Caroline's Home Birth

A mum trusting her gut feeling and getting the lovely home birth she wanted for her and her baby

Hi Dany,

Our baby was born on Friday November 9th in a lovely homebirth. Thelast few weeks of my pregnancy were a bit stressful as I had bad blood results from my liver and the consultants in Queen Elizabeth suspected Obstetric Cholestasis and wanted to induce the birth at 38 weeks. We already had been given a date for induction for November 7th("just to make sure you reserve your place in the queue") but felt very uncomfortable with it since my gut feeling was that my baby was fine and we also were aware of the fact that the medical knowledge about this condition is not really there to justify such a drastic.

measure. We were also lucky to have a very supportive midwife who was more that happy to go ahead with the homebirth despite the presumed risk. So we went back to the hospital and cancelled the induction date - actually Anthony did, as I was getting too soppy amongst all the talk about risks I would be taking.

I told my midwife I was ready for the birth as soon as my mother gets here from Switzerland on Thursday evening. We agreed we would start taking natural measures at 39 weeks. When my mum arrived on the 8th of November, I had noticed already the baby "hanging low" and I had to use the loo very frequently. When we went to bed that night I mentioned to Anthony I had light period type sensations and he asked me wether he should not go to work the next day we agreed he would check with me again in the morning.

I woke up at 2:30 with stronger sensations and noticed they were actually 2-3 minutes apart and quite regular. I asked my mother and she told me this could go on for a few nights as she experienced this when I was born. I called the midwife who suggested I take Paracetamol and put the TENS machine on for relaxation and keep her posted. Everyone went back to sleep and I dozed off between surges.

By 5 am I had started to be quite noisy as I was trying to stay on top of my breathing at which point Anthony decided to call back the midwife. I clearly had passed the talking stage and only moaned into the phone. She decided to get ready and told Anthony to set up the pool. I stayed in bed as everyone jumped into action, and at 7.30 in a sudden gush my waters broke and although the midwife was still not there I was desperate to get into the pool. I mainly concentrated on following my body's lead thoughout the birth, which made me change position frequently and be quite vocal.

Anthony had set up everything beautifully with candles around the pool and soft relaxing music in the background, and the sun was just going up on an amazing autumn morning sky. I started feeling the urge to push around 8 just as the midwife was there and ready and tried to breathe my way through it. It wasn't until I could feel the baby's head quite clearly that I really wanted it out and helped along. Sidonie was born at 9.06 am. I was on all fours and had always envisioned picking up the baby from between my legs, but I was so taken by surprise about her sudden arrival I actually couldn't find her and the midwife had to fish her out and pass her to me ;-)

Sidonie is a little angel and we can't stop looking at her.

Caroline + Anthony

P.S. if anyone is looking for an independent midwife in SE London, I highly recommend Deborah

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Caroline’s Home HypnoBirth Story