The home birth story of my second hypnobaby
Our estimated due date was the 19th October 2023, I was convinced it was wrong, I actually thought it was later than this (turns out I was wrong 😂).
In the run up to the labour, I had been…
Drinking 2 cups of raspberry leaf tea a day from Hot Tea Mama
Eating 3 medjool dates a day
Going to Pilates class once a week
Going for a daily 10 minute walk
Listening to my hypnobirthing tracks whilst using a calming scent from Take Five aromatherapy
Focusing on my home birth
Seeing a chiropractor
We set up the birth pool in the living room a few days before the birth, I had my positive affirmations, candles and essential oils all ready to go, little did I know I wouldn’t get the time to use any of it.
A few days before the birth…
At 38+2 weeks, I went to the loo and experienced what I would call a second wee that just came from nowhere, like a wee that I wasn’t in control of, it made me wonder if some of my waters had come away. I’d successfully managed that morning to harvest a few drops of colostrum for the first time and wondered if it was all connected. Anyway, I carried on the weekend as normal and then decided to tell my midwife about it on Monday at my appointment. My midwife rang triage and told them what I had experienced, they said not to worry and to just stay home as I hadn’t experienced anything else since. I still don’t know if that was my waters or not but during the actual labour a few days later I didn’t experience a whole lot of waters going so it could have been.
The day of the birth
On the actual day of the birth (38+5 weeks), I woke up at 4am and experienced what I would call intense period pain, I went to the loo and managed to fall back asleep, waking up every now and then but going back to sleep in between. I listened to my hypnobirthing tracks at this point to help me relax.
At 7am, my daughter came into our room, I asked my husband if he could do the school run as I just didn’t feel right. As Lucy headed off to school, I went downstairs for some porridge and managed to eat in between these period pain sensations. I told my husband to go to work as I really didn’t think it was labour and it was probably just “a practise run”. I went back to bed again about 9:45am, put on some of my hypnobirthing tracks, sprayed my calming scent and went back to sleep again. I woke up at 11am to a phone call from my husband saying he was coming home from work. I actually said to him “honestly don’t bother, I’m fine”. Luckily he ignored me and came home.
I decided to bounce on my ball whilst I waited for him to come home and watched Love Is Blind.
The bin man must have wondered what the hell was going on…
Chris made me an omelette and a slice of cheese on toast (random I know) when he got home and I managed to eat in between what I now know were contractions, standing up and swaying whilst eating cheese on toast. He also suggested we go for a short walk with the dogs which I agreed to. I was walking around the estate with with my sunglasses on, stopping for breaks to manage the contractions, I even had one directly in front of the wheelie bin cleaner who looked at me gone out.
TMI but I’m always honest
When we arrived home I decided to get a shower to try and shave down there just in case it was labour, I took a quick bump selfie before to see if my bump had dropped when compared to the bump selfie the day before, I didn’t realise it would be my last ever bump photo.
What’s funny is the contractions ramped up in the shower so I half shaved my vagina and cannot even begin to describe the state of it but with just over an hour before my baby arrived, I tried my best. I took this photo moments before getting in the shower (approx 2.5 hours before baby was born).
Still in denial
After getting out of shower, I decided to lay down and my husband suggested to put on my tens machine which we did, I’ve got to say it did help, it was a distraction but in hindsight I know I put it on too late for it to properly help me. He also suggested that we call triage just to give them the heads up, I said no as I still didn’t think it was labour but agreed to him timing contractions. After timing for just 3 contractions he decided to ring, as they were lasting longer than a minute.
They asked on the phone if I had felt baby move that day which I actually hadn’t so suggested for me to go in for monitoring, I agreed purely based on the fact that when I was in labour with Lucy she moved loads and I still didn’t think it was labour.
‘I need to poo’
As I got up out of bed, I felt a kicking sensation and some of my waters went in the bathroom. I got changed very slowly and then eventually decided that I needed to poo but realised actually I might be in labour. As I went into the bathroom I lost my mucus plug, along with some blood and a bit more waters. Things suddenly ramped up very quickly. I told to my husband to ring 999 as we had no idea if the midwives were coming or not and I could not get in a car at this point.
‘It wasn’t an emergency to me’
My husband rung triage again but no one answered so he rang 999 and brought me a comb to hold for pain relief. I think it’s important to say here that I felt very comfortable birthing on my own, I wasn’t worried about my ability to give birth, I completely trusted my body but I did want someone there medically trained for when the baby arrived, especially as I hadn’t noticed baby moving that day so it felt like the right thing to ring 999 but it didn’t feel like an emergency, I just wanted someone here for when he arrived.
From then on things become a little bit cloudy for me
I was very much in my zone, focused on my body and listening to what it told me to do. I can only describe it a bit like being under water, not really hearing what’s going on externally, I was so focused and really using my hypnobirthing. I kept saying to myself “trust your body” “listen to your body” “you know what you are doing” but I’ve got to admit I definitely could hear the 999 call handler repeatedly telling my husband “you have to get her on her back” in all honesty I was about ready to scream “f*ck off” to him. It’s really strange what things you ignore at this point and what things you tune into. I just ignored what I could hear and squeezed the comb as I remained on my knees holding onto the toilet bowl. My husband called the ambulance at 3pm, at about 3:15pm 2 ambulances arrived with 4 paramedics blue lighted to our home. I know this sounds very dramatic and perhaps you are thinking it might be traumatic but in all honesty I was relieved they were there to check on baby when he came.
‘There’s no sign of a baby’
Again I don’t remember much other than the female paramedic saying she couldn’t see any signs of a baby, I was absolutely devastated and wondered if I was making the whole thing up but I refocused and kept saying to myself “just keep going Hannah” as I grabbed the canister of gas and air.
No shade to the paramedic here as I know they are trained differently to midwife’s and I can totally respect and appreciate their help but the paramedic asked me “can you talk me through your day” which I absolutely could not, I didn’t want to speak to anyone, luckily my husband answered all the questions from then on. I couldn’t talk at all, at this point I’m holding on to the toilet seat, with one knee on the ground and a foot on the floor. I was boiling, sweat was dripping down my face, it was that day that was unusually hot for October so my husband grabbed the tower fan, an extension lead and plugged it in, this was the biggest help for me, that fan was pure heaven, better than the comb, tens machine or gas and air. He also got me a bottle of lucozade that I was able to drink in between contractions. At some point, I moved from the bathroom into the landing where I adopted the all 4 position, my husband grabbed the birth ball so I could rest my head on that.
‘Listen to your body Hannah’ ‘Use the hypnobirthing’
It was only at this point that we knew there were actually 2 midwives on their way, no one had told us they were coming, if we had known they were on their way, we wouldn’t have rung the paramedics. At around 15:25pm the first midwife arrived and finally told me that she could see the top of my baby’s head and that I was doing great.
The relief to know that it actually was labour was immense but wow were these contractions strong. Whilst rolling on the ball, drinking Lucozade and clinging to the comb I kept saying to myself “relax Hannah. Relax your hands, relax your face” “listen to your body” “don’t fight the contractions” and that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t know until afterwards but the midwives were gently telling me how to push, I couldn’t hear them though, I couldn’t hear anyone to be honest so just followed my bodies lead which apparently was exactly the way they were asking me to push anyway.
I roared like a lion during contractions
The midwives used a hot compress on my perenium as I roared with each contraction. I was so loud, the complete opposite to how I was when birthing Lucy. One of our neighbours actually messaged to ask if I was okay I was that loud and my husband gently asked the midwife to close the window for us. I wasn’t screaming, I was roaring, deep sounds they came deep from within me, they were helping me. I would use my hypnobirthing breathing between contractions and then roar during a contraction.
The second midwife came running up the stairs
The second midwife came as the baby’s head was about to be born, she said afterwards that she ran up the strairs as quickly as she could. Together they were trying their best to hear the baby’s heartbeat but were struggling which did make me panic slightly but eventually they found it. A couple more pushes and the head was out, I heard the midwife mention something about the cord clamp and I yelled “do not cut that cord” before the next contraction came and he was out. I don’t think they were planning to cut the cord but I’d heard the word clamp and really tuned into it.
The relief of birthing the baby was immense
The midwives fed the baby through my legs and into arms where I burst into tears, with relief, happiness, pride, joy, exhaustion and shock. My husband kissed me on my forehead and told me how proud he was as I said “hi” to our baby boy and “we did it” over and over again as I clutched him to my chest.
It’s only at that point when I opened my eyes and saw 4 paramedics that I realised where I was and what had happened. I know it sounds like it could have been traumatic but it didn’t feel that way at all, I didn’t even notice what was happening or going on around me (thank you hypnobirthing).
Thank you hypnobirthing
I can honestly say that thanks to the hypnobirthing I was so focused and so deep within myself during that last hour that I couldn’t have told you who was there, what their names were or pretty much anything they had said during that time. I still couldn’t pick out the paramedics if you asked me to now. I completely trusted my body to do what it needed to do and listened to every step of the way, I know that this confidence came from practising the hypnobirthing, listening to my tracks daily and actually changing the way my brain thought about birth. It came from reading positive birth stories, understanding how my body works, relaxing into labour and whilst it was bloody hard, just knowing I could do it.
Waiting for a white umbilical cord
I shuffled my way to our bed where I took off all my clothes and had skin to skin with our little boy. My husband brought up a cold can of coke and it was the best drink I’ve ever had. We waited for the cord to turn white before cutting it (this was really important to me) and the midwives noticed a true knot in his cord, apparently it’s good luck. The midwives were really supportive of my decision to wait for the cord to stop pulsing and turn white.
Birthing the placenta
After a while I went into the bathroom to birth my placenta on my own, I didn’t want to have the injection, I wanted to have a physiological third stage which the midwives respected. I passed baby J over to my husband who had lots of skin to skin with the baby too (which I would definitely recommend as it helps them to bond too and I’m sure baby J is so settled with my husband because he picked up his scent as well as mine from birth). I was able to birth the placenta pretty quickly into a bowl, it just came out on its own with one small push and my husband popped it in the freezer as I wanted to encapsulate the placenta.
It’s a pizza not a placenta, I promise
I got a shower as I had been sweating so much and got changed changed into some fresh PJ’s before having a couple of stitches (the midwives gave me the option to either leave the slight tear to heal on its own or to have a couple of stitches, I chose to have the stitches). The gas and air at this point was amazing and I felt pretty high. I was then back in bed, breastfeeding my baby whilst eating a pizza just a few hours after giving birth.
The birth was really empowering
It was so far away from the calm water birth that we had planned but I wouldn’t change it (well apart from ruining my landing carpet but hey). It was still so empowering and I am so proud of myself from getting my home birth and bringing my baby into the world. There were zero interventions, I was listened to and respected, I was trusted, my wishes were listened to and I felt truly amazing afterwards.
My husband was the best support, I am so grateful to him
I’m also so proud of my husband who handled everything so well, it could have been traumatic for him having to ring the paramedics and everything going so quick but he managed to still be there for me, trust me and give me everything that I needed in that moment. He was telling me to breathe, telling me I could do it and that he was proud of me, he handed me the lucozade, the tens machine, the comb and the fan, everything that I needed but couldn’t ask for or communicate. I know this is cringe but thank you Chris for being so wonderful, I didn’t think it was possible to love you anymore but I fell in love with you just a tiny bit more when I realised that I couldn’t have done it without you. You’ve helped me bring both of our children into this world in the most positive way and I will forever be grateful to you, our relationship has grown with each birth.
So there you have it, our positive home birth with a slight bit of drama for added effect.
