Pippa's birth story

Pippa’s Home Birth Story


It really starts five years ago! Pregnant with my first, I fully expected a late baby arriving after 12 or more hours of labour. Abby arrived on her due date after an hour and forty minutes of established labour. Talk about a shock to the system! About two and half years later, Matty also arrived on his due date and very quickly (about half an hour after we arrived at the hospital and with only one midwife in the room!).

Most significantly I had discovered that I could give birth on “just” gas and air and a tens machine – there was no time for anything else with Matty – and that’s what got me thinking about home birth. For both births I had woken with regular pains, made the decision to go to hospital fairly quickly and had a baby shortly after arriving – so I never really focussed on the labour – more on getting to hospital, a home birth would allow me to focus on the labour and maybe remember it this time!

I had most of the usual worries, childcare was a big one with two older children who I didn’t want present because I’m not quiet in labour and I didn’t want them to be frightened, worry about the previous speed of my labours – would the midwife get to us in time, what about the mess, how would I feel about having a baby in my front room, what if it went wrong – how would I feel about my decision maybe putting my baby at risk. Many of these issues we discussed at the Home Birth Group, some I resolved through the internet and reading books like Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth.
Having got everything organised – lists of contacts for people to take the children at different times of the day, arrangements made with both nurseries and with school etc we sat back and waited. And waited. After several false alarms I finally decided that this really was “it” at around 3am 5 days after my due date. I’d woken at about 1am with a trapped wind sensation, and gone down to bounce on my birth ball – I wasn’t going to let labour stop AGAIN! By about 3am I felt it was time to risk putting on my tens machine so woke my husband who wanted me to call the midwife immediately. I was pretty comfy still, but conscious that I had gone from comfy to birth rapidly in the past so agreed. The midwife called back and said she’d come round anyway – just in case!
On her arrival at about 4.15 I realised that I had met her five years before with Abby, which was a lovely bonus as at least she wasn’t a complete stranger that we had to get to know! Shortly after she arrived things slowed down – a lot. I was surprised at this and a bit cross as I’d kind of thought that we’d have a baby to show the children when they woke, so I bounced and walked around the ground floor willing the baby to head south and the contractions to pick up again. All the time we chatted, had tea and watched the news – it was so much better than piling into a car and driving across town! The pains were strong but manageable with the tens machine and various positions were I would rock through each one and then resume our conversation. Apart from listening to baby’s heartbeat I was left alone completely so had no idea how dilated I was – we just went with what I felt. I was so in control and the labour was so much less intense than before, that at one point I felt a little exposed – rather like I was the centre of attention and not performing quite as I should and had got hubby and midwife up in the middle of the night for no reason but was reassured that it was OK and no-one minded or was bothered.
We realised at about half six that this wasn’t going to be as quick as before and that the older children would be up and around in about half an hour and so we had to make plans. This also slowed labour down again. The children woke and were more than ok with mummy disappearing into the living room with the door shut every now and then (to rock through a contraction), they were introduced to the “baby doctor” and thought it was very exciting to be going off to someone else’s house for breakfast! It was only when Abby came down the second time that I remembered it was her birthday!
Once I knew they were going to be collected, labour stepped up a gear again – I now needed to kneel down and bury my face in the sofa through each contraction – I was determined not to let the children hear me in pain, but I did manage to get up and wave them off before retreating to the sofa again! As they left (at about eight o’clock I think) so the second midwife arrived, and it was at this point that I decided gas and air was needed and that the only person I could communicate with was my husband – and told him so. I remember thinking “ah, this is it, the point of no return” and “I must focus on this now”. It was great to know that the kids were safe and I could make as much noise as I wanted into the facemask! At one point the facemask bit fell off and I informed my husband very firmly “that can’t happen again”. It must have sounded so rude, me telling my husband that I wouldn’t listen to these two women who’d come to my house in the middle of the night to help me have a baby, but actually I was so much in a bubble and didn’t want the distraction, I hope they understood!

Pippa arrived after only forty five minutes of me needing gas and air, I do remember feeling her arrival (I don’t recall this with the previous two) and whilst it was hard work, and painful, it was so much easier that the hospital births – and I think that’s because I was kneeling instead of being on my back. I wasn’t nearly as shocked as I had been before – I’d been much more aware of the labour, had had time to think about it and prepare myself. That said, I’m a little fuzzy about the time immediately after the birth, I remember being cross that I was sitting on something lumpy (I wasn’t it was just the bruised sensation!), but don’t remember actually sitting down or picking Pippa up, then I remember being on the sofa so I must have delivered the placenta by then and I’m told that they checked for tears – but I was just focussed on Pippa (who was extremely cross and screaming!) and what we’d achieved!

The next most important thing was that Pippa found my breast by herself! I had read about newborns moving to find the nipple and latching on for their first feed, and here I was, sitting in my living room while my baby did just that! Wow! She fed and fed, I think for over an hour.

After a bath and some tea and toast I settled on the sofa with Pippa. The midwives were keen for me to go to bed but we had a five year old coming home who would want to open her birthday presents so stayed up but promised to go to bed later! We were on our own by midday, just us with no distractions, bliss.

I wouldn’t even consider a hospital birth if I was to have another, I had an easier, more enjoyable birth – even though it was twice as long as before, I recovered more quickly, and life returned to “normal” more quickly. With the hospital births we had a “normal” in hospital and then a “normal” at home, with the home birth we just got on with “normal”, which with three in the house is chaos!