My Birth Story

Plan A

So my A plan was to give birth was at home. I lived in the area of Hackney where Homerton hospital have a large dedicated team of homebirth midwives. After doing a hypnobirthing course, guidance from local mum’s who had also given birth at home, and the rates of giving birth at home for your 1st, being higher in Hackney than most places in the UK, I felt it was what I really wanted. I read multiple hypnobirthing books which are listed below and educated myself on the process of birth labour, ridding of my pre-conception of birth being an unnatural/medical-led experience… given to me by media and family members. I’m so fascinated by the biology of the human body and physiology of it. During my pregnancy I worked full time as a pre and post natal PT, focussing on rehabbing new mum’s bodies after birth, getting them strong, functioning properly with a strong pelvic for, working with womens health physio’s to give hem the best post natal service possible.

My last swim, the day my contractions started

The Start

It was a Friday and 2 days before my due date in Oct ‘19, I went for a morning dip in our local heated lido. Swimming would now consist of short 100m reps with long rest periods between, and generally enjoying the weightlessness feeling of being in the water. I remember waiting at the end of the lane feeling the sun beat down on my face feeling relaxed in the water.

At lunch I walked from London Fields to Shoreditch (roughly 4.4 miles round trip) to attend a “meet the midwife event” hosted by the homebirth team at Homerton hospital. It was on the way back that I started to feel like something could be happening. I just suddenly felt really uncomfortable and wasn’t sure if I’d make it all the way home. I was on the canal and not near any bus stops and didn’t have uber downloaded on my phone so persevered all the way home.

Early Labour

During dinner around 7pm I told my husband I “think” I was having mild contractions. The only way to describe the feeling is my tummy tighten then relax, like period pains that would intermittently disappear.

The contractions ramped up for the rest of the Friday night, very close to reaching 60 seconds and 5 minutes apart but never reaching 60 seconds so I didn’t call the midwives, I wanted to be ABSOLUTELY sure it was time for them to come. After a sleepless night of multiple baths and movies snuggled on the sofa the sun came up and it was Saturday. Throughout the day contractions slowed WAY back down. We had a snuggled day in in the flat, filled with movies, baths and walks with our dog in the park.

Saturday Night/First Stage Labour

Saturday evening came (what is it about births at night - is this biology of my body thinking it’s safer to give birth at night?)

The contractions really started to ramp up, I had my phone on airplane mode and used the Freya app to guide my hypnobirthing and breathing , keeping me calm. I had all my postiive affirmations written down and stuck to our walls, ones that were relatable to me to keep me focussed and motivated. It’s amazing how much preparing for birth was like preparing for the ironman. I had affirmations during the ironman I’d repeat to myself to keep me focussed. Many of the affirmations in birth reminding me of the ironman and giving me confidence to keep focussed on my body, breathing and as relaxed as possible.

At 1am we called the midwife who drove over, the other one cycled over (which I loved!) I was at the right stage of labour so they both stayed and I started on the gas and air. The lights were low, we had fairy lights all over our small cosy living room. There was a huge rainstorm outside which added to the cosy atmosphere inside it rained so hard all night. Everything ramped up and surges were strong/powerful/painful but I powered through going through various positions to get me through. I was still not fully 10cm but getting there. My waters hadn’t broke at this point either. So I got into the birthing pool when the midwives thought I was close to 10cm. It was warm and relaxing the pool, and I didn’t notice the pool had a very slow puncture and was slowly going down, everyone wanted to keep me calm. I started to get cold and labour wasn’t progressing, so I got out and they did a first sweep, this was when my water broke. I saw some blood and this freaked me out massively. The sun was starting to rise and this added to being more freaked out it was now almost 36 hours in labour, through my 2nd night of labour and no baby had arrived. It was a similar feeling to an after party at 7am when you realise it’s getting light and time to go home! I decided I really wanted more pain relief, things were getting really painful, the baby wasn’t here yet and I was getting frustrated. My husband and both midwives waited to really check it was what I definitely wanted, they knew home birth is what I really wanted so didn’t want to jump at my first request to go to hospital. I said yes, they called an ambulance and it was then my gas and air ran out (2nd cannister at this point!) We lived 5 minutes drive from hospital but the ambulance got diverted to someone who was unconscious so we were waiting about 20-30 minutes. It felt like forever with no pain relief for this time, and just waiting. When the ambulance arrived I was so relieved to see the ambulance driver, I could have hugged him if I wasn’t in such pain! I couldn’t put my trousers up properly so they were on up to my thighs and I put a big coat over the top and headed out of our apartment block to the ambulance, by this time I was making a LOT of noise/screams. I was sure I’d be waking all my neighbours up.

In Hospital

I felt so relieved to be in the ambulance and by the time I got to the labour ward and into a room, the nurses told me it was too late to get more pain relief and it was time to push. After me cursing at them (soz!) it was time to push. I really went for it and completely forgot you only pushed during a ‘surge’. Within 15 minutes of pushing the little guy was here!! I couldn’t believe it. After they did the checks on him I held him and cried with Matt. I remember Matt being so animated and excited when he arrived… It was an amazing moment I’ll carry forever. Joshua latched on straight away for milk, I wasn’t sure how that would go as got warned from friends that it can be painful/not latch on properly so be prepared. Thankfully I didn’t get any tears down there so I didn’t need to get stitched up but was incredibly sore.

We hadn’t told any family I went into labour so we sent a photo of us cuddling the little guy to everyone. I rested for the afternoon, Matt went back home to sleep. Thankfully our good friends who lived close by, went to the scene of the crime to empty out the birth pool before lost all air and covered the flat in water.

The maternity ward was ridiculously busy and we spent hours trying to get discharged, and finally at 8pm on the Sunday we were allowed to return home. My parents had gone up to keep our dog company so greeted us with a nice cosy home.

So overall, even though I ended up giving birth at hospital I was really happy to spend most of it at home and felt it was a positive birth experience. The 2 midwives were wonderful and supportive, my husband and dog with me majority of the way through. I’m slightly gutted too now, since I might not even have the option of a home birth now I’ve moved to Kent. Thank you Homerton Homebirth team for all you support and care x