My (Belated) Home Water Birth Story

This is the rather epic birth story of my 3rd baby. Advance apologies for the length but I wanted to get it all down so I have a lasting account of it! The picture above is my first look at my beautiful boy. I was going to add more pics but Blogger wasn't playing!

Grab a cuppa.........here goes!!

Most people who know me know my previous birth experiences. I had planned a home birth with L, but was made to transfer in for “failure to progress”. Sadly, this resulted in an emergency caesarean that was very traumatic for all three of us. I learnt a great deal from this experience and I had a beautiful, calm home birth 19 months later with J.

There was clearly not doubt that the birth of baby number three would be at home and this time I was hoping to make use of my birthing pool.

After one or two “is this it?” false starts, on the morning of the 13th of July I woke up around 6am for a trip to the loo. I also felt a bit of period type pain whilst having a Braxton Hicks. I got back into bed and about 20 minutes later felt the same pains. I felt at that point that “this IS it!” I am happy to say I felt no fear, just overwhelming excitement that later that day we would get to meet our little man.

When the alarm went off at 7am I told DH that I thought I was in early labour and that I thought we would have our baby today-I could see he wasn’t convinced! We got the kids up and did the morning routine as normal, the contractions were still at around 20 minutes but were intense enough that I needed to concentrate on breathing through them.

By 9am DH had got L to school and J to nursery and we set about starting to load the dishwasher, tidy up etc ready for the midwives! I was quite emotional saying good bye to the children as I knew that when we saw them next they’d have a baby brother. I think DH at this point finally believed that I really was in labour and as soon as the kids were out of the house my contractions stepped up a gear moving to about one every 15 minutes.

At 10am I decided to ring the delivery suite to get them to inform my midwife that I was in early labour and would need her at some point that day. My midwife is the supervisor of midwife so I knew she would appreciate being forewarned so she could plan her day! Almost as soon as I put the phone down, after being told to phone back when the pain was more frequent/intense my contraction went to one in every 6 minutes but extremely painful. I put the TENS machine on at this point and I do believe it helped. I also found sitting down unbearable so stood throughout the early labour, bending over the dining table whilst having contractions. DH was busy filling the pool by now and we were both becoming really aware that our baby would be coming soon!

I was starting to feel nauseous with each contraction and very quickly, by about 10.45 they had reached every 3 minutes. We called the birth centre again and asked them to send the midwife. I was surprised at the intensity of the contractions given that my waters had not broken. With my 1st two labours my waters had broken spontaneously first, before contractions had started. I expected this birth to follow the pattern of the previous 2 but it just goes to show that every birth is different.

When my midwife arrived at around 11.15 I was unable to speak through contractions and finding them very difficult. She brought with her a Health Care Assistant who had just started working with her...had I not been in so much pain I may have been a little annoyed at this extra “spectator” but as it turned out she was a brilliant help, making tea, getting hot water etc.

The mw listened to baby’s heartbeat and checked position of baby. I had told her previously that I would decline any internals unless they thought there was a problem or things were going slow and she was very good at respecting this wish and did not even ask me if I wanted an internal. By the time she had filled in her paperwork I believe the contractions had got to much less than one in three. She asked me if I wanted to get in the pool and I said yes. We then decided the pool was a little on the cool side so started boiling kettles of water/pans etc to try and got it hotter. This was a little bit of a pain and I wish I’d briefed DH more beforehand about the importance of the water temperature, but we got there in the end! I did get in while they were doing this and have to say the immediate relief of water was fantastic. As I mentioned, I was unable to sit down as it was just too uncomfortable, this meant that I was starting to tire a little of being on my feet. The water totally took away this discomfort and I was able to lie on my back and relax between contractions. When the pool got to the right temperature it was just great. Please don’t think from this that the pain disappeared, it really didn’t! But it made it so much easier to deal with. Before I got in the pool I was looking at the clock and thinking “I’m not going to be able to do this, it’s going to take too long, I won’t be able to cope” Getting in the pool, totally took away this feeling and I was able to feel in control again.

I had read a couple of books on hypno-birthing during my pregnancy, and while I didn’t buy the CD or go to any classes I believe that reading about breathing really helped me. It sounds silly, but I had taught myself to breathe deeply and slowly and also to totally trust my body.
I have no concept of time from when I got in the pool, I know I got in around 12.15 and it felt like shortly after that I was starting to get “pushy” feelings. The midwife called the second midwife out around then, so I had three people plus my DH looking after me! How wonderful!

I loved getting that pushy feeling as it meant things were really moving and I couldn’t quite believe it had got to this stage so quickly. I could tell that my midwife (though she wasn’t panicking or anything) was getting a little antsy that she couldn’t see what was going on properly because of my position in the pool but I felt totally in control and knew everything was ok. I think she was worried as I hadn’t had an internal she didn’t want me pushing too soon. At some point I had gotten up onto my knees, leaning over the side of the pool and this really got the contractions going, soon I was pushing involuntary which I really enjoyed (!). Contractions feel so fruitless-I know they’re not, but they make you feel powerless. As soon as you get that urge to push you can really do something with the pain and I like that! After getting a little fed up with hearing the midwives go on about not being able to see I decided to go back over onto my back so they would be able to get a better view. I knew I wouldn’t be able to deliver in this position but I thought it would shut them up and it worked! They started to see the head descend and I think this made them much more chilled now that they knew I wasn’t just pushing fruitlessly. As his head was just sitting there, they asked if they could pop the waters and I agreed-I wasn’t sure whether babies born in water could or should be born with membranes intact so I was happy for them to do this as we were so close to delivering.

I still didn’t believe that it was going to be so soon, though I wasn’t aware of time, I only seemed to have been in the pool short time. I did also have a bit of gas and air through some contractions though, because I was breathing “properly” and really focussing on it, I didn’t feel as dependent on it as I had done through my last labours.

I soon had enough on my back and got back onto my knees, leaning over the pool. I felt every bit of his head coming down and was so aware of the pain, every time it started to get too much I had 2 things I would say to myself. The first was “Lizzie and James” and I would visualise them meeting their new brother and the second was “I’m going to meet my baby” These words really helped me stay focused through the pain.

All of a sudden I felt the burn of crowning and knew this was the big moment (and my goodness did I feel it burn!). Ouch ouch ouch! I had some instructions from the midwife as to when to push but to be honest, at this point I just blocked them out and listened to my body. I felt his head emerge really slowly and I heard them ask Nick if he wanted to catch the baby. I still could not believe it was happening! The MW told me after that his head came out so well, just inch by inch and really controlled. I give myself a gold star for that!

I then knew the head was out, I’d heard them say he’d turned to the side then with next contraction I pushed with all my might. I looked down and saw my wonderful husband lifting the most perfect baby out from between my legs and handing him to me. No words will ever be able to describe the feeling of seeing this perfect little creature under the water, so peaceful and then be handed to me by my husband.

Born at 1.50pm our little baby with his mop of black hair just lay peacefully in my arms. I was a little shell shocked that I had a baby and he’d come so easily, with not a moments doubt, panic or stress.

I sat back with him in the pool and just relaxed and drank him in. I’d asked that I wanted the cord to stop pulsating before it was cut and I said I’d play it by ear as to whether I’d have a managed 3rd stage or not. As everything was fine it was even mentioned that I have the injection to deliver the placenta. I stayed in the pool, still with my little boy connected by his cord to me for at least 40 minutes. I was starting to get a little cold so after checking the cord had stopped pulsating Nick cut him free. Before the cord was cut I kept feeling it to see if it had stopped pulsating, the feeling of it pulsating was just incredible.

I should also mention that there absolutely no blood in the pool, it was unbelievably clear, I was fully expecting it to be “icky” but it really wasn’t which is why I stayed in it so long.

I was getting terrible after pains in the pool and wasn’t seeing any signs of the placenta coming so I got out and sat on the floor for a bit. After an hour had passed from delivery I was getting fed up with the contractions so asked for the injection-within 5 minutes I delivered the placenta.
While I was being checked over, baby was weighed at 9lb2oz-my biggest baby, and Nick got him dressed.

The midwives started packing up their things and it was then about the time that the kids needed collecting, my dad was doing this for us so we asked him to take them to the park for a while just to give us time to gather ourselves a little. We were left alone, just holding our new boy in the comfort of our home.

My beautiful children arrived home around 4pm to meet their baby brother. It was a magical moment as they looked at him for the first time-surprised by all his hair and sneaking looks at my tummy as if to say “where has it gone?!”

Cuddles were had by all and we quickly settled into life as a family of five.

Joseph is now 4 weeks old and the memory of the birth is still vivid. I find it impossible to put into words how magical the experience was-for me and for Nick. I have nothing but praise for my NHS Midwives and the care I have received through this pregnancy. I’d love to do it all over again ;)