Birth story - Mum and baby girl

I was determined this wouldn’t be an epic, but seems I have written war and peace...apologies!

I was really keen to look into hypnobirthing this time round, I’d dabbled with the basics for the birth of my son, but didn’t really get to grips with or fully understand it. The birth of my son didn’t go to plan, really long latent labour then he was stuck with the cord round his shoulders so I couldn’t get him out! Ended up with an emergency transfer to hospital, spinal block and forceps and episiotomy in theatre.

I loved how much the digital pack allowed me to understand where things may have gone wrong with my first birth, for example my anxiety surrounding hospitals meant that the surges would die off every time I went into the MLU. The pack really helped me to compartmentalise my first birth and move on from it.

I hadn’t considered home birth before doing the pack; when the midwife asked me if I’d considered it at my booking appointment I laughed it off; ‘no no, I’ve not long had the carpets done...’ however the more I learned about home birth the more it seemed like the logical choice for me.

I’d been having Braxton hicks for weeks leading up to labour, to the point that I almost obsessed looking for the plug and hoping everything was kicking off! After a difficult pregnancy with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) and struggling with insomnia I was desperate for the baby to pitch up! I kept thinking of the affirmation; ‘my baby will come when my baby is ready...but if she could get a bloody move on that would be cracking!’

After obsessively looking for a show, my labour kicked off with my waters breaking. My husband and I were watching university challenge and he scored more points than me which was annoying, but I’d been bouncing on my ball whilst watching and we were joking around and had felt and heard a little pop but not thought much of it. Then when I stood up it became clear my waters had broken, really strange as this hadn’t happened in my previous birth! Due to staff shortage we had to go into the MLU for them to confirm that my waters had gone. I wasn’t keen to do this, however after being assured I could return home afterwards I agreed.

We blew up the pool before we left and got a few last minute bits ready, but stayed calm and didn’t rush. As well as getting my in laws to collect our son and calling my sister who was our second birth partner. My surges were coming about every 7/8 minutes at this point, but were totally manageable with breathing.

When we arrived at the MLU my surges had completely died off, not surprising given my anxiety concerning being there. Fortunately we were assessed super quickly and allowed to return home with a warning that I’d have 24 hours to get into labour.

At home I put on some comedy on tv and made sure I had some water. At this point I had to got to the loo quickly and quite frequently which I knew was a sign that things were progressing. Within about an hour of being at home my surges were back and had increased in intensity and were coming around 3 in 10 minutes. I was still coping with breathing, but decided to put the tens machine on at this point. I really liked this, I’d not used one before, but found it a really good distraction, particularly using the boost button during surges.

My husband called the midwives shortly after and asked them to come out. Probably we should have called sooner, but I was reluctant as I didn’t want to be told I wasn’t as far along as I thought. As it happened it took them around an hour to arrive as they had to wait for cover at the MLU. During this time everything ramped up a notch and I really needed my husband to remind me to breathe and keep calm. Hence why it was super useful to have my sister there too, she was able to fill the pool and set all of that up while my husband could support me.

When the midwife and student midwife arrived they read my birth preferences and bought in their kit. They then asked to examine me and listen to the baby’s heartbeat. In hindsight I’m not sure they really needed to examine me, it must have been obvious that I was definitely in established labour! However I agreed as I was reluctant to get into the pool too soon. I had difficulty lying down to be examined and had to stand up quickly a few times as the surges were so powerful. The midwife said I was 7cms which I was so happy with!

I pretty much immediately had a bit of a wobble then, which I recognised as transition, I remember whining like my toddler that I wanted to get in the pool! My sister was boiling pans and the kettle to get the temperature up to 37. I started to feel my body wanting to push, I think being told I was 7cms helped me to progress very quickly. I also gave gas and air a bit of a go here, but again, like a petulant toddler threw it on the floor as I was getting annoyed with trying to combine that and my tens machine!

I finally got into the pool and the relief was incredible, the surges stopped for a couple of minutes which gave me enough time to relax properly in the pool. Then my body began pushing, the midwife couldn’t believe it had happened so quickly, literally about 15 minutes after she’d examined me. But I told her I could feel baby’s head moving up and down.

This happened about 4 or 5 times and then her head was born. Followed very quickly by the rest of her! I did use some gas and air here, just at the last stage. But it felt amazing to have achieved what I’d not managed to last time and that I’d got to feel her being born. We had immediate skin to skin in the pool and were able to delay cutting the cord until it stopped pulsing. All of this happened 20 minutes after getting into the pool, my total established labour time is recorded as 59 minutes!!

Unfortunately this is where it all went slightly off script; the placenta delivered very quickly and I started to loose quite I bit of blood. The baby was cut away and the student midwife checked her whilst I had to be helped out of the pool and was a little light headed for a while. The midwife gave me an injection to help stop the bleeding as I’d lost some large clots and this is when the second midwife arrived!!

The bleeding did slow, but the midwife suggested I transfer to hospital because of the blood loss, and also to have a 2nd degree tear repaired. However we weren’t an emergency and the paramedics were happy to wait a good 45mins whilst baby had her first feed.

Although the ending didn’t quite go to plan I feel very lucky and proud to have achieved a home birth with little pain relief. The tools I learned doing the digital pack were invaluable and I recommend it to every pregnant woman I know! In terms of home birth I’d definitely recommend it, I certainly think I was able to progress much quicker for being in my own surroundings. Definitely have a second birth partner if you can though, as it allows your partner to fully focus on and be there for you.