Birth story - Luanne and baby Maxon

This was my second pregnancy, I went into my first birth totally blind with no birth plan or preparation, I gave birth in hospital, having my waters broken by the midwife and although it wasn’t a negative experience, on reflection I felt there was a lot of unnecessary intervention which caused increased anxiety and the drugs made me feel a bit spaced out and abstracted. Therefore, for this second time around, I wanted to feel in control for a more positive experience, I looked into hypo-birthing and took the free online classes and practiced breathing techniques etc. I planned to have a water birth in a MLU.

As my first born was 2 weeks early, feeling ready to pop, I anticipated that this baby may also come early, however, after a few long weeks, on the morning of my due date, I woke early for the toilet. I had a ‘bloody show’ followed by some light cramping. I went back to bed and within a short while I was awoken again by more intense cramps, so curiously I began timing them on the Freya app, they were sporadic but between 5-10 mins apart. I phoned my husband to make his way home from work just in case and called my mum to come for my sleeping toddler, by the time she arrived at my home, I was in established labour.

Contractions became stronger and were coming along quickly every 3 mins, so I leaned forward over a chair and concentrated on my up-breathing. At 7.10am we made the call that it was unlikely I would make it to the birthing centre, so rang the midwives at the MLU and were advised to call the ambulance service and a midwife would be called to attend the home. As I breathed through my contractions, my husband arrived home and he and my mum were instructed by the call handler to gather towels etc. As the contractions were becoming very intense, it dawned on me at this point that there was no midwife and no pain relief, however, I quickly pushed these thoughts aside to focus on the present and with that, things began to progress further and at the peak of the contractions, I began feeling the sensations to push.

I lay on the towels on the floor with my husband and mum at my side and we were asked by the call handler if we could see the head crowning, at this point there was nothing visible. With no guidance from any midwives etc pushing was self-directed, I was able to see everything unfold thanks to mirrored bedroom furniture. With the first surge came the waters and my husband was able to see the head, shortly after the next big push the head was out and push number 3 was followed by shoulders and body.

Baby boy was born at 7.48am, my husband ensured the cord was free and waited for the anticipated little cry, just as that happened, the midwife arrived at the home and made her way upstairs to us, hubby had to call on our next door neighbours to get hold of some scissors as the midwife had misplaced hers and we were in the process of moving so our things were all boxed up, he returned and then cut the cord himself.

We cuddled in bed for skin to skin before baby latched for his first feed and then I birthed the placenta. The second midwife then arrived and he was weighed at 8.5oz and I only had one small graze which meant I didn’t need any sutures.

Although the birth happened very quickly and was not what I had originally planned, it was an empowering and amazing experience to give birth at home and I got to share it with my mother and husband and in the comfort of our home. Educating myself on birth physiology, stages of labour and hypo birthing really helped to keep me calm and confident during this experience.