Birth story - Mum and baby boy

I felt some surges/menstrual type cramps throughout the night on Wednesday 30th Sept. I thought they felt a bit different to previous sensations but didn’t want to get excited. I awoke on Thursday and the surges were still happening. They weren’t painful at all and very manageable. I had breakfast and then I ate an early lunch. Surges were coming pretty regularly so eventually I started timing them around 11.30. They were roughly every two to three minutes. The Freya app was saying I was going in and out of established labour, but they still felt pretty manageable. Eventually I got my husband, Nick, to put the TENs machine on my back and I laid on the sofa with Black Books on in the background, not really taking it in. At some point I started listening to the hypnobirthing tracks and Nick inflated the birth pool and finished working from home/signed off work.

Nick called the central delivery suite at 2.44 to say I was probably in established labour. A midwife arrived at the house at 3.10. By this point I was in my underwear just focusing on breathing through the surges and listening to the tracks. She checked my blood pressure etc.. and did a VE about 3.30 and I was 8cm dilated!! Nick filled the pool and I probably got in about 4.45. I was starting to feel the bearing down sensations, and began making slightly different noises not long after. The water was lovely. I felt really achey in my back and the water really helped soothe this. I felt my waters go in the pool, just a smooth little gush. Midwife Heather had to finish her shift and two other lovely midwives arrived, around 5.30/6. Heather did a handover with them and then left.

Midwife Hannah was lush and spoke in a gentle hushed voice to me, and had to intermittently check baby’s heart rate every 15 mins and my pulse. They mainly sat in dining room and gave me and Nick space as I requested in my birth preferences not to be/feel too observed. They just listened and popped in and out when they needed to. After around three hours in the pool of making sort of pushing noises Hannah asked me to try to wee as I hadn’t in a while, so I stood in the pool, but still couldn’t. She suggested we go upstairs to sit on the loo and try, I still couldn’t. By this point I knew I needed a catheter fitted and really wanted it, so I could keep things moving. She asked where I would like to do this, I chose the bedroom and the process was absolutely fine, it didn’t hurt at all and was such a relief when my bladder was empty. This was probably between 8.30-9pm.

I moved to kneeling on the bed with Nick in front of me, with me moaning and squeezing his hands tight, then to kneeling on the floor. I could feel baby moving down the birth canal. It felt like a long process but apparently it wasn’t. It was about 1 hour. I could feel baby’s head moving down and then back up again. I felt a little stretch of the vulva as his head was appearing and I just really wanted to get his head out to relieve this pressure. The release once his head was out was amazing and then the next surge his whole body came out and baby boy was born at 9.47pm on the bedroom floor. Leaving a nice bloody stain on our bedroom carpet.

I looked at him on the floor whilst the midwife gave him a little rub and passed him to me, put a towel around us and his little hat on. We sat back in bed for cuddles.

I moved to toilet after an hour to give birth to placenta as it hadn’t come out from lying on the bed. I sat on the loo, midwife asked me to give a big push and it came out in two. Funny slippery smooth sensation. Had vagina inspected after a while, needed a few stitches but not many, a very minor second degree tear, some stitches to labia and a few internal in my vagina. Had the local anaesthetic injection which was fine. And then they stitched me up. All was totally manageable. They offered me gas and air for the local anaesthetic, but said that would mean one of the midwives would have to drive to the hospital to get the tube, which they had forgotten. I chose to do it without gas and air, and it was totally fine! Baby was on my chest feeding whilst they did the sewing which was enough distraction.

Midwife showed us the placenta after, whilst she checked it was full, to ensure no bits had been left inside me. It looked all good.

I had no medical pain relief for my labour. It was an amazing experience and I feel so lucky I have been able to give birth at home. It wasn’t as hard as I had thought it might be. Of course it was intense and absolutely exhausting! Nick was great at giving me water throughout and a couple of jelly babies. The hypnobirthing tracks were literally all I listened to on repeat for hours. I would zone in and out of listening to them and then focus on breathing through the surges. The positive affirmation cards I’d had around the house during pregnancy helped me to remain positive and stop myself when a negative thought entered my head. Mindset is everything. Good luck to all the soon to be mummy’s. You were made for this!

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