littlebump
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Hi all
I thought now things had settled down a bit I'd post the story of my homebirth!
You may be aware that I'd had some reflexology and homeopathy on 19th May in the hope that it would move things along, even though I wasn't due until 1st June (I was suffering badly with SPD and baby had been fully engaged for weeks). Well it seemed to do the trick as I had mild & irregular contractions on 20th and went into labour around 3pm on 21st May.
Things got stronger throughout the afternoon and my Doula came over around 11pm that night by which time contractions were still 5 minutes apart but pretty intense. We were using the TENS machine for pain relief and around 4am we called the Midwife out. She arrived at 4.30am but I was unfortunately only 3 cms dilated - very disappointing as I was in a lot of pain and thought I'd have progressed a lot more. So I sent here home thinking I'd be hours........ Well at 5.45am I felt like I didn't want to cope any longer without gas and air so we called the midwife back and asked her to swing by the hospital to pick up more gas and air (otherwise I'd only have enough for 1 + half hours and I thought I'd be ages yet). Well before she'd even arrived I was feeling the urge to push so the Doula phoned her again and said scrap the extra gas - just get here ASAP to catch the baby! She arrived at about 6.15am and minutes later my waters broke. She told me i was fully dilated and to start pushing. I couldn't believe it!
Then there was a panic as MW checked the heartbeat through the first 'pushing' contraction and said firmly that I wasn't to mess about, she needed me to push this baby out NOW. I've never been so terrified in all my life, and thought we'd made a dreadful mistake opting to have a homebirth. I ignored the pain and did exactly what I was told - pushing and panting as instructed. After just 8 + half minutes my angel was born. She cried straight away and I can't describe the relief.
Because I'd managed a drug free labour and birth I decided to opt for natural delivery of the placenta - that took just 10 minutes. Amazingly in spite of the speed, I didn't even suffer so much as a graze! It turned out that her heart rate had dropped to 80 bpm during the contraction but hadn't recovered which is why the MW wanted her out straight away.
Unfortunately afterwards things went a bit wrong - it was great to start with - I fed her twice, we were all sitting around chatting and drinking cups of tea etc saying how lovely it had been to be at home. The midwife was still with us as she couldn't leave until I'd been to the toilet. But a couple of hours after she was born I started to haemorrhage and the Midwife couldn't work out why. She re-checked and couldn't see any tears so gave me an injection to try and stop the bleeding. Then I passed out and she called an ambulance. So I took the blue-light trip to the hospital where they found out my uterus kept relaxing causing a rapid loss of blood, and then contracting again (so everytime MW checked, my uterus was contracted and seemed 'normal'!) In addition I had a huge clot which was keeping my cervix open. So my drug free home birth ended with 2 hours in theatre under general anaesthetic and 3 days in hospital
Anyway thankfully everything turned out OK and she is really well, and I'm fine now though I'll be on iron tablets for another 5-6 weeks or so.
Though things didn't turn out exactly as I'd have wanted, I'm pleased I had her at home and would definitely do it again at home if I was allowed. I feel very proud that I managed on just a TENS machine throughout - I'm certain that would not have been the case had I opted for a hospital birth.
LBxx
I thought now things had settled down a bit I'd post the story of my homebirth!
You may be aware that I'd had some reflexology and homeopathy on 19th May in the hope that it would move things along, even though I wasn't due until 1st June (I was suffering badly with SPD and baby had been fully engaged for weeks). Well it seemed to do the trick as I had mild & irregular contractions on 20th and went into labour around 3pm on 21st May.
Things got stronger throughout the afternoon and my Doula came over around 11pm that night by which time contractions were still 5 minutes apart but pretty intense. We were using the TENS machine for pain relief and around 4am we called the Midwife out. She arrived at 4.30am but I was unfortunately only 3 cms dilated - very disappointing as I was in a lot of pain and thought I'd have progressed a lot more. So I sent here home thinking I'd be hours........ Well at 5.45am I felt like I didn't want to cope any longer without gas and air so we called the midwife back and asked her to swing by the hospital to pick up more gas and air (otherwise I'd only have enough for 1 + half hours and I thought I'd be ages yet). Well before she'd even arrived I was feeling the urge to push so the Doula phoned her again and said scrap the extra gas - just get here ASAP to catch the baby! She arrived at about 6.15am and minutes later my waters broke. She told me i was fully dilated and to start pushing. I couldn't believe it!
Then there was a panic as MW checked the heartbeat through the first 'pushing' contraction and said firmly that I wasn't to mess about, she needed me to push this baby out NOW. I've never been so terrified in all my life, and thought we'd made a dreadful mistake opting to have a homebirth. I ignored the pain and did exactly what I was told - pushing and panting as instructed. After just 8 + half minutes my angel was born. She cried straight away and I can't describe the relief.
Because I'd managed a drug free labour and birth I decided to opt for natural delivery of the placenta - that took just 10 minutes. Amazingly in spite of the speed, I didn't even suffer so much as a graze! It turned out that her heart rate had dropped to 80 bpm during the contraction but hadn't recovered which is why the MW wanted her out straight away.
Unfortunately afterwards things went a bit wrong - it was great to start with - I fed her twice, we were all sitting around chatting and drinking cups of tea etc saying how lovely it had been to be at home. The midwife was still with us as she couldn't leave until I'd been to the toilet. But a couple of hours after she was born I started to haemorrhage and the Midwife couldn't work out why. She re-checked and couldn't see any tears so gave me an injection to try and stop the bleeding. Then I passed out and she called an ambulance. So I took the blue-light trip to the hospital where they found out my uterus kept relaxing causing a rapid loss of blood, and then contracting again (so everytime MW checked, my uterus was contracted and seemed 'normal'!) In addition I had a huge clot which was keeping my cervix open. So my drug free home birth ended with 2 hours in theatre under general anaesthetic and 3 days in hospital
Anyway thankfully everything turned out OK and she is really well, and I'm fine now though I'll be on iron tablets for another 5-6 weeks or so.
Though things didn't turn out exactly as I'd have wanted, I'm pleased I had her at home and would definitely do it again at home if I was allowed. I feel very proud that I managed on just a TENS machine throughout - I'm certain that would not have been the case had I opted for a hospital birth.
LBxx
