Positive Birth Story: Super Fast Home Birth of Fourth Baby
At 40 weeks +5, I was already fed up of being pregnant and had barely slept the night before, as Emrys had been unwell. I had never reached my EDD before and I had already made my mind up that I was having a stretch and sweep at my antenatal appointment that morning. The MW told me that my Bishop's score was 8 and that she thought I would probably have the baby over night. I was sceptical, as I didn't get any cramps or twinges for the rest of the morning though I did have several runs of seemingly promising Braxton Hicks throughout the afternoon, but they completely fizzled out by early evening, so I went to bed feeling like absolutely nothing was happening and that the midwife was wrong. I woke up at 1am to use the toilet, but instead of going straight back to bed, I felt like sitting on my ball. After sitting on my ball for a minute, I had a fairly strong 45 second long definite contraction. When another much stronger one came 5 minutes later, I decided to time them and wake Simon. The next was so strong, it was uncomfortable to sit on my ball, so we decided that after just 3 contractions, it was time to make a phone call. My contractions increased in intensity over the time we waited for the midwife, Jill to arrive. They were less than 2 minutes apart when she arrived just after 2 am and I immediately wanted gas and air. At around 02.45, Jill checked me and was surprised that I hadn't felt the urge to push, as I was fully dilated. I yelled at Simon to help me kneel over my ball, while Jill ran to her car for the birthing pack. I immediately felt the urge to push and half expected that Simon was going to have to catch the baby, while Jill was out of the house, but she came back in time for my final pushes and Thorin arrived with very little effort at 03.16, obviously no time for the 2nd midwife! Jill was brilliant, she helped us to take lots of amazing photos of the cord being cut and many other special moments. The other children woke up several hours later to discover that their new baby brother had arrived. It was fast, but absolutely perfect.
Thankyou so much to Amy for sharing her amazing birth story!