Katie's Home Birth
My beautiful and healthy baby boy (my first born!) born on 01/02/2022.
…I always planned to have a home birth after hearing from a friend about her positive experience. It sounded so lovely and so much better than hospital. That said, it’s your birth - you make your own choices - give birth wherever you feel comfortable and if that’s hospital, that’s fine! Also - I realise I’m lucky to have had a relatively low-risk pregnancy meaning it was ‘safe’ to have a home birth - some people need medical intervention and that’s not their fault. So no judgement here, all births and all birth choices are valid - you do you! I’m just sharing my own birth story in case it’s useful for others. Feel free to ask questions if you have them.
I was almost 2 weeks overdue and had been having ‘practice surges’ (Braxton Hicks) for over a week now - often lasting up to 6hrs. So when I woke up at 9am that morning and could feel ‘surges’ (contractions), I just assumed they were practice ones and ignored them. I came downstairs and had breakfast with my husband. The surges were about 10-15mins apart, so I had to pause to breath them out. But they didn’t really hurt and in between surges I felt totally normal. I said to my husband “these feel different to the practice ones, I think they might be real!”. “Great!” he beamed (we’d both been desperate for labour to happen spontaneously to avoid induction, so we were both thrilled!). “Let’s go for a walk”, he said. So we went for a walk, surges now about 10mins apart. Again, I had to pause to breath them out (using my hypnobirthing techniques), but it wasn’t that painful and I felt normal in between surges. When we got home, we had lunch (again, pauses to breath surges out). Then we moved to the living room.
In the living room I switched my time between bouncing on my yoga ball and being on all fours/doing some light yoga on my yoga mat. We also had the lights down low, an aromatherapy diffuser on and relaxing music on. Sometimes, I got off my ball/mat to have a little gentle dance with my husband or for him to give me a light-touch massage. At this point surges were about 5 mins apart - again, not too painful, I could breath them out using hypnobirthing techniques and felt normal between surges. At the 5 mins a part moment, my husband rang the home birth team to let them know I was in labour. They warned him it would start to get more intense/painful for me soon and that I might like to consider a bath and/or a TENS machine for pain relief. They also said to call them back when surges were 3mins apart and they’d come out then. So I had a bath (with my husbands help! as I moved between lying down enjoying the warm water between surges, to needing to get up on all fours to breath surges out). I was then getting too hot and wanted to get out the bath. We moved back to the living room and put the TENS machine on (which really helped with the intense back pain that I now had!) I stayed on all fours on my yoga mat and breathed out surges but it was now getting quite intense, so I asked my husband to call the home midwifes and ask them to come out to help me, so he did. They suggested another bath and said they wouldn’t come until surges were 3mins apart.
So my husband ran another bath and helped me up the stairs, within minutes surges were 3mins a part, so we rang the midwives again who said they were on their way.
It was now 7.45pm and I’d been in ‘latent labour’ for 10hrs45mins. I was now officially in ‘active labour’. Until this point, hypnobirthing breathing techniques (plus a bit of hot water and a TENS machine) had seen me through. And although I’d been uncomfortable, I wouldn’t say I’d been in pain. But at the start of active labour, it did get quite intense and I did get a bit teary. My husband was great and calmed me down with some of the positive affirmations we’d learnt in hypnobirthing class - which really helped. He then said “the midwives are on their way, let’s get you in the bath to see if that helps with pain”. So we moved back upstairs to the bathroom. I said “I’ll get in the bath in a minute, I just need a poo first”. I honestly thought it was a poo…but obviously it was the head, haha!
I felt the need to push and yelled “I need to push, get the midwives now!” My husband rang them again and was told they were en route. I couldn’t wait - I pushed! Then I put my hand down there and could feel not just a head but a neck! I stood up off the loo and shouted to my husband “quick, catch the baby”. I then just stood there (I should have stepped forward away from the loo, but didn’t!) I just stood there and did nothing!
I then heard a loud pop and a gush of water - that was my waters going. Then I felt one shoulder nudge forward and the baby twist and then he fell out - down the loo!!! He was born at 8.15pm. I was only in active labour for 30mins!!! (Hence why the midwives didn’t make it in time).
My husband fished him out. As the baby had dropped the cord had wrapped round him, so my husband unwrapped it. My husband noticed the baby was a tad cold, so rubbed him until he was warm and then he passed him back to me. I sat back down on the loo and put the baby on my lap and I could feel his pulse and see that he was spluttering (his mouth looked quite full of liquid). Then he started screaming the house down! My husband and I cried with joy and then looked at his genitalia and cried “it’s a boy!” (We didn’t know the sex in advance). I know this moment sounds slightly scary. But honestly it lasted less than 10 seconds and my husband and I weren’t stressed - we were just following our instincts and doing what felt right.
Once he was screaming, we walked (slowly as the cord was still attached to the placenta still inside me) to the bedroom and got into bed. The midwives then arrived (better late than never, haha!)
They helped me deliver the placenta (with the oxytocin injection and gas and air) with the baby laid on my chest (still screaming - he didn’t manage the boob crawl/to feed naturally). I probably could have done in naturally as I was still having pretty strong surges. But I was pretty tired by this point so accepted the help. They also did my stitches with the help of local anaesthetic and gas&air. I had two 2nd degree tears. They then helped me latch the baby for his first feed. After his feed - I then passed the baby to my husband for some skin-to-skin.
My husband and I then semi-napped and passed the baby between us for skin to skin. The midwives went off to clean the house (honestly it was spotless when they were done - no evidence a birth had taken place) and they also found their way around the kitchen and brought me and my husband some tea and toast in bed. Then they left. My husband and I spent the rest of the night semi-napping and passing the baby for skin to skin.
The whole experience was magical and apart from the last 30mins, it was all fairly relaxed and not too painful. I was in my own little hypnobirthing zone for the whole day, so I can’t say it would have made much difference to me if the midwives had been there in time. But I think my husband would have appreciated their help/moral support. Bless him - I really did lean on him during the day - he was amazing birth partner.
My main tips for a home birth are: (1) do a hypnobirthing course and get your birth partner actively involved in the course. (2) towels! You need so many towels - to wrap the baby in, to wrap you in, to put down everywhere to protect surfaces from blood/birth juice, for the midwives to use to clean up etc.
Good luck and feel free to ask questions.
Photo taken about an hour after birth when I was chilling waiting for my tea and toast to be brought to me (after the placenta was out and stitches were done).