Laura’s Positive Birth – Unplanned Homebirth
First time mum Laura had a speedy spontaneous labour that resulted in an unplanned homebirth! Her surprise baby girl made her way safely into the world in the living room at home with the help of two community midwives who arrived just in time.
I’d gotten my show and some cramping on Saturday night but any signs of labour had completely gone by the time I woke up the next day. On Monday I decided to do some bits and bobs around the house. At about 5pm I was resting in front of the telly when I heard a loud thump and it felt like it’d been punched in the bump (I actually “ouched” out loud).
I rang my mum to say I thought maybe my waters had started to go as some intense cramps had started too. Called my husband at work to let him know and then the cramps seemed to really ramp up. By the time he’d got home at 6pm I had to kneel on the floor and lean over our coffee table to feel anything close to “comfortable”. He called the midwifery team for me and they said to come in as soon as we could and they’d get me assessed and ready. Then he called my parents who were going to be our lift and they left ASAP to pick us up.
My Body Took Over
I started to feel really nauseous so my husband helped me get to the loo in case I needed to be sick. I decided to try and go to the toilet while in there. All of a sudden I felt this overwhelming pressure and my body started to push. At this point I was so shocked I did panic a bit. I had thought early labour would take ages. My bump kept hardening in waves and we knew this was “it”. My husband called the birth centre back and they said they’d get to us immediately. He also let my parents know it was all change!
The Midwives Arrived
At 7:30pm my assigned midwife and her partner arrived, lifted me off the loo and whisked me into the living room with a “let’s have this baby!”. They threw loads of towels and stuff down and I knelt down leaning onto the sofa. I was handed the gas and air. I overdid using it to start with (I think hyperventilating a bit from the initial shock of the situation) but got into a good rhythm of having a suck of it at the start of each surge going forward.
From there it was a fairly simple cycle of me pushing with every surge. They told me that baby had a great head of hair and I just focussed on my breathing and what I needed to do to meet our little one. I had a few wobbles towards the end as I got tired but my husband and the midwives were an amazing help throughout.
Unplanned Homebirth Arrival
At 8:40pm they decided I needed a bit of help as the head wasn’t coming any more and I was offered a small episiotomy. I accepted and they moved me onto my left side with my leg in the air. On the very next push at 8:55pm I felt baby come out in one go and the relief washed over me!
My husband told me we had a little girl and I was thrilled. We had immediate skin to skin and waited for the cord to stop pulsating before it was cut. I then snuggled up to her whilst having the injection to deliver my placenta which was out in a matter of minutes. From there we had our first feed and I had a few stitches. Thankfully I’d managed just two very small additional grazes which didn’t need any attention despite the speed of the whole thing. Another miracle was that our living room carpet survived the whole ordeal.
Though things certainly didn’t go to plan – a water birth in the birthing centre – never did I imagine an unplanned homebirth – I definitely look back on the experience as positive.
It was dramatic in places but not traumatic.
The hypnobirthing practices I learned definitely helped me to stay focussed and deliver our baby without getting caught up in the madness of the situation.
