Birth story - Maddy and baby Oscar

*Trigger Warning* - Contractions (not negative to me)

Since giving birth I've been excited to sit down and write out the story of bringing little Oscar into the world. I hope this is particularly encouraging to those considering a home birth.

Background:

I had wanted a home birth for my first child, born 17 months ago (birth story also shared in this group), however it wasn't recommended due to scans suggesting she was small for gestational age. When she was born she was 6lbs 12oz and perfectly healthy. I still had an amazing labour and birth on our Midwifery Led Unit, however, I really just wanted to be at home after giving birth.

When I found out I was pregnant this time I was immediately excited for the opportunity for a home birth. Baby seemed healthy and was growing well so we planned for a home birth, but remained open to going into hospital if needed.

Labour and delivery:

I had been quite nervous about how and when labour would start. Our toddler has just been settling into a new nursery and we wanted her to settle for a few weeks before baby arrived. She then got poorly, was awake upset in the night a lot, and I knew it would be really tough timing for me to have the baby. My body knew to hold off until she was happier at nursery and feeling much better!

I decided to have stretch and sweeps from 39 weeks as I had already been having very irregular contractions for over a week. I had 3 sweeps in total. At all of them my cervix was 2cm dilated but became increasingly soft and stretchy. The first was very gentle with no sign of labour coming afterwards, after the second I lost my mucus plug and after the third (27th Jan) I was very crampy and I could imagine it having an effect and leading to labour.

We'd asked my parents to come for the day on 28th Jan to look after Ivy, our toddler, so I could relax. Knowing they were coming and that Ivy would be well looked after was enough to let my body relax and get into labour!

I woke up on 28th Jan with a contraction - not an unfamiliar feeling for me having had them for a while already, but straight away I had to breathe through this one. I was also really pleased by this point as Ivy was still asleep, and for the previous week she'd been waking up at 6am. The contractions continued 5-7 minutes apart and I couldn't imagine them stopping or slowing down. Once Ivy was awake we sent her off to a neighbour and my parents picked her up from there. I could fully relax now!

We started to tidy up a bit downstairs, inflated the pool and (I was so excited about this!) set up the snack station for the midwives. Over the next few hours contractions progressed to 3-4 minutes apart, and were getting increasingly intense so I called the midwives to come out. They arrived at 11am, were so calm and lovely, and I was getting so excited that my dream of a homebirth was becoming a reality.

I laboured standing up and rocking until 1.30pm when the downward pressure increased and I fancied the relief of the water. It felt so good! My contractions did slow down a bit, but I was quite happy to have the break by this point! The pressure gradually increased over the next 1.5 hours until baby was ready to make his appearance. I was really relieved when I knew it was actually happening and I was about to meet my baby. After a couple of contractions his head was born, then he turned and with another contraction baby was born and I brought him up to my chest. We had a lovely 20 minutes in the pool and then I felt I was ready to have the injection for the placenta, so I did and moved over to the sofa to deliver. I breastfed, ate Nutella on toast and lay there on an absolute high.

I had a small labial graze that didn't need stitches 🙌 and recovery feels straight forward, although still hard!

I'm so grateful to have had 2 midwives and 2 students present, for the photos/videos they took and for the incredible experience of a homebirth. I would highly recommend a homebirth if everything is going well in your pregnancy.