My Home Water Birth Story - Updated with pics

My birth plan consisted of having a home water birth with our two independent midwives, and with my husband and my mum as my birthing companions. Hubby and I had been on a hypnobirthing course and had been practicing the methods since 28 weeks. We wanted to use breathing and relaxation techniques including self-hypnosis and light touch massage. I did not want drugs or gas and air as they made me feel sick, nor did I like the tens machine. We had done a fear release as part of our hypnobirthing, which lead us to decide on having a home birth (prior to hypnobirthing I could not face talking or even thinking about the birth and just wanted to be knocked out and woken up when it was all over - I was petrified!) I had put a hypno playlist together on the iPod, as well as a chillout music playlist. I had also wanted burning candles and relaxation oils. I had carefully chosen snacks for throughout the labour.

Pre- birth: I'd tried all the suggestions to encourage labour to start (curries and spicy foods, bouncing on birth ball, sex, pineapple, clary sage and jasmine baths and massage, accupressure massage, reflexology, walking) as I was desperate to avoid being induced and really wanted to be able to have our natural water birth at home, not be in the hospital where my stress and anxiety levels would have reared their ugly heads and where there was an increased risk of medical intervention (possibly ending up with an emergency c-section which I feared).

At 40+6 weeks I had a cervical sweep, which did nothing but reveal I was 2cm dilated, and a second sweep at 41+3 weeks (where I was 3cm dilated) - this seemed to do the trick and tip me over!

On Saturday 21 November - 41+4 weeks, 11 days past EDD (10 November) I woke at 6am needing a wee; I got up and went in the dark so that I didn't fully wake up. I got back into bed and 5 mins later needed a No. 2 so back to the loo, turned on the light and also realised I had had my bloody show. Yay! I then got back in bed and my contractions immediately started in my lower back at 5 mins apart (I was sneakily clock watching!). If it weren't for the regularity I would not have known I was having contractions as I thought they would be felt in my bump! I got up and showered and washed my hair as I was obsessed with having clean hair for the birth (for the video - like that happened in the end!) I went back to bed with a hot water bottle but by 7:30am I needed to get in the bath where I spent the next few hours squatting, facing the wall, not quite knowing what to expect. I lost all concept of time. My contractions reduced to every 4.5 minutes, then 4 minutes and Hubby and I realised the reality that I truly was in labour. This was it! Mum was up by this time and there was an air of calm excitement and anticipation of meeting our little man.

I kept shouting (gasping!) at Hubby from the bath to get the pool set up in the living room. He had to move some furniture outside to make some space and I was stressing a little that I couldn't hear the pool being pumped up. Eventually I could hear it and he was on the phone to our first midwife, who thought I would be in labour for a while yet and suggested she wait to come. He called back 2 minutes later and insisted she come NOW.

Our first midwife arrived at 9am to find me in established labour with my contractions at 1 minute long, 3-4 minutes apart. By 9:15am they were 1 minute long, 2 minutes apart. Our second midwife, arrived at 10:40am and my contractions were 1 minute 15 seconds, lasting 30-40 seconds.

The contractions in my back became so intense but they were eased by the pouring of water down my back during each one. I did not swear once throughout the entire labour (and I normally swear like a trooper!) but I did scream ???????MY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!??????? whenever I was left alone in the bathroom throughout a contraction (Hubby and Mum were out talking to the midwives and making decisions).

At one stage I saw a red stringy thing in the bath water and thought I had delivered the umbilical cord and thought ??????? OMG, where is my baby?!????????, only to be told it was a flannel (which was white with a crocheted red edging around it)! Later I realised that the cord was in fact a green colour anyway!

There was no time to fill the pool and it was decided between my midwives and Hubby that they would keep me in the bath for the delivery. They encouraged me to change positions to lying on my right side, to practice for the final delivery stage, as due to being in the bath there was a danger that I would lift out of the water and then back in again whilst delivering, which would risk our baby taking a gulp of water. On my side I felt intense pain in my side and back that was out of the water. I kept thinking how I could go on and give birth and considered asking for paracetamol but couldn't get the words out.

Throughout my labour I didn't want any of the food I had in my birth plan! Apparently I kept asking for Jelly Beans which weren't even in the plan, nor were there any in the house! The milk energy drinks made me want to throw up so I abandoned those and couldn't face eating anything else! I was being force fed berry smoothies so I had sugars for my uterus to work better and to keep my energy levels up, which were fading and I felt faint as I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. My midwives were also popping energy tablets into my mouth, which were a great help, and they were giving me homeopathic remedies to keep me going. Plus I needed to keep drinking lots of water.

At 10:52am things changed in my body and I could feel my uterus violently shaking. I started involuntarily pushing and then felt an almighty ???????pop??????? like I'd released a balloon and thought ???????YES! That must have been the head!??????? but was told that I'd just broken my waters with a heavy show. So I wasn't there yet. Damn! There was a slight indication that there was meconium in the waters so I had to get out of the bath and sit on the toilet so that the bath could be refilled with new water. The pain from the contractions, when I was out of the water for 13 minutes, was much more intense than when in the water.

It was a relief to be back in the bath at 11:37am, when I needed to push and did this whilst lying on my right side which was also now more comfortable that my baby had moved downwards. I kept feeling a tightness and a burning sensation down below. I was stuck thinking ???????do I push hard and risk tearing or do I let things go slowly and have a longer labour???????? I opted for the pushing! It was such a relief when my midwife finally told me that the head was crowning; they told me to reach down and touch it and feel his hair! They told me 2 or 3 more pushes and he would be out. This gave me a boost as I knew we were nearly there and about to meet him finally!

Hubby was leant over the side of the bath next to me, the midwives were next to him, and mum was somewhere up in the air holding the video camera to catch the moment. It was all so surreal to me. I gave an almighty push and gave my voice box a bashing, then another and his head popped out at 12:17pm. It was lovely to touch - so soft and I could feel his hair! I regained my breath and with the next contraction pushed him all the way out at 12:21pm. Hubby caught him in the water and put him up on my chest and I cried with overwhelming emotion. About 10 seconds later, Brody let out a quiet cry too, which made me cry even more! He was so calm and placid, not to mention slippery!

I was taken out of the bath with Brody and we were laid down on the sofa together, still attached by the umbilical cord. I had lost a lot of blood. We waited for the cord to stop pulsating and Hubby cut it (which he didn't think he wanted to do!) Brody was wiped down and Hubby took him into our bed for some skin to skin contact and the Vitamin K injection (he didn't cry). I was then seen to by the midwives to deliver the placenta which I had wanted to do naturally but was open to their guidance if there were any problems. Due to my blood loss I went with their recommendation to have the syntometrine injection to speed things up. My placenta was all intact and in a good condition. I was checked for tearing and had some skin grazing and a 2nd degree tear in my muscle which needed 2 stitches.

I was then cleaned up, helped to the shower for a quick rinse, and lead to bed to join Hubby and Brody. Brody was checked over and weighed, and then we had our skin to skin contact with our first breast feed which was amazing. We were so in love with our new son!

To have delivered him at home, drug free, and enjoy a cuddle in our own bed afterwards was the most amazing experience of our lives.

Looking back at the birth, I don't know where all the endorphins from hypnobirthing went (which were supposed to help relieve the pain!) Although, due to the speed of the labour, we didn't end up using very much hypno, it was certainly invaluable for the months leading up to it. Hubby did encourage my breathing using the techniques we learnt but my vision of a quiet, relaxed birth were far from a reality! I made so much noise that I was sure our neighbours thought I was being murdered! Apparently they heard none of it!! We did play the relaxation music and had a candle burning but that was because the lights were too bright for me. As for burning the oils, the smell made me feel sick! I think that if my pre-labour period had lasted longer, or if my contractions started less frequently during pre-labour, then our hypno could have been used more.

Brody Lincoln was born at 12:21pm, weighing 7lbs 13oz (3570g) without drugs, gas or air, just my sheer adrenalin and encouragement from my fabulous birth team! It was 6hrs 21 minutes from the onset of labour, until the birth, and established labour lasted 3hrs 21 minutes. He was given an Agpar score of 9 at 1 minute after delivery (due to his colour), and a score of 10 at 5 minutes after delivery.


[Modified by: sim75 on 29 November 2009 19:16:44 ]