Birth story - Shauna and baby boy

We had planned a homebirth from the moment we found out we were pregnant. Fast forward to 38 weeks, in a routine check, my blood pressure had dramatically risen which needed to be reviewed in hospital. The advice was to induce labour at 38 weeks. I used my BRAIN and asked whether there were any alternatives, it was agreed that I would take blood pressure medication and have daily monitoring. Fast forward to 40 weeks and 3 days, my blood pressure spiked again and using BRAIN I decided to follow my intuition and started with an induction. At the time it was difficult to accept our birth plan was about to change dramatically, however I knew that this was the safest option for us to take. My partner was amazing and certainly was ‘the keeper of the cave’. He quickly got to work on arranging our room in a way that suited us and our needs. He covered the room in fairy lights, battery powered candles and played our birthing play list. He even asked the midwives to find a diffuser for our essential oils. 12 hours before our son was born, my heart rate spiked again and we were now in the danger zone. We were presented with different options and we used our BRAIN and asked all medical professionals to leave while we discussed our plan of action. We accepted an epidural as we felt this would give us the best chance of a vaginal delivery. Our son was born 12 hours later, which was the most incredible, empowering and emotional experience of my life.

Even though our labour didn’t go according to plan, The Positive Birth Company gave us the tools we needed to ensure our birth was right for us while facing obstacles that we never thought we would. We also spoke to the midwives regarding our plans at home and they made sure this was as close to what we wanted as possible. I took the photo of my son attached to his placenta which was incredibly important to me, we had delayed cord clamping of 50 minutes and they used our umbilical cord ties instead of the plastic clips and we kept the placenta for a placenta print.