NEW SHOOTS AND NEW ARRIVALS…A HOME BIRTH STORY
A very happy season of new growth, green shoots and beautiful spring flowers to you all!
There have been lots of gorgeous new spring arrivals in our Birth community here in Bath, Wiltshire and North Somerset.
Seems like a gorgeous moment to share an inspirational homebirth story.
Storm came and told us her story at our monthly Bath home birth group meet up last month, and I am super grateful to her for writing it down so that we can share it with a wider audience!
Enjoy! XX
“Our beautiful rainbow baby girl was born at 38+2 weeks. Having been trying/preparing for a baby for some years, I've spent countless hours learning about the physiology of labour and birth. I was determined to have a beautiful birth experience, not just for me, but for my baby and my partner as well.
Initially, I wanted a free birth, just myself and my partner, Russ, but we decided to explore our options. Here in Somerset, we have an NHS homebirth midwifery team (Hummingbird team), who work frequently with local private doulas at births. I reached out to other mums locally for their homebirth stories with the Hummingbird team, which were very positive. And we decided to proceed with them, but to also have clearly outlined birth preferences and Russ was clear on my choices/boundaries for consent on varying scenarios. They are still NHS midwives, and they will offer what their policy advises under varying situations, but we can ask questions, and we can decline. We're lucky where we live, that the home birthing team is understanding in our right to decline their suggestions and interventions.
Birth story:
Friday 20/2 I woke up to a very busy baby wiggling and kicking in my tummy, 12:30am I felt a 'pop', she'd pushed herself down and ruptured my waters. Followed with slight period pain aches on and off for about 6 hours in total. I'd left Russ to sleep, as not much was happening, and if labour did kick off, he'd need his rest to support me. At 4am he'd woke up, and we called the midwifery team, they came out and checked me and the baby were good, checked the fluid on my pad, etc. My blood pressure was a little high, they let me take the BP monitor with me to lay in bed and test once I'd calmed my white-coat-syndrome and BP tested fine. They advised that should I not go into labour in 24 hours, I would be auto added to the induction list and receive a phone call offering an induction. I told them that I would decline, so please don't phone me at midnight to offer induction lol.
They were fine with this and off they went.
Saturday, we had a good day, prepped the birth pool ready to be filled when the time came, set up a midwife station in the kitchen with tea/coffee/biscuits/copy of my birth preferences. We walked the dog, and baked a cake to celebrate that our daughter was coming into this world soon
And we went to bed as normal. Russ woke up to my breathing having changed and knew it was starting but he left me to sleep. At 12:35am I woke up to strong contractions. We phoned the midwife triage about 10 mins later to give them a heads up that labour was starting. They'd asked that we call back when contractions were under 5 mins apart. 2 hours later, we let them know that surges were under 5 mins apart and heavy, with pressure in my pelvis and lower back. They asked about the amniotic fluid, I told them there was a pink hue, they advised we should go into hospital, I already knew the pink hue was normal and nothing to worry about so we told them we wouldn't be relocating to the hospital, for them to please let the homebirth team know to head out to us. Russ filled the birth pool and put the cover on to keep it warm.
From the moment contractions started, Russ was AMAZING. He'd been clear early on in our pregnancy, that he wanted to be my birth partner, he would advocate for me on my birth preferences under any intervention scenarios or offers, he would support me in bringing our child into this world.
We moved between our bedroom and the bathroom, Russ kept me hydrated, supported, putting pressure on my back and massaging as required. We kept verbal communications to a minimum to keep me in the zone, communicating with our eyes and body language felt so natural and effortless. Gently reassuring Russ on any situation he seemed uncertain about. About 4am, I started experiencing pushing contractions. I was feeling the need to prop my leg up and open, after a few contractions, and not wanting to birth on the bathroom floor, at 4:15am we moved downstairs and I got in the birth pool. Surges were frequent and very intense, I was sure the baby was moving downward, I was squeezing Russ' hands, using my wave comb and grateful for the relief of the water in the pool with each surge. At 4.45am the homebirth midwives arrived - Katherine and Kirsty. They'd suggested that I come out of the pool for a VE to establish where in my labour I was, I didn't want to do this so I ignored them for a couple of contractions, when they'd asked again, I waited until the next surge and used my own hand to feel below, and I could feel our baby's head crowning! I told the midwives, 'I feel head!' And they rushed into preparations, Kirsty used a mirror behind me and confirmed she could see a head coming through. As the contraction ended, her head slid back inside, on the next one her head came fully out (there was a point where I thought the head was out and stopped pushing, but Kirsty let me know her head wasn't quite fully there and with another slight push her head was cleared). I then expected a break of 1-2 minutes before the next contraction, but it came on almost immediately, and before I knew it, I'd caught my baby girl in my arms and looked up to find Russ. The cord was around her neck, which I knew was common and rarely an issue. The midwife helped to untangle the cord and I pulled her to my chest for skin-to-skin.
Russ described the labour experience as being high off my endorphines/hormones being released . What an incredible experience to share with your partner we were so in-tune with eachother, the midwives respected this and didn't push him out of the way when they arrived.
After a while, Katherine suggested moving us to the sofa as the temp of the pool had got a little cold, the midwives had laid towels and puppy pads on our sofa and they helped Russ to support me in moving from pool to sofa. Once there we were left to snuggle and experience our baby being born into existence. My hips were particularly sore and the midwives gave me some gas and air for some relief and also helped me to change position when I'd asked. After about an hour, my hips still aching, I was offered syntometrine to release my placenta, I declined. The midwives then assisted me to get upstairs and sit on the toilet, where the placenta was released naturally and caught in a pan pre placed in the toilet. The cord was completely white, the midwives then clamped and had Russ cut the cord. Russ confirmed the cord was completely white and had been left attached for an hour before cutting - as I was still out of it and had no concept of time.
From here, we told the midwives we intended to keep the placenta, they put this in the freezer for us after they checked it/showed us the placenta. I was assisted into bed with our baby. They checked me over - much gas and air used for this part haha. Two small tears not requiring stitches- thankfully!
And my blood pressure was a little high. Unfortunately, being left on my own in bed to test my BP for 20 mins or so didn't bring it down. And we were then off to the hospital just to be sure that everything was fine. About 6-7 hours later, they'd given me medication and although advised to stay for 24 hours, I declined and went home (a friend brought us a BP monitor to test/track my BP at home), my blood tests came back clear and I had no preclampsia symptoms.
From early on in my pregnancy, I wanted a free birth, just myself and Russ. But I knew he'd appreciate having midwives there, just in case. Getting to know the local home birth midwives gave me faith that I could still have the birth I wanted if they were present.
I feel that Russ and I had our beautiful free birth, with no pain relief medication (until after the birth at least), the midwives turning up at the end was just perfect for us, they were able to help with the aftercare and support that we'd not even considered. And we felt confident in our knowledge and preparation, so it wasn't an issue for us that our labour was quite short. (4.5 hours from being woken up by contractions).
Yes, birth was uncomfortable. Yes, it was hard. But it was also incredible, empowering, intuitive, and felt so natural. I'd do it all over again, just like that, and not change a thing. After some traumatic experiences over the past few years, It means the universe to me, that we had a beautiful birth. That she's had a calm transition into this world. And that we facilitated that. That I was so confident in what I'd learned about physiological birth, that we felt safe and confident to labour at home just the two of us.”
