Birth story - Natalie and baby Finlay

Firstly, I want to say a huge thank you to The Positive Birth Company for equipping us with the confidence and knowledge to make our birth experience such a positive one.

I had hoped early on in my pregnancy that I could have a home birth, however didn’t fully believe I could achieve it. PBC provided the essential tools; both educational and practical for myself and my husband to have the confidence that a natural, home birth could be possible. Up breathing was a complete game changer and enabled me to stay in control throughout.

Previous Labour

My first son was born at 38+1 at hospital naturally with an epidural, it was a fairly long labour (27 hrs from when my waters broke). I had used gas and air but this left me feeling like I was drunk and out of control.

This Pregnancy

I was very fortunate to have an uncomplicated pregnancy, and continued to stay active swimming until 35 weeks and walking right up until the day before labour.

Prior to Labour

At around 38 weeks I began to get cramps / braxton hicks in the evenings, particularly when I would get into bed, however these were irregular and would never build in intensity.

The days went passed and I found the affirmation “my baby will come when my baby is ready” really helpful. I was nervous for my 40 week appointment, as I really didn’t want to be pressured into booking sweeps and inductions as I had previously heard can happen at this appointment. I re-watched these videos to refresh my memory and it provided me with the confidence prior to the appointment to decline interventions should they be offered. My midwife was incredibly supportive and agreed that should myself and the baby continue to be healthy there should be no need to intervene.

At around 40+2 I noticed my mucus plug was beginning to come away, and continued infrequently for the next couple of days.

Labour

At 2am on 40+5 I woke to a strong focused cramp and a number of cramps which I tried to sleep / rest through. By 3am I began to time surges on the Freya app which were regularly 1 in 10 for 45 seconds -1min.

I wasn’t able to sleep through the surges, however put on a Zen Jungle playlist by Jayli (previous PBC mum and DJ who shared birth story). This playlist was amazing, and really helped me to enjoy and relax into my surges which were building in intensity. By 5am I felt the need to get on my birth ball as the intensity was too much lying down at this point. My husband, Greg woke and asked if I was ok. At which point I was confident to say that I was in labour!

At around 6am I took a shower and got dressed into my comfy clothes and Greg contacted my mum and dad to ask if they could come to get my son once they were ready, but not to rush.

My Mum and Dad arrived around 8am, and Harrison enjoyed his breakfast before heading off to gymnastics. I had a number of surges while they were all there, which I continued to focus and breath through.

At 9am Greg called the community midwife team, and we requested that the midwife come to visit us when she was available. She arrived around 10am. I had previously met her at one of my anti natal appointments and spoken on the phone; so it was really lovely to know I had a familiar face and someone who had read and been supportive of my birth preferences. We had a really calm hour or so with the midwife while she did my assessments and monitored my surges. My midwife already knew that I didn’t want to have any early VE’s. She was happy with how things were progressing and asked if we would like her to stay, or if we would like her to leave to do her home assessments nearby. We decided things may progress faster if we were alone, and that we would call if/when we needed her (feeling reassured that she was only 10 minutes away).

By midday the surges were building in intensity, and I was really having to focus on my up breathing (3/4 minutes apart lasting for 1-2minutes). At this point Greg was helping to keep me to stay focused on my breath and recovery. Also applying counter pressure to my lower back.

I remember feeling things change to a pushing down pressure, and hearing my breathing changing from flowing breathing to a deep ‘growl’ which must have been my transition. At this point I asked Greg to call the midwife to come back. She arrived back and I asked her if I could have my first vaginal assessment, I felt at this point I needed to know what was going on as I was wanting to get into the birth pool. I said that I was feeling the need to push, but maybe just needed to go to the toilet. She laughed and said that she thought I needed to have the baby. I tried to go to the toilet, and then agreed that it was the baby coming!

I managed to walk from the bathroom to the sofa in between surges for my VE, and discovered I was 8cm, which I was delighted about! I asked if I could go in the pool, however it was too hot, so Greg found the biggest soup pot in the kitchen and started emptying the pool, whilst the midwife wanted to check the baby’s heart rate. At this point the midwife was struggling to find the baby’s heart rate as he was sitting so low in my pelvis, which meant I was unable to get into the pool (she did eventually find it). I was feeling the intense need to push with each surge. The relief of birthing his head was so incredible that I asked if it had gone back up, and was even more relieved to know that it hadn’t!! At this point I reached down and felt his little hairy head, which was so amazing, it felt like a tiny dolls head. With one or two more pushes he was out and our midwife passed him through my legs and I got to hold our slippery little boy!

It was such an incredible experience to birth at home and lay down on the sofa after and take in every part of him in the comfort of our home. I naturally birthed the placenta while Finlay was feeding/latching. I had no tearing and required no stitches, which I put down to regular perennial massage from 32 weeks.

We had a really lovely chilled golden hour on the sofa. I then had the best shower, got my new jammies on and got into our bed with a cup of tea, toast and newborn snuggles. My mum and Dad brought Harrison back at 5pm for dinner and to meet his brand new little brother. We had a toast to the baby, and then Greg and I enjoyed champagne and a takeaway to celebrate whilst Harrison was tucked up in bed.

We feel so incredibly fortunate to have had such a positive experience which we believe was part physiological luck, but also down to gaining fantastic knowledge and practical tools from the PBC, as well as fantastic supportive care from the homebirth team, for which we will be forever grateful.

We are capable of so much more than we believe, the mind is such a powerful thing – you can do this!