Oscar's birth story

The birth of Oscar Leo Bridge

My due date was 31st May and, although I had been told first babies are often late, when I got to 40+7 I was getting really impatient as I was determined not to have to go into hospital to be induced! I really wanted to have a home birth for lots of reasons, particularly so Ali, my husband, and I could be together for the first night with our new baby and I also wanted to use a birthing pool which couldn’t be guaranteed at Derriford. The Ivybridge midwives had been fantastic in the weeks preceding the birth and Liz even did my check ups at home as the time got closer. She was really encouraging, by my due date apparently I was already dilated 1-2 cm but as the days went past and I still had no twinges I did get a bit grumpy! I did a lot of walking as I found that helped pass the time and I hoped that gravity might help get the baby moving!

When I went to bed that evening I was convinced the baby wasn’t coming any time soon as I felt no different. At about 3am, I got up to go to the loo as I did fairly frequently every night. I got back into bed and as I was drifting back to sleep I heard a pop and felt warm liquid. I got up and grabbed a towel which was by the bed, telling Ali that my waters had broken but not to get up as it would probably still be ages. I was too excited to go back to sleep so I went downstairs to have a cup of tea and some toast. Not sure what to do with myself at this point, I decided to do some ironing! I’d barely started when I felt something a lot more than a twinge. A few minutes later I felt it again, more strongly and each time there was quite a lot more water. Even though I knew it was supposed to take a long time for a first baby, and my waters had only broken 45 minutes earlier I suddenly felt things were happening quite quickly and went to get Ali up.


He came downstairs and started to time my contractions, and when the first time he recorded was less than three minutes, we decided we’d better ring the midwives. I sat bouncing on our pilates ball, while he phoned, only to be told that the midwives on call had already gone to a homebirth and we would have to call the labour ward. Although a bit disappointed, my overriding feeling was that this baby was coming and I wanted to be somewhere with some midwives wherever that was! The lady on the phone asked to speak to me and as I was speaking to her between contractions and sounded fine, she assured me I would be hours yet and to go upstairs and have a warm bath and call back later. Just as she was ringing off she had a message to say the midwives could now come to us as the other lady wasn’t having her baby any time soon – I was so relieved!


A few minutes later the midwife called and said she was on her way. Ali started moving the furniture in our sitting room and pumping up the pool while I bounced away, breathing through my contractions according to the hypnobirthing CD I’d been listening to in preparation and feeling much better about things. When the midwife arrived she introduced herself as she was from a different team and I hadn’t met her before. Then she examined me and told me that I was 5-6 cm and could get in the pool as soon as it had filled up – our baby was coming today! I’d been worried we wouldn’t have enough hot water but in fact the pool was too hot and it took them a while to get it to the right temperature. Finally I was able to get in and it felt fantastic. I asked for some gas and air and a combination of that and the pool was enough for me to float away on a little cloud, reliving a beautiful walk we’d done a few days earlier at the beach and feeling completely relaxed. Unfortunately the gas and air suddenly stopped working – the canister had been leaking and run out and the other one was empty. The second midwife was on her way with some more, but by the time she arrived I was having pain in my back and couldn’t really get comfortable in the pool. I got out and when I was examined I was nearly 10 cm, but there was still a lip. I chose not to get in back in the pool and asked for some of the diamorphine I’d been prescribed to relieve my back. As I was nearly in the second stage they only gave me a fifth of the dose, but it was enough to get me back in my little cloud of relaxation! After about half an hour they examined me again – I was fully dilated and ready to push. I tried but it just didn’t feel right and after a while the midwives suggested I might want to consider transferring to hospital as the baby had possibly turned back to back. As I wasn’t using the pool anyway, this seemed like a good idea as by this stage my only thought was that I didn’t want any chances to be taken that could affect the baby. Everything was very calm and relaxed, the diamorphine had completely worn off and I was walking around sorting out what I needed to take with me – I even managed to walk downstairs and pack up a bag of snacks from the kitchen. When the ambulance arrived, they offered me a stretcher but I felt fine to walk up the steps outside and climb in myself. Once in the ambulance they gave me the gas and air again which I loved and I totally relaxed, feeling that whatever happened our baby would be ok. At one point we pulled over so the midwife could listen to the baby’s heartbeat, which had been strong throughout – it was still fine and we carried on calmly, although I was quite pleased when they turned on the siren at Manadon roundabout – I’d never been in an ambulance before and wanted the full experience!


When we got to Derriford they quickly transferred me, on a stretcher this time, into a delivery suite. I got a bit panicky as Ali had been following in the car but he was there by my side in a few minutes. My midwife had stayed with me throughout and I was introduced to Carla, the ward manager, who then examined me. I had no idea how close we were, but the baby was nearly crowning and Carla told me if they performed an episiotomy the baby would be born with the next push. Two pushes later in fact the head was born and with the next contraction, 20 minutes after we’d arrived at the hospital, our baby son arrived, weighing 9lbs 8oz! I had the injection for the third stage and the placenta was delivered shortly afterwards with no problems – I barely noticed it happening. They put him on my tummy and he soon starting sucking his fist so I tried breastfeeding him and he took to it straight away. Ironically, I was in the room with the birthing pool, which they filled up for me to have a bath afterwards – bliss. Ali, Oscar and I spent the whole afternoon cuddling together in the room and at about 5 o’clock they moved me up to a ward. Oscar was perfectly healthy, but we stayed in overnight as they wanted to monitor him for one night to check everything was ok – which it was.


I feel really positive about the whole experience – Oscar was a large baby and had turned posterior so we did the right thing to transfer in case there had been any complications or things had slowed down too much. It was great to be at home for so long – I felt in control and secure. I believe that by being relaxed and active at home, without knowing it I helped him move into the right position, speeded things up and avoided any intervention that may have been suggested in hospital. Having said that the staff at Derriford were also really great and my experience there was all good. I would recommend a home birth to anyone, the care I received was fantastic and I definitely hope to plan a home birth next time too!