Birth story - Olivia and baby Edward

After having a bit of a melt down on Wednesday at my 38 week midwife appointment, telling our midwife that I was going to end up being induced and that the home birth won’t happen, the midwife told me and joked with the student midwife that the baby was coming very soon from the way I look and I’m acting, I obviously didn’t believe her! Turns out she was right. That night I went to bed with very very mild cramps and thought nothing of it. I was rudely woken at 01:00 with a huge gush as my waters broke. I jumped out of bed which woke my husband who in a very sleepy state thought I’d wet myself. I rang the on call midwife who said if I hadn’t started contracting by 09:00 in the morning I needed to call back and they would send someone to check me. So back to bed I went. At 01:30 the contractions started and were quite intense they were every 3 minutes lasting 1 minute. I couldn’t sit still and just found myself walking or standing and focusing on my breathing to get through them. I sent my husband back to bed as there was nothing he could do.

He woke at 06:00 and made me call the midwife, I really didn’t want to as I was managing well and didn’t really feel that I was in labour. But he told me I had to, so I gave in and called. Our midwife, who just happened to be on call that night arrived at 07:00 and examined me, I was 7cm dilated even though I still didn’t believe I was in labour. She call for a second midwife who arrived just after 08:00. Our midwife asked if the student midwife could come as she had never attended a home birth before, which of course I was more than happy with.

At about 09:00 I could feel my body start to push and the midwifes picked up on this by the noises I was making. They encouraged me to get down on all fours on the cushions as I was still just walking around waiting for the pool to fill. They said if I felt like it I could push with the next contraction which was such a relief. They said they could see the top of babies head so they abandoned filling the birth pool. The midwifes just stayed very quiet in the background and let my body lead which was just the most amazing feeling ever. My husband wiped my back and face with a cold flannel as we had to turn the heating on for the new arrival.

The dog was sat in his bed next to me watching the whole thing. At 09:48 he was out. No pain relief at all just breathing. Baby latched almost straight away and the placenta delivered naturally about 10 minutes later. I didn’t even tear! The whole experience was amazing and so empowering! I can’t stop smiling!!

I could not have done it without the digital pack! Thank you!! It gave me all the confidence I needed to trust my body. And it gave my husband confidence to agree to a home birth as he was a little apprehensive about it to begin with. He was able to pull things out of his ‘tool box’ to help keep me calm. He said he is so glad I stuck to my decision and chose to have a home birth against every saying it’s risky and we would be better in hospital.

Everyone meet baby Edward. We are both so happy. It feels like a dream.