and helped me to focus on my breathing. Debbie also called the second midwife on call at this point.

I started to feel a bit ‘pushy’ at the height of contractions from around 8am. Debbie was reluctant to get me out of the pool for more examinations and instead encouraged me to trust my body and go with what I was feeling. She monitored baby’s heart rate every 15 mins or so but was really unobtrusive about it - I quite often didn’t notice she was doing it until I heard the heart rate. I continued with up breathing (as best as I could while on the gas and air!) for a while longer, then after a while began instinctively bearing down at the height of the contractions. Throughout all this I barely spoke - my husband was keeping our parents updated via WhatsApp and my mum asked if I was swearing at him a lot! I was fully in the zone and barely paying attention to anything happening around me. In fact, I didn’t even notice right away when the second midwife Jadine arrived at 9am!

From about 10am the downward pressure became really strong. I wouldn’t describe it as painful as such, but it was incredibly intense and I couldn’t have fought against it if I’d wanted to. My waters broke in the pool at around 10.35am and Edie made her appearance less than 10 minutes later! She was born in a real rush - one minute the midwives were saying ‘we think it’ll be in the next half an hour’ and the next minute her head was out. Her body was born on the next contraction. She had her cord wrapped round her neck which the midwives quickly sorted and she screamed blue murder immediately! We had lovely skin to skin in the pool, followed by more skin to skin and our first feed on the sofa. I accepted active management of the third stage - I hadn’t been keen on the idea of this to start with, but actually having it dealt with quickly was a blessing because it meant the midwives were happy to leave us alone for half an hour of lovely family bonding time. I think if I’d opted for a physiological third stage they would have been hovering!

When the midwives examined me they found that I had torn quite badly - probably from Edie’s swift arrival! They weren’t sure if it was a second or third degree tear and recommended transfer to hospital for examination and repair. I was happy to go with this as I didn’t want to take the risk of not having it repaired properly! We were transferred in an ambulance and although it wasn’t the first few hours I was hoping for, it was still really positive. We were really well looked after, my husband wasn’t able to come in the ambulance but joined us at the hospital and was able to stay with us throughout and we were also able to get a bit of extra assistance with breastfeeding. The tear was found to be a 2nd degree so could be done under local rather than needing a spinal block, which meant we were home again by 9pm last night!

I absolutely credit Hypnobirthing and the Positive Birth Company for giving me the tools to have a really positive and empowering birth, but also for giving me the confidence to make informed decisions during pregnancy. If it hadn’t been for what I learned on the course I might have accepted induction at 37 weeks, almost 5 weeks before she was ready to arrive. Being at home was such a fantastic experience that I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat. If anyone is on the fence about a home birth then my advice would absolutely be to go for it!