Birth story - Leanne and baby Charlie

*Trigger warning* - Contractions, sweep, stitches

I had a wonderful experience birthing my firstborn after completing the PBC course, though he came quite quickly for a first time baby, so we were excited to plan for a home birth second time round.

My due date arrived, accompanied by a very uncomfortable heat wave and my toddler having a sickness bug, so there was very little oxytocin flowing! Nonetheless, I stated having some niggles and light contractions most evenings, which would get us all excited, only for them to fade away after a few hours. We set up the birth pool and birthing space so many times, that we eventually got fed up with packing it away, and left it all out as a permanent feature!

To try and get things moving, I accepted a sweep at 41 weeks and was told my waters were bulging and things should be kicking off very soon! A few more days passed, and still nothing was happening, other than more false starts most evenings. Then I began to lose my mucous plug, bit by bit. I accepted another sweep at 41+4 and I was getting pretty desperate to get baby out by now. I kept telling myself that ‘baby would come when baby was ready’, but I was also starting to panic about needing to be induced, as our local maternity suite had announced that week that they were suspending gas and air.😰

At 41+5 I went to bed at 10pm feeling very deflated and announced that I couldn’t bare to wake up pregnant again! I was fast asleep, when at 10:30pm I heard a loud pop, like a balloon had burst, and felt my waters leaking! I popped on a pad and thought I’d get back into bed and get some rest, but as my bottom touched the bed, I had a huge contraction! I woke my husband and told him this was it. He got to work filling the pool and lighting the candles while I had a quick shower. I came downstairs at 10:50pm and felt like my contractions were pretty close together. I doubted myself though, so I used my Freya app to time them and after three very strong and close together contractions we made the call to the midwives. We also called my mum and put on my TENS machine. I tried bouncing on my ball, and various labouring positions, but I just couldn’t get comfortable.

By 11:20pm the contractions were back to back and I was wondering who on earth I thought I was, signing up for a home birth, as I was already struggling at only 40 minutes in. 🤣 I told my husband I couldn’t do it. I half wondered if this was transition, but dismissed it due to how little time had passed. The intensity was making me forget to breathe, so I put the breathing setting on my freya app to help, which it did 🙏🏻

At 11:25pm I felt like I needed a poo! So I waddled over to the downstairs loo. My legs involuted kicked off my knickers and all of a sudden I shouted to my husband “it’s not a poo, it’s the head!” 🤣 and he ran in in a panic. I told him the baby was coming now, so he called the midwives, who were stuck at roadworks and were trying to find an alternative route to us. They told us to call 999, which we did.

By now it was about 11:30pm and my husband had helped me hobble over to the sofa. I knelt on the seat, and held onto the backrest while he grabbed some towels and put the 999 call handler on speakerphone. With the first down contraction I felt the head move down and then back up again. With the next contraction I gave a push and babies head appeared, and with the third, his whole body emerged and he was caught by daddy! 😅

My husband helped me into a seating position and passed me our gorgeous boy. We checked the time and it was 11:45pm. An hour and 15 minutes since that pop! I had some gorgeous skin to skin cuddles while we laughed about the madness of what had just happened, and the 999 call handler occasionally checked in. Just after midnight my Mum arrived, shocked to have missed the show, followed by four ambulance crew members. They were very respectful and didn’t interfere with our quiet time. They just asked if they could check my blood pressure and blood loss, which were all fine.

At 12:10am in walked my two favourite midwives from the home birth team, and they greeted me with a huge cuddle. I was so delighted to see them and knew I was in good hands. My husband cut the cord (which was fully white by now!) and Baby had a really good feed. I had managed delivery of the placenta and a few stitches while on the sofa. Luckily, the homebirth team were able to carry gas and air, which I used for both as I found these parts quite uncomfortable.

The midwives and my mum tidied up and I felt well enough to take a shower. At 3am the midwives tucked me into bed and said their goodbyes!

Our eldest came running into our bedroom the next morning and was delighted to find his new baby brother in the moses basket. He’s not the best sleeper, and one of the biggest surprises from that night was that he slept through the whole thing. 🤣

I’m so grateful to the PBC for preparing me for another wonderful birth. I’d read so many positive overdue and speedy birth stories, including lots of accidental free births, which helped me to remain calm and in control once I’d realised we were going to be doing it alone. 💪🏻 A few days later we were lucky enough to be sent the recording of 999 call, which has been very special to listen back to, and has made a lovely addition to Charlie’s memory box! ❤️