This is the story of baby James's birth, born at 40+5 weeks at home, during the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak in Northumberland. Mum Hayley, following a previously traumatic induced labour with her first baby, got in touch with me this time around and decided to try out Hypnobirthing with the Positively Pregnant Digital Antenatal Pack.
Part way through her pregnancy Hayley had thought she would be facing a second induction due to fetal growth scans - so I was absolutely delighted to hear through a fantastic Homebirth Facebook group ( Homebirth UK) that Hayley had not only got her homebirth booked in - but later to hear her fantastic story. Thank you for allowing me to share Hayley :-)
"To be honest, I’m still in awe of myself and buzzing that my birth went absolutely perfectly. This is such a contrast to my first birth experience and everything since then has gone really well too and I’m sure it’s because I had such a smooth labour and birth.
I had been having contractions around 8 minutes apart for 3 nights starting on the Friday night. Having never gone into labour naturally I really didn’t know what to expect and I hadn’t even considered I would have such a long latent phase.
The contractions would start around 7pm, then fade out by around 7/8am the next morning. They were painful enough to keep me awake, and gradually got stronger each night. On the 4th night, the pains were bad enough for me to start using the TENS machine, and I really thought it was it, we agreed to call my mum/on call midwife once the contractions got to 5mins apart, but they never did!
About 1:30am they stopped completely so we went to sleep.
About 7am that morning they started up again, very irregular and I was sceptical that it was the real thing, but I’d never had day pains before so I asked my mum to come and collect my 19month old around 10am. The pains came and went throughout the day, gradually getting stronger. Around 4pm I was struggling with the pain so I called the midwife to let her know what was happening, by now they were about 5mins apart, and I told my husband to set up the pool.
The midwife arrived around 4:30pm, and I was really struggling, she set herself up and I agreed to a VE, as I wanted to get into the pool and I didn’t want to have to get back out. I was 6cm!
By 5pm I was in the water, which was such a relief! I’m so glad I decided on a water birth, as I’m not sure I could have done a land birth without pain relief.
Contractions continued to come thick and fast and around 6.25pm my body started pushing, such an unreal experience, I totally let my body take control and within about 10 pushes he was out!
My cord was very short and I struggled to get into a comfortable position holding the baby, but I wanted a physiological 3rd stage. However, I started bleeding after a while so I agreed to have the injection.
My partner cut the cord and I got out of the pool. It took a while for the placenta to come away, then I was checked over-only a couple of grazes- amazing!"
If you are considering a homebirth here in Northumberland I have tons of fantastic information & evidence surrounding homebirth. The Facebook group linked at the top of this story is perhaps the best body of information & support I have ever come across - well worth joining if you're even remotely considering having your baby at home!
Jessica x
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