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I've had 2 home births...
My first born arrived under the Perseid meteor shower 3 days later than the doctors due date but bang on mine! He arrived earth-side in 4 hours from start to finish. I had planned to birth in the midwife led centre but my waters had broken the day before so I went in for monitoring and sent home again having been told that if I wasn't in labour over night I would need to call in to the hospital and book an induction. I really didn't want an induction. That afternoon we went walking in the heather, (a proper awe walk!) got a pizza ...
I remember feeling a twinge walking home from the supermarket and got all excited. We had dinner and then played cards. I was sat on my birthing ball and contractions started but I breathed through them and eventually when they got more intense.
I had to stop dealing cards, breathed for a moment and then would carry on playing. I then went to have a bath, a couple of drops of clary sage (really wanted baby to be born before induction) and relaxed, then came downstairs, went back up stairs and flung myself into the bed face down in my pillows.
I was monitoring contractions on an app now and it said we should be in the car and on the way to hospital! My husband called the midwife who told me to have paracetamol and to come into hospital in a while. We decided I'd come downstairs after next contraction and he went to get the car... by the time I got to bottom of the stairs I could feel the baby's head moving down and I told him I wasn't getting in the car "the baby is coming, the baby is coming" I remember say over and over.
So there in the living room we remained. Looking back I wish I'd stayed on the bed with all my pillows, in the dark but downstairs we now were ... Tom, my husband tells me he had 2 phones on the go, one to the midwives and the other on the line to 999. He was washing his hands and getting the towels. My hero. An ambulance arrived first (paramedics in a car and then a midwife, 10 minutes before baby was born.)
I remember I kept asking "how am I supposed to be?" I didn't know what position to put my body in but truthfully there came a point and my body just took over so I listened as best I could and I birthed my 8lb 4oz boy on my rug.. I was debating having gas and air at one stage, crazy I know, but I didn’t feel like I was in pain. To me, the sensation felt like the biggest ball of energy circling in my pelvis. I carried on breathing and needed total silence to focus on each surge. so much for the calming music and fairy lights I had prepared!
The room was filled with 7 strangers ( 2 ambulance crews and a midwife, who arrived 10 minutes before our boy was born) and in our living room, a shooting star – my beautiful baby boy was born safely and with control under a Perseid meteor shower at 00:31 on 13th August 2017.
My youngest was 10 days late and I went into labour only once I had signed the contract on the house we were buying (nature knows!) We are mammals!
He was born in the water at home - a planned home-birth as I knew it would be a quick labour and we had moved to the depths of Dorset and were 45 minutes away from the nearest hospital. I knew I had done it once and I wanted to do it again. I felt so empowered the first time, truly feeling like I was so strong and capable. I really wanted to try hydrotherapy this time as a water-sign myself and about to have a cancerian baby I felt it was the right choice. My biggest worry this time was not actually birth itself but whether I could love another as much as my firstborn. My mum had come to stay to help shower my eldest with love and attention. The day of the birth seemed long and I felt like I knew it was the day. I had contractions that morning once we had completed on the new house and had a move in date. I called the midwife and she came to monitor me but nothing was happening... I seemed to have stopped contracting. It wasn't my regular midwife and part of me thinks I was waiting for Rachel who has seen me throughout my journey, to come on shift. Nothing really happened from 11am...but on a very hot July evening my husband slept on the sofa and my mum joined me on the bed upstairs on top of the covers... we talked and lay holding hands and closed our eyes. She fell asleep and then my contractions started again. It was all stations go, as we knew it was going to be quick and my midwife was 40 mins away at least. I focused on my breathing, got on my ball, rested on the sofa and did what I needed to do to surrender. I wasn't frightened, more excited to meet this babe.
We had a midwife on speakerphone and I was desperate to get into the water. I got in, 5 minutes later my wonderful midwife arrived, 5 minutes after that my waters broke (which was such an intense feeling a pop in the pool) and then my second gorgeous boy was born, 9lb 12oz. 1:55am (in under 3 hours)
During my pregnancy I had a dream about bringing him up between my legs and it felt just like it. I can not describe the euphoria I felt as I feel it is beyond words. I had no pain relief and truly believe he was born by the power of the breath.
So there you have it my sunshine and my moonshine baby boys, both born positively at home and who are my whole universe. I have felt so empowered by my experiences that I set up Glow Yoga Studio in April 2020 to support pregnant women in their journey into motherhood through the magic of Yoga and birth preparation ante-natal workshops - to build confidence, positivity and capability. More info on my instagram @glowyoga_studio