KarenC
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Hi all. It's taken a while to get round to posting our birth story here - things have been a bit crazy at home, but I'm snatching the chance to write about our lovely home birth experience now.
I had planned to have a water birth at home and all the bits were in place. It was two days before my due date. I woke up at 4am on the morning of Sunday 17th June with a twingey feeling in my uterus. I waited until I had had three of them before telling my husband, then I got up because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep any more. I went downstairs where I practised some yoga, sat on my ball and did some sewing. By breakfast time the pains were irregular and reduced so we decided to go out as planned. We went to Beeston Castle and climbed the hill there. I had one quite strong contraction up on the summit, and lots of other twinges too. I thought they were just strong period pains rather than proper contractions, so we thought I'd have possibly days to go before I went into established labour. We went for lunch at an antiques centre, but the pains increased so we decided to head home.
We got home at 4pm. I took 2 paracetamol and tried to nap but the pains were getting stronger and more regular, so at 6pm I got up. At 6.30pm I thought I'd ring the labour ward to notify the community midwives that they would probably be attending a home birth that night. My contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart, but never lasted longer than 45 seconds. Some of them were as short as 20 seconds, so I still didn't think I was in established labour.
My first midwife, Rhian, rang me and told me to ring her back when I thought I couldn't cope with the pain any more. Hubby was running around the house prepping the birthing pool, fetching towels, cushions etc. We tried to eat some dinner but I couldn't eat more than a few mouthfuls. At 8pm I called Rhian back and she arrived at 8.30pm. Upon examining me she said 'Oh wow... you clever girl. You've just got a rim left on your cervix'
She quickly called the second midwife, Pat, to attend. She arrived at 9.15pm, by which time I was in the pool contracting hard and thinking about starting to push. The pool was lovely, but it slowed my contractions down a lot, so I got out eventually to labour next to it on the floor. The midwives and hubby just sat around me and we chatted between contractions about my grandma's 11 children, all sorts of things. It was quite jolly really...
I was sent upstairs to push on the loo a few times, during which I really felt like I was going to poo LO into the toilet bowl - it really worked though. I was helped back downstairs again to push some more. Her head was crowning really slowly and I couldn't push her past the 'bend', so her head was stuck half way out for ages. I alternated between leaning forward on my knees and squatting backwards supported by my husband. The midwives were so encouraging and hands-off. They just sat and watched and talked me through it, monitoring LO's heartbeat regularly. After a few more mammoth pushes in a squat position, at 11.16pm baby's head was finally born, followed in the same push by the rest of her body. She was fighting fit, with an APGAR score of 9, screaming her lungs out and bright pink. I couldn't be happier with how well she looked. We found that she was a girl. Hubby cut the cord, then they handed her over to hubby whilst I was cleaned up. Finally they offered me gas and air for stitching - I didn't think do ask for any pain relief at all during labour! It seemed OK to me. Almost overwhelmingly painful at the same time, but what a feeling it is! I have never felt so much power in my body before - it was truly amazing.
I had one stitch in a tear and a graze. They set me up under a quilt in the room in which I gave birth and I started breast feeding immediately. The midwives stayed for two hours, filling forms, tidying up and keeping an eye on me and baby, before leaving a 1am. My husband was wonderfully supportive throughout and so proud of me. I'll admit, I was pretty proud of myself, and since then, our birth story has become the stuff of legend amongst our community midwives
I am delighted by my experience and wouldn't hesitate to do it at home again. I never felt scared and was so well looked after - I am so grateful to our midwives for encouraging us to try for a home birth.
We are totally in love with our baby. Tilly has been a handful in the last week but we are finally getting the hang of things... maybe one day I'll actually get out of my pyjamas...
Well done if you've read all of this! Sorry for the essay.
xxx
I had planned to have a water birth at home and all the bits were in place. It was two days before my due date. I woke up at 4am on the morning of Sunday 17th June with a twingey feeling in my uterus. I waited until I had had three of them before telling my husband, then I got up because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep any more. I went downstairs where I practised some yoga, sat on my ball and did some sewing. By breakfast time the pains were irregular and reduced so we decided to go out as planned. We went to Beeston Castle and climbed the hill there. I had one quite strong contraction up on the summit, and lots of other twinges too. I thought they were just strong period pains rather than proper contractions, so we thought I'd have possibly days to go before I went into established labour. We went for lunch at an antiques centre, but the pains increased so we decided to head home.
We got home at 4pm. I took 2 paracetamol and tried to nap but the pains were getting stronger and more regular, so at 6pm I got up. At 6.30pm I thought I'd ring the labour ward to notify the community midwives that they would probably be attending a home birth that night. My contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart, but never lasted longer than 45 seconds. Some of them were as short as 20 seconds, so I still didn't think I was in established labour.
My first midwife, Rhian, rang me and told me to ring her back when I thought I couldn't cope with the pain any more. Hubby was running around the house prepping the birthing pool, fetching towels, cushions etc. We tried to eat some dinner but I couldn't eat more than a few mouthfuls. At 8pm I called Rhian back and she arrived at 8.30pm. Upon examining me she said 'Oh wow... you clever girl. You've just got a rim left on your cervix'
She quickly called the second midwife, Pat, to attend. She arrived at 9.15pm, by which time I was in the pool contracting hard and thinking about starting to push. The pool was lovely, but it slowed my contractions down a lot, so I got out eventually to labour next to it on the floor. The midwives and hubby just sat around me and we chatted between contractions about my grandma's 11 children, all sorts of things. It was quite jolly really...
I was sent upstairs to push on the loo a few times, during which I really felt like I was going to poo LO into the toilet bowl - it really worked though. I was helped back downstairs again to push some more. Her head was crowning really slowly and I couldn't push her past the 'bend', so her head was stuck half way out for ages. I alternated between leaning forward on my knees and squatting backwards supported by my husband. The midwives were so encouraging and hands-off. They just sat and watched and talked me through it, monitoring LO's heartbeat regularly. After a few more mammoth pushes in a squat position, at 11.16pm baby's head was finally born, followed in the same push by the rest of her body. She was fighting fit, with an APGAR score of 9, screaming her lungs out and bright pink. I couldn't be happier with how well she looked. We found that she was a girl. Hubby cut the cord, then they handed her over to hubby whilst I was cleaned up. Finally they offered me gas and air for stitching - I didn't think do ask for any pain relief at all during labour! It seemed OK to me. Almost overwhelmingly painful at the same time, but what a feeling it is! I have never felt so much power in my body before - it was truly amazing.
I had one stitch in a tear and a graze. They set me up under a quilt in the room in which I gave birth and I started breast feeding immediately. The midwives stayed for two hours, filling forms, tidying up and keeping an eye on me and baby, before leaving a 1am. My husband was wonderfully supportive throughout and so proud of me. I'll admit, I was pretty proud of myself, and since then, our birth story has become the stuff of legend amongst our community midwives
I am delighted by my experience and wouldn't hesitate to do it at home again. I never felt scared and was so well looked after - I am so grateful to our midwives for encouraging us to try for a home birth.
We are totally in love with our baby. Tilly has been a handful in the last week but we are finally getting the hang of things... maybe one day I'll actually get out of my pyjamas...
Well done if you've read all of this! Sorry for the essay.
xxx
congratulations x Tilly is gorgeous!!!
