Birth story - Polly and Baby Vita

I would like to tell you all about the very positive beautiful birth of my perfect daughter Vita.

Last April my waters broke at 25 weeks with my twin boys Ray and Fred. I sadly developed sepsis and ended up having the labour induced. They were born and sadly only had a short time with us.

I have a 3.5 year old boy who is well but was also premature at 35 weeks.

I became pregnant in September and had a very difficult pregnancy full of strong contractions from 21 weeks and anxiety that was through the roof. I took time of work to relax and as the weeks went by this baby became more of a reality. But the memory of hospital machines, the beeps, the drips, the hospital rooms triggered deep fear in me. Every time I ended up on labour ward for checks my blood pressure went through the roof.

My partner suggested we did some hypnobirthing training and was recommended the digital pack by a colleague. We settled in and spent our evenings watching. Learning about choice and control over birth. Leaning breathing and ways he could support me. We never dreamed we would reach a gestation where home birth was feasible so we planned the for a labour ward birth in a way that would empower us this time.

36 weeks came and we realised a home birth was in our reach. I was nervous but committed to the idea of having this baby at home and everything that entailed. We set it all up got the pool delivered and 37 weeks came and we were ready for home birth!

We struggled to get our consultant to agree she even said “after everything you have been through I am surprised you don’t want me to do you a caesarean”! We had another problem, our baby was measuring big above 95%, and the consultant said after 39 weeks she couldn’t support homebirth and would want to start induction.

The home birth team were amazing and were committed to helping me get the birth I wanted. On consultants advice we started sweeps at 37 weeks. After a number of sweeps I went into labour at 38+3 days.

My contractions started at 3 am and my daughter was born at home peacefully at 9.40am after an empowering, intense and wonderful experience. The hypnobirthing mindset and breathing methods powered me through.

Keep up the good work spreading the word about alternative ways of approaching birth.