Bex’s Positive Birth Story – Homebirth
Positive Home Birth Story!!
– FTM
– 38+3 weeks
– 31/10/2020 at 10.37pm
– Baby girl: Eva Grace 6lb6oz
Due to Covid and also the research I’d done into hypnobirthing, I really wanted a home birth – allowing me to be in my own environment with my husband there the whole time.
About 2 weeks before the birth I’d started having period pain-like cramping and very mild, irregular contractions, feeling restless and not myself. Over the following week I’d lost some of my mucous plug 3 times, had regular gut clear outs(!) and could sense that my body was prepping for labour.. very slowly!
On 28th October my waters went.. but still no progression into established labour. My gut feeling was that baby wasn’t quite ready to come out yet but my body was slowly getting ready for the main event! I declined induction and instead opted for daily fetal monitoring, meaning that I could make sure baby wasn’t in any distress and remained in the best position to come out naturally. I was careful to watch out for any sign of infection – making sure my waters stayed clear and my temperature was normal. And I rested, and waited!
On 31st October the contractions became more regular – I was finally able to time them! They were 3 every 10mins lasting longer than 1 min… but not painful! So I waited some more (and did some cleaning!) and by 4pm I was feeling a pressure and the need to go to the toilet. I called Stroud maternity and they sent a midwife straight out to check on me.
Kelly arrived and checked me and baby. At this point I really felt like things were happening.. and I had a gut feeling baby was going to make a speedy appearance! I requested a vaginal exam – 3cm dilated! Hooray! Kelly left us to it and promised to return as soon as we needed her… which turned out to be 30minutes later!
My contractions had ramped up significantly and by the time Kelly arrived with gas and air I was too focused on my breathing to take it in. Somehow I made it upstairs to the bathroom, and 30mins later I was pushing my baby out in our new bath!!
My advice for all first time mums is to trust your gut and trust your body because it knows what it’s doing! Also – be patient.. it’s all worth it in the end, and giving birth no matter how it ends up happening is like unlocking a superpower ??
For more information about The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Know what you can do to stack the odds in your favour for the birth that you want. Videos, checklists, audios & a support group all created by a midwife to get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth.
