My positive homebirth story as a first time mum! 

 

Clara arrived at 1pm on Friday the 26th of November (40+4) and weighed exactly 7lbs. Labour lasted 11 hours from start to finish and she swam into the world in our birthing pool!

 

After a nice autumnal dog walk and fajita night with friends Thursday night, I woke up at 2am Friday morning with a pain in my tummy. I knew my mum would be getting up for work so texted her that I thought I might of had a contraction and she agreed that baby was coming today because she could ‘feel it in her bones’. 45 minutes after that initial text I texted her back saying ‘ouch, that one hurt ’ which is when it sank in for me that labour had started.

 

I let my boyfriend sleep for the first two hours of contractions which were quite mild to start with, rocking on my birthing ball and just staring at his sleeping face. As the contractions got more powerful I held onto his hand and woke him up. When he realised I was in labour he popped on a film and got me some water and cereal. I started off with pacing the bedroom and hanging from his neck/shoulders during contractions and swaying my hips. I sang along to some of the songs from my birth playlist which was making him laugh because he was surprised I was managing to stay so calm (thank you hypnobirthing). 

 

I had been planning to go to the shops that morning to pick up a tens machine and really wished I had it at this point. I’d been having contractions for three hours and they were lasting about 30 seconds each with only small spaces of time between. We rang the labour line at 6:30am while I led in a hot bath to let them know I was in labour and to answer all the main questions, because I knew when we rang them back later to send the midwives I wouldn’t want to have to answer lots of annoying questions! (Note: it is really annoying to be asked if you’ve taken paracetamol during labour, feels so patronising!)

 

At this point I was smiling through some contractions with happy tears because I was so excited to meet her, even when I started vomiting up everything I had in me. My boyfriend went downstairs to help his mum set up the birthing pool while his brothers girlfriend rubbed my back. We timed two contractions lasting 2 minutes each and another lasting 1 minute 30 within 8 minutes, so I begged her to ring labour line back to send the midwives. I’d been in labour for five hours and just knew that time to push wasn’t too far away. 

 

When my mum arrived, I waited for a gap in the contractions to go downstairs, praying the pool was ready. It still wasn’t, so leaned over the sofa and carried on breathing through my contractions which seemed to last forever and were so strong! The midwife called and said she was 45 minutes away. It was a good job I asked her to make sure to bring the gas and air, as she had to then stop at the hospital on the way to pick it up! I genuinely believe if she had turned up without it there would have been some drama from me, I’d had no pain relief so far and was knackered. 

 

The midwife arrived at 10am just minutes after I was able to get in the pool (MASSIVE relief) and asked if I’d like my dilation to be assessed which I declined. I assessed the progress of the baby myself, and could feel her head with the tip of my fingers. I’d managed to get 9/10cm dilated without pain relief within 8 hours. I used the gas and air while my boyfriend using our calming hypnobirthing techniques to keep me relaxed and in control. He talked me through our positive affirmations and the midwives were mostly hands off, only checking the babies heart rate between some contractions, and taking a look for babies head with a mirror. Amazingly her heart rate didn’t dip or increase at any point of the labour - she was so relaxed!

 

At some point when it became time to push my waters finally broke. I kept switching between pushing on my knees and floating on my back, pushing my feet against the pool. I continued to check the babies progress myself, saying she was an inch away, then saying her head was right there. The pressure was indescribable but I was so excited to meet her. The midwives warned that transition was coming and reminded me not to let the adrenaline cause me panic. When transition came, I found myself shouting ‘come on baby you can do it! You can’t stay there!’ So funny to think I was quite loopy on the gas and air, and rather than panicking I was cheering her on. At some point at this stage I turned to my mum and said ‘god mum you look pale’, which I remember she was. 

 

Pushes went from big pushes to lots of small ones, and her head came out up to her ears. Then suddenly, her whole body torpedoed out in one go. The relief I felt was amazing. The midwives caught her and brought her up to my chest, and there was a loud ping as the umbilical cord snapped. This then flooded the pool with blood from her cord, and the midwives worked quickly to clamp it on her end and mine. My mum managed to record her entrance into the world and watching it back all I kept saying was ‘wow, wow, wow, wow, wow’. 

 

As I looked down at her on my chest she was wide awake, eyes wide open staring at me and not crying, just chilling. Such a super calm, relaxed little baby! We called my boyfriends mum into the room so she could see her, soon followed by my boyfriends sister. It was amazing to have family around me that day as I felt so supported and couldn’t have done any of it without every person who was there and played a part.

 

So that was the birth, which was incredible. Unfortunately my plans for after this stage didn’t quite go to plan! As baby had skin to skin time with her dad, I was struggling to push out the placenta. I tried squatting, sitting on the toilet, the injection, an in and out catheter to drain my bladder, some wiggling from the midwives, but it just wouldn’t budge. My dreams of just getting into bed with a dominos and bottle of Bucks Fizz were soon met with the reality check of a trip to the hospital. 

 

I was blue lighted to Basingstoke with my midwife and baby, while my boyfriend drove to meet us there. At the hospital, about 4 more people tried to pull the placenta out. As the umbilical cord was so brittle, and the placenta still being so high up, no progress was made. It was honestly agony as people tried to pull it out and found myself crying and begging them to stop, then try again, then stop. I so wanted it to come out so we could go home but my placenta really did just want to stick around as a souvenir.

 

I ended up with a spinal injection and trip into theatre. I was still quite high from the gas and air and found myself laughing at the doctor who I was watching go elbow deep, saying ‘wow this is like Yorkshire vet but I’m the cow’. I also requested them to stick the coil in while they were there (nice logic there Megs) but the surgeon just replied ‘go see your GP’ . 

 

I’ll be honest, it took a lot of deep conversations with my boyfriend afterwards to not let all the pain from theatre, cannulas, injections, catheters. internal interventions etc from bringing me down after a magical, independent and relaxing homebirth. The placenta not coming out was completely out of my control, and the doctor reassured me that no matter how much I could have tried or they could have tried, once they’d removed the placenta they knew the trip to theatre would’ve been unavoidable as it really hadn’t wanted to budge. It was important to remind myself that some things are just out of your control, but it’s about tackling the situation fully informed, with calmness and an open mind.  

 

All the positive support and praise from my boyfriend for how I’d managed to safely deliver our perfect baby girl meant the world and I look back on the birth proudly and positively. It really is my proudest achievement. The midwives said to me that I had really impressed them with my calmness, especially as a first time mum, and had set the standard for home births and should consider a career path in midwifery  

 

The three of us had to stay in hospital overnight and I was in agony from some bad haemorrhoids. It made it impossible to sit or lay comfortably, walk, or get the baby in and out of the crib, but my boyfriend never left my side and took so much responsibility taking care of both of us all night. He truly was incredible from start to finish and we have never felt closer and proud of each other. 

 

We have been home now for 4 days and Clara is an angel. She is good as gold and so beautiful. She’s a really peaceful little baby and I can’t help but think all the hypnobirthing practice throughout my pregnancy and during the labour could be playing a part in that!