Home birth - Part three...

So it begins. We had been on two 3 mile walks on the Thursday, and I had blisters on my feet! That evening boyf's parents had invited us for dinner so off we went for a yummy Thai Green Curry. Now we were particularly stressed out that evening because our boiler had decided to pack up! There we were on the fringe of going into labour, birth pool all set up and no bloody hot water, I couldn’t believe it!!  

On our way home I turned to boyf and said, “I really fancy a glass of wine”. I been pretty much tee-total throughout my pregnancy but that night, something told me I needed to chill out and relax. 

We got home, I had my glass of wine and boyf enjoyed most of the bottle before we went to bed. Still no hot water.  I didn’t sleep, at about midnight I got up thinking I needed to poo. No I didn’t. Five minutes later, I needed the toilet again. No I didn’t. Five minutes later I was back in the bathroom and having a ‘show’. It’s here I thought It’s begun. I started to count the contractions on my Iphone, but they were two minutes apart. Heap of junk I thought, that can’t be right, they can’t be two minutes apart, it’s not even hurting yet. 

Okay, well I didn’t want to wake boyf because apparently your first labour takes ages, and he’d need to sleep of that wine anyway, so I went downstairs to wash up and start to get the room ready. By half past one, boyf had heard me clinking about so came down to investigate. I explained the situation to him and he began to time my contractions. A minute and a half apart, lasting for about 30 seconds. I started to doubt that I was in labour, I still wasn’t in pain and I thought that my excitement had made me get ahead of myself, either way by 2am I decided to call the hospital and they sent out a midwife. 

At 3am the midwife arrived. By now the room was fully set up and my contractions were feeling a lot more intense, I was being physically sick - which I hadn’t expected - and was really feeling the strain now, I was convinced things were really happening. She examined me and I was devastated to find out I was only 2cm dilated! My contractions were really close together and it hurt... surely I was further along than that. She explained that I wasn’t in established labour and left at about 4am. Boyf started to fill the pool, at that point a miracle happened - The hot water started to work!! At 6am I begged Dave to call the hospital again. I needed to push.

The same midwife came back, bless her, I think she had only just got home and was back at my door again. She re-examined me and I was 8cm and ready to hit the pool.  

In the pool Dave kissed me on the forehead. I realized it was just the two of us in that moment. Gill and Helen were on the other side of the room and had kindly left us to the privacy each other. I will never forget that moment in time.

My contractions suddenly changed, they became unimaginably intense - not painful - just completely animalistic. It was time to push. After an hour of pushing in the pool, everything seemed to come to a stop. I got out of the pool and after a couple more pushes our daughter was born, right there on the dining room floor.  

We do plan for more children and I sincerely hope they will be born at home. I don’t think the home birth experience is for everyone, I think it takes work, research and commitment.  But if you are prepared to work for it, then it is the most amazing experience ever, and it is completely yours, completely personal and completely natural. Simply wonderful.

Welcome to the world Frog xxx