Homebirth for a First Time Mum
Laura attended an In Person Group Course with birth-ed in Thames Ditton, Surrey ahead of the birth of their first baby. Laura shares her experience of planning a home birth as a first time mum.
Before Sienna was born, I’d been told hundreds of horror stories about birth. I feel so incredibly lucky that I have a positive story to tell and I really want to share it, particularly with first time mums. For me, I know a huge part of my positive experience was having my baby at home.
Throughout my pregnancy when we’d tell people I was having a homebirth, they’d often tell me I was brave or just couldn’t believe I’d opt for it. It was an absolute no brainer for me - calm, totally natural, the likelihood of interventions being much lower, not medicalised, in my own environment.
Everyone tells you that first babies often come late, so the night before I went into labour we went to a friend’s wedding, thinking we had a few more days until her arrival. At 10am the next morning, I was convinced I had food poisoning as I sat on the toilet (diarrhoea can be a first sign of labour!)… a couple of hours later contractions started very mildly.
I spent a lot of the labour in the bathroom - the shower really helped with easing the feelings so I was in and out of there like a yo-yo. I also spent a few hours in the bath (managed to watch Happy Feet in the beginning!) and the water really helped as the surges started getting heavier. I listened to hypnobirthing from @birth_ed and focused on my breathing, while my husband, Rob, got some sleep on the bathroom floor.
One thing that really helped was being on the stairs and getting Rob to “shake the apple tree” with the rebozo (a towel) which eased a lot of tension in my hips. At one point Rob did have to give up because he was too exhausted from it - the irony! We also got the essential oils out at this point too, so I was sniffing them from flannels.
Around 3/4am contractions started getting closer together and more intense. We thought about calling the midwives but decided to wait as we wanted to let them get a good night’s sleep as we didn’t know how much longer we had! I moved to the bed and just breathed through the motions while trying to sleep.
About 6.30/7am, we called the team and the two midwives showed up. They had both been the midwives who looked after me throughout my pregnancy, and I couldn’t have been happier that they were there to deliver our baby. I think they could see that I was pretty far along (we didn’t do any vaginal examinations as I’d said beforehand I didn’t want them) and my waters broke just after they arrived when I was in bed. They ordered Rob to go and fill the pool right away!
The midwife told me to go and have a wee (I’d drunk a LOT of coconut water!) but I just couldn’t go. This unfortunately led to my bladder doubling in size and me having to have a catheter for a week - I’d definitely recommend peeing if you can!
I hadn’t had any pain relief up to this point, so we put the TENS machine on - it helped a bit to distract from the sensations.
We made it downstairs and I got into the pool and instinctively got onto all fours. It felt like baby was in my bum (I spent a lot of my labour going “I think it’s just a poo”!). I think this was about 8.30am-ish? We’d got to the pushing part of labour and the midwife was so brilliant, telling me to follow my instincts and trust my body. I’d totally forgotten I could have gas and air and again focused on breathing. I let baby and my body guide me and after a few pushes, her head appeared! Her body was much easier to get out and it was such a relief when she came out into the water.
9.54am, bang on her due date on 26 September 2022 Sienna Ines was born.
We did the in person course with Megan in Thames Ditton and it was one of the best decisions we made (along with choosing a Homebirth). Megan completely empowered us to advocate for ourselves, trust our instincts and because of her teachings, we had the most magical birth.
Not only this but she supported us through navigating a diagnosis of thrombocytopenia towards the end of my pregnancy, as well as offering her support and connections through our tongue tie journey postnatally. I feel so lucky that Megan is still part of our lives now!
Thankyou so much Laura for sharing your birth story! Such an inspiration with tons of tips for anything expecting their first baby or planning a homebirth!
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