Birth story - Nata and baby Luna

*Trigger warning* - Use of word contractions. Not negative to me.

Friday, 4th November, after my husband dropped our 4yo son (btw he was also born at home in water ) to pre school and my husband went out to buy me a birthday present (nov 7 is my birthday) I went for a nap. At about 1pm.

At 1:40 I woke up to the feeling that my vagina was filling with water then it all came out and got my underwear wet. Wasn’t loads.

(Exactly the same happened the night before)

I went to the bathroom to change and when I wiped I had a bit of blood.

Then at about 2pm I started to have mild contractions. Lasting 20-30 seconds. And coming every 2 minutes.

I called the home birth labour line. A midwife said she would come at 3pm.

She checked baby’s heart beat, my blood pressure etc and we chatted for about 2h. While I kept getting mild contractions.

Meanwhile my husband inflated the pool.

Midwife left at about 5pm. She said her shift finishes at 8pm.

My contractions were getting stronger and lasting longer.

I was using the comb in my palm to distract me from the pain. I was using the up breathing and visualisations. Walking around, dancing. Watching Gilmore Girls.

My husband got dinner ready for our 4yo son then got him ready for bed. After reading him a couple of books he said that he wanted me to put him to sleep. So I took my comb and went to bed. Laid in bed next my 4yo son waiting for him to fall asleep while I was having contractions. They were about 3 in 10.

Using the up breathing and the comb.

When he felt asleep I went back downstairs and my husband and I were watching Gilmore Girls. Then listening to music. I was sitting on the pregnancy ball. Sofa. Got inside the dry pool and leaned over the edge etc

At about 10pm I felt sleepy so I went to bed. I put one of my Hypnobirthing tracks on. I was falling asleep in between contractions even though they were getting quiet strong.

At 11pm I woke up and told my husband to call the home birth labour line and ask the on call midwives to come because the contractions were strong and I was starting to feel pressure so I thought it wouldn’t be long. Also I started to bleed a bit.

My husband came and said: bad news… the on call midwives are at a different birth. First time mum and they can’t leave her also they don’t know how long they’re going to be there so they said we should call the hospital.

I started to shake… hello adrenaline… and said I don’t want to go to the hospital. Told my husband to just fill the pool and said that we’d call the ambulance if we needed one.

The look on his face poor… he said, “but I’m not a midwife, what if something goes wrong??” So I said ok.. call the hospital but let me check if Emma (my midwife, and she was my midwife with my first as well) is online on Facebook. She was online like 20 minutes ago so messaged her. I knew she was not working that night I just wanted her opinion what should I do.

Meanwhile my husband called the hospital and they told him that the first midwife that came that day, who finished work at 8pm, would come to me as they had called to let her know! (She told us later that when she came earlier she saw how prepared and excited we were to have the home birth and she couldn’t let me go to the hospital!) they said she would be in 20 minutes.

I was sooo happy that I could have my home birth!

Meanwhile, my midwife got back to me. At about 11:50pm and said that Kate (1st midwife) is around the corner and she is coming as her second.

Her message: “keep calm, trust your body, you are about to meet your beautiful baby, breathe and relax.

Can you hold on 20 mins? Kates round the corner but I’m on my way as her 2nd x”

She was at home in her pyjamas at 11:30pm then after midnight she was in my living room massaging my lower back and whispering positive and empowering affirmations to me!!

My husband started to fill the pool and oh my God we have the slowest tap in the world, took aaaaaages.

I was having strong contractions. I was mooing and roaring. Leaning over the pool. Going on my knees.

Midwives were amazing. Checking baby’s heart beat without disturbing me. Massaging my back. Telling me soon I would meet my baby and reassuring me that me and my baby were safe and doing amazing.

I kept saying I needed to poop, which was the baby but I could feel like I needed to poop so I said I need to go to the toilet. Went upstairs, sat on the toilet and more liquid came out and I said ohhh this stingsssss!

Midwife said you wanna give birth on the toilet or you wanna go downstairs on the sofa?

Downstairs I went. A couple of minutes later there was just enough water in the pool for me to go in. But still not perfect amount so I had to go low on my knees. I said ok. Got in. Water felt so nice. Midwives and my husband were pouring water on my back. I kept touching myself down to see if I could feel the head. I could feel the lines on baby’s head. But it was still quite far. And as soon as there was enough water in the pool for me not to need to stay low. In one push she all came out. At 00:47

Covered in vernix. Midwife unwrapped the cord that was around her neck I think. Baby did a short cry then felt asleep.

I was the one that found out she is girl. Like I always “knew”. I had a feeling she was a girl from the very beginning.

We sat in the pool for a bit. Did skin to skin then moved to the sofa. For more skin to skin and the first feed. I had the natural 3rd stage. Placenta was delivered about 20 minutes later.

At about 2am our 4yo son woke up and came downstairs to meet his baby sister. It was perfect!

My husband cut the cord. Baby Luna did 2 massive poos on me while we were doing skin to skin

While I went upstairs to have a shower (helped by one of the midwives) Luna did skin to skin with her dad.

Then midwives checked her weight. She was 7lbs 7oz (3kg 380g).

Midwives clean and tidied everything. Emptied the pool. And they left at about 3am and we all went to bed.

The 4yo didn’t fall asleep until 5:20am. Too happy and excited to be a big brother

The experience was amazing. So empowering and euphoric. But very different than my first home birth. My first was back to back. Water never broke. He was born in the sac. Labour was muuuch longer and I was much more in the zone. This time I was very much in the moment and remember every single second of it.

I will post my first birth story soon.

I feel extremely lucky to have such an amazing home birth team (Highfield Home Birth Team). Where midwives really care about you and come to your birth at midnight even though they’re not on call

Immeasurable gratitude.