Girl Power! Homebirth in the UK

Baby girl Amelia May. 

My darling, what an adventure. My pregnancy was normal, you grew accordingly , you were planned and mummy and daddy wanted you to be close in age to your big sister Alice. My thoughts are that you will always have a best friend growing up in this world, long after mummy & daddy aren’t here.  

 This is how your birth went.  

On the 05/05/22 at 0930 I felt a bit of wet in my knickers after I had just gone to the loo.  

I went for my morning nap and thought I’ll see what it’s like when I wake up.  

11.00 I woke to see a small wet patch on the bed, I went into the bathroom and when I went to sit on the loo a lot of water came out. I told julien and said I’ll wait and see when my contractions start then call the midwife. When Alice came home with Nana around 1130 I put her down for a nap, she breastfeed to sleep. That’s when I got a strong contraction. I knew this was it. I waited until the next contraction came which was another half an hour later then I rang my midwife. She said she’d see me in a few hours but I said I’d call her as I think it’s going to be a lot longer than a few hours and didn’t want her waiting around at my home for me to go into active labour.  

Seeing as it was so much longer to establish active labour with Alice I just assumed it would be the same.  

Nope, the contractions came on fast, I was contracting 3/ 4 times in 10 mins so just after lunch I said to samara my best friend to come over, I wanted her to film and be present at the birth. My midwife calls around that time and asked how I was doing, I told her and she said she wanted to come right away, so I agreed.  

Samara arrived 10 mins later, I laboured on the birthing ball with nana, Alice my 2 year old, Julien, Lulu our dog and samara in the living room. Samara giving me lots of fluid..She braided my hair and gave me plenty of encouragement.  

 The midwife’s arrived shortly after , I was in active labour by this stage. Lulu barking drove me crazy and I shouted to get her out, there was too much going on around me. Julien took Lulu for a walk and nana took Alice to my friend Cal and Freddie’s home around the corner. Midwife’s monitored me , baby’s heart rate was 170 just before everyone left, but as soon as it was quiet and calm it dropped back down around 150.  

I got up to pee around 5pm and saw a little blood, midwife said all normal but I could barely walk by this stage, I said to bring the ball into our dark room where the pool was. I contracted here for about 20 mins while samara finished getting the pool ready. Around 5.15 the midwife’s had to handover to two new midwife’s, they were also very kind and lovely. I got into the water after I said hello to the new staff. I said I’d get stuck on this birthing ball if I didn’t get into the pool at that time.  

Intense contractions happened when I got into the pool. Midwife was so encouraging, telling me to relax, loosen my shoulders, wriggle around in the pool in between my contractions.  

About 30 mins after being in the pool I felt the urge to push, my body completely took over and I couldn’t control this urge. I kept putting my fingers up to see if I could feel her head during the time I was in the water, I could feel a bulge but no hair, the cervix was still covering her head. Then another big sensation to go with my body and there came the head, a pop and her head was right out. I kept going with my contractions thinking that next her body would follow but she wasn’t coming.  

After about 4 more contractions and her head staying the same place being out, the midwife said I need to get out of the water.  

I was upset with them because I thought If I was given a bit more time she would emerge.  

They pulled me out from under my arms and I lay on my bed, they pushed my knees up towards my tummy and on the next contraction I reached down and pulled Amelia up to my chest. Born 5:52pm. She cried straight away, all was well, my little darling was in my arms.   

Apparently she had her shoulders stuck in my pelvis, that’s why she wasn’t coming out. I believe it was because of the way I was positioned. I had in my mind that if I lay on my side in the water I could “catch” her coming out but really my pelvis wasn’t open enough, I needed do be on all fours like I was with my first.  

I let the cord stay attached until I was ready to birth the placenta which was 50 mins later. Lots of pushing when it felt like  nothing was even coming, I had just pushed the baby out.. now this? What am I even pushing, felt like nothing then all of a sudden it came out.  

During this whole time Amelia stayed on my chest suckling- she latched on straight away.  

Once I birthed the placenta, Samara cut the cord. I’m so happy she was there, she was the best support and took some incredible videos/photos.  

We didn’t think Amelia would come so quickly, Julien was still out walking our dog. Samara sent a photo and said “baby is here”…he came straight home. I personally only wanted woman at my birth so I could be completely myself. During my last birth I was worrying about Julien and didn’t like him seeing so much bits in the last birthing pool so this time it all worked out really well.  

I had another second degree tear. But my nunu healed much faster and reduced in size so quickly. This time around I didn’t have the gas and air as I wanted to be in as much control as I could. Last time I was very head spacey.  I really loved my birth, I’m so happy and lucky I was able to have my dream home birth surrounded by love. Girl power!  

Welcome to our family my darling Amelia  

Laura