Birth at home on the toilet story
Christelle was planning a smooth, comfortable birth with her baby number 2, a birth at home on the toilet was not how she imagined achieving this. But she did achieve the smooth comfortable birth she wanted. Just goes to show it’s not the what happens, more how you feel in the situation. Read Christelle’s birth story.
My plans for birth (birth at home on the toilet wasn’t part of it!)
After experiencing 2 births, I can safely say that it rarely goes according to our exact plans. Some plan a free-medical pain relief option and end up with emergency C-section, others elect to have a home birth but have to be rushed to the hospital for health reasons.
With this in mind, I drew a birth plan for my second baby with a few options marked in. My main point was to stay comfortable so all options remained on the table.
I still prepared myself for the birth unit, practising yoga and religiously listening to my hypnobirthing track. I visualised almost to perfection how I would deliver the baby myself in the warmth of the pool surrounded by professional midwives and my husband (OK he was in one corner of the room, just like the first birth).
How my birth went
In a nutshell, this is how it went: I gave birth to our second daughter in the ensuite bathroom, without any kind of medical pain-relief (no not even a paracetamol). Child number 1 was fast asleep in her bedroom. My husband being downstairs to call 999. He was in such a fluster he asked me ‘who should I call?’ while the head was crowning. Ghostbusters maybe?
When I talk about my unexpected home birth to people I always feel stupid with the following remarks:
‘Did you not notice you were in labour?’ Yes I knew.
’Why didn’t you go sooner to the hospital?’ Contractions every 5-10 minutes, and I live 10 minutes away.
‘Were you not in pain? It only became unbearable 15 minutes before birth, by that time the only reasonable thing to do was to stay home.
I thought that as long as my daughter was in the house, I wouldn’t believe it would actually happen. But my body/mind interpreted it differently: She is in a safe place so bring it on.
I strongly believe hypnobirthing brought me comfortably up to the pushing phase. Hypnobirthing courses are totally worth it! I’m not gonna lie, when it was game on I was dreaming of an epidural. Weirdly enough, I think my body knew. I installed a maternity mat on the bathroom floor and thoroughly washed my hands an hour prior to fun time.
Tip for any future second time mummy: Call your childcare for child number 1 after a few contractions in a row.
After my unexpected birth on the toilet
The community midwife who arrived 20 minutes after birth managed to diffuse the touch of drama that was going on in my head. She asked to have a look at my birth plan, I laughed and enquired why as I clearly didn’t follow it. She went through it point by point and made me realise that if you twist things a little bit, you always nail your birth plan.
OK I didn’t plan to stain the carpet with blood. Yes having strangers (paramedics) looking at my fresh-from-birth-vagina is not what I had in my mind. Nor panicking the neighbours (two of them pregnant at the time) in the early morning with the ambulance. Finally, I certainly didn’t plan that baby’s first trip in the car seat would be in the ambulance going TO the hospital.
But I did plan for a calm, comfortable, straight forward birth, which was exactly what it turned out to be.
My husband said that he curiously enjoyed it more than birth 1. It was quick and he was the most useful person in the house, organising ambulance, midwife, babysitter, throwing towels at me to warm the baby, and cleaning the whole room!!
If only I could have photographed his face when he found me sat on the toilet holding a baby, priceless!
So if you ever find yourself in this situation, at home or elsewhere that isn’t a hospital, keep this in mind, if it goes that quick, it means it’s all fine! (That’s not from me, it’s from the pediatrician!)
Like the idea of a home birth. Read Stephanie’s story with her home birth 3rd baby.
