Ellie’s Unplanned Homebirth
Love reading positive birth stories, you’re in the right place…. This positive birth story is with Ellie. Ellie went into spontaneous labour during her 37th week of pregnancy. Whilst preparing to head to the hospital, Ellie got the urge to push. With telephone support from an emergency services call handler, Jade and her husband delivered their surprise baby girl in an unplanned homebirth on their bedroom floor. Jade says she remained calm and focussed throughout.
I wanted to share my birth story. Even though it may sound like a nightmare for some, my experience taught me that our bodies and babies know exactly what to do when unexpected circumstances arise.
Maternity Leave
Friday was my last day of working from home before my planned maternity leave so for the whole day I was very busy / distracted with work. I did notice that I going to the toilet more regularly throughout the day. I just put it down to all the pineapple and dates that I had been eating. Little did I know this was the start of my body preparing for little one to arrive the same evening!
Fast forward to 6pm, I was still finishing off some work emails. I started to notice some very mild cramping which I thought was trapped wind at the time. The cramps came every 15 minutes. I was convinced I just had a bad tummy until I started to notice a pattern and although they were still mild I realised that they were coming in what felt like waves. So I called my husband who was down the pub and let him know that I could be experiencing mild contractions and asked if he could come home.
Early Labour
He arrived back home at around 6.30pm but had to shoot out again at 7pm to resolve an issue with work as he is self-employed. I decided to run myself a bath to help with the cramping although still wasn’t in much discomfort. From the bath I called a friend and my mum and waited for my husband to return to take my mind off it. At around 7.40pm hubby returned home. I got out of the bath and asked my husband to start timing my contractions. At this stage we were both convinced that it was just very early onset of labour.
To our surprise my contractions were coming every 2 and a half minutes. They were lasting for around 36 seconds but the pain was still bearable. They just took my breath away a little and I could talk normally between each contraction. We carried on timing them until about 8.30pm and there wasn’t much change. They were still lasting for the same duration and the pain hadn’t got much worse. I could just feel a bit more discomfort in my lower back as well as the period pain cramping that I had been feeling all evening.
Calling the Midwife
Shortly after I went to the loo and noticed my bloody show. I called the midwife to ask for some advice. She said we should start thinking about getting ready to make our way to the hospital but as I could still talk down the phone normally. She and I both didn’t think that baby was on their way just yet!
My husband got the hospital bags together and jumped in the shower as I still felt reasonably comfortable. “
My husband got the hospital bags together and jumped in the shower as I still felt reasonably comfortable. At this point I started bouncing on my birthing ball which took the pressure off of some of the cramping. At 9am my waters broke whilst on my birthing ball (it was a gush not a trickle). Hubby jumped out the shower ASAP and called the midwife to let them know my waters had broke. They advised that we go straight to the hospital.
The Urge to Push; unplanned homebirth
At 9.15pm I had the urge to push and my body naturally started bearing down. I could feel that baby was coming very soon and told my husband that I couldn’t get in the car as I needed to push now. This set about a little bit of panic so my husband called his cousin who used to be a midwife. She said if we really felt like we couldn’t make it to the hospital to call an ambulance so that is what he did.
“The lady on the phone was amazing and talked my husband through everything.”
The lady on the phone was amazing and talked my husband through everything we would need for our unplanned homebirth. He had to gather towels, blankets, and a flannel to hold on my perineum when pushing. I started pushing around 9.25pm and within 4-5 pushes she was born on our bedroom floor at 9.57pm. The paramedics arrived shortly after at 10.10pm followed by a midwife who took over from there. They checked baby and I over and helped me to deliver my placenta.
Postnatal
When baby was born she was a little bit cold and my blood pressure was a little high so the ambulance took me and baby to the hospital for final checks and for my stitches (I had a 2nd degree tear). Hubby followed us down to the hospital shortly after. We stayed overnight in one of the delivery suites and were discharged the following afternoon.
My labour from start to finish was only 3 and a half hours, which the midwives said was almost unheard of for a FTM, but I have my husband and the bump to baby chapter to thank as he was so calm which helped me to keep calm and focus on my breathing exercises which I had learnt from this course! 💕
