"Everything went exactly as I had hoped for"

It's taken me a little time to write this as been so busy, but here's my successful home birth story. This was my first baby and I knew from the start I wanted a home birth.

My EDD was a week overdue and I was feeling the pressure a little, with a slightly pushy and bordering on scaremongering consultant (talking all about guidelines and risks but unable to provide me with research or papers to back those up! ) the midwives had advised they would remain on call for me until 40+12 so I only had 5 days before I knew they would really start ramping up the pressure for induction, I agreed to a sweep the following Monday which had me at 40+10 in which she advised I was already 3cm dilated so I was pleased with that, she also booked me a monitoring scan for the Friday which would have been 42 weeks but made no mention of induction so I was feeling good, happy and relaxed knowing that I was progressing on my own and had effectively just been given another 2 days breathing space.

I had some twinges on the Tuesday morning but they weren't coming to much so I grabbed my husband and told him we were going for a power waddle! So that day we (I) waddled over 5 miles with some very mild pains coming and going. But I was pretty sure that this wasn't it because I'd been getting similar pains for days often in the early hours of the morning. So when I woke at 4am again with pains I was in total denial, I lay there until 7am dozing in between pains and managing to deal with them as they came.

At 7am I woke my husband and let him know but I said I didn't think this was it and not to get too excited, I told him I would phone the midwife at 9 for advice.

I phoned at 9 and advised them what had been happening and the frequency etc and they told me they were sending two midwives to come and assess me. The two on call midwives Sheena and Sonja arrived and did some obs- BP, urine etc and offered a VE/sweep which I accepted, I was a bit gutted to be told it was still 3cm but at the same time I wasn't that surprised because I was still sure this wasn't labour.

They advised that they had some prenatal home visits in the area to do so they would go and do those and I was to chill out, watch a movie and have a bath and they would check on me later.

We put on Moana and I leaned on my ball and sofa until I couldn't cope anymore so I took a couple of paracetamol and jumped into a hot bath at around 2pm, I stayed in the bath for an hour, dozing between contractions until Sonja returned and said she thought the bath was hiding the true pain and could I get out and walk so she could see if I had progressed, well...the first contraction I got when I got out the bath was a shocker! I thought I was going to break the sink clinging on for dear life! Sonja came back in and said "yes that sounds more like it that's what we want to hear..." 😂 and told husband to start filling the pool, and she would go fetch Sheena and they would both come back.

I was struggling to cope by now and was pacing the kitchen, clinging onto my husband, leaning over chairs, using my TENS machine but nothing was helping. I had literally just begged my husband "they need to come back, I need help" when the door opened and both midwives came running in. Sheena hooked me up to the gas and air and Sonja helped my husband with the pool. What a relief! Sheena and me went through to the lounge where I got more obs and another VE 6/7cms now! Woohoo!

I changed into my tankini top and I got into the pool around 5. 20pm, I kept on with the gas and air, got my music on the iPad and for the most part the midwives just sat at the table and left my husband and I to it, only coming in to check babies heartbeat every 15 minutes and my temperature every hour, the only other times they assisted was when I had a wobbly and over did the gas and air or when I was making a lot of splashing or noise and needed assistance in getting back into it.

At one point I did wave the gas and air around and shouted "I think this is broken! ! " Sure enough we had a near empty canister 😳! She quickly changed it for me and I noticed the difference immediately. We knew things were getting closer because the first canister lasted me almost 2 hours and the second one was sucked dry in about 25 minutes 😂🙈! ! My favourite dance The Time Warp (from Rocky Horror Picture Show) came on my playlist and I even managed a little dance between contractions and Sonja even joined in with me!

The contractions started coming really quickly after this and they weren't giving me much of a break, this was the point where I really thought I couldn't do it, I felt like I was so far away from meeting my baby, my waters hadn't even gone yet, it must still be ages! I asked for paracetamol, morphine, even to go to hospital, but my husband and the midwives knew how close I was and kept telling me I was nearly there, I wasn't convinced, then the contractions changed and there was a pushing urge coming at the end of each contraction!

Sonja came over to tell me that when the real pushing started I would have to surrender the gas and air! I was horrified and was begging my husband "don't let her take it"!

At 8. 31pm I looked at the clock and asked Sonja how much longer she thought it would be, she tried to give me a standard answer of "it could be 5 minutes, could be an hour, how long is a piece of string? " But I wasn't satisfied with that and asked again and this time she responded with "you could probably aim for 9pm", well to say I was delighted was an understatement, having a sort of timescale gave me the last boost I needed and suddenly I was full of energy and ready to do this.

The midwives coaxed me into a good position where my back was against the pool and one foot was on the far side pool wall and the other was pushing against the pools seat to give me something to kick off of. My husband stood behind me with his arms under me supporting me so that I didn't have to hold myself up and could focus on the pushing. Pushing began properly at 8. 44 and I really got into the pushing part quite quickly and actually surrendered the gas and air myself as it was too difficult to focus on sucking and breathing and pushing at the same time ha ha!

I asked if I was close enough to set up the GoPro to film the actual birth for my sister who had moved away just a few weeks before but Sonja wasn't keen just yet she thought it was still to early. I put my hand down and I could feel her, she was so close and at this point she was still in her waters so it felt very smooth and strange.

At 21. 12 I felt the "pop" and a huge sense of relief as my waters finally went. The amount of pressure that was gone was unbelievable! I felt my whole body relax when this happened. Now it was GoPro time, I got handed the camera and even managed to turn it on and check the settings between contractions and pushing ha ha. I could feel her head, we were almost there, it was probably about 3/4 of the way out and the contraction ended, I was so uncomfortable, I was at full stretch and I thought I just couldn't wait for the next contraction to come to get rid of the stringing burning feeling, so I just gave one more almighty push and her head was out, I could feel her starting to turn, I was just waiting for the next contraction and this would be over, but the next contraction came and even pushing with all my might, it was doing nothing, she was a little bit stuck, a little gentle assistance from Sonja and she was out, scooped up by my husband and placed onto my chest! We'd done it! She was here! Sheena the midwife gave me the injection to help deliver the placenta and I sat in the pool with baby a little while just looking at her in amazement. My husband cut the cord once it had stopped pulsing.

When it was time to deliver the placenta my husband took the baby for skin to skin and I got out the pool to deliver the placenta. I got onto a pile of blankets and cushions in the dining room and with a cough and a gentle tug the placenta came away easily. Sonja examined it and let me see it and described at the parts to me before bagging it up for disposal. She then examined me and advised I would need a couple stitches but she would leave me an hour before doing those.

I moved through to the living room and got settled on the sofa, I phoned my Gramma to come round and meet baby and to reveal her name. When she arrived, Baby was brought through to me for snuggles and her first feed (bottle because I had a breast reduction at 19 so they are purely decorative now).

Gramma did the grand unveiling of baby's name and she also made tea and toast for us and the midwives. The midwives came through to do my stitches (2nd degree tear), I was allowed the gas and air for this part, although I can't say I noticed any pain from the injection at all and the gas and air was mostly just used for the funny feeling 😂!

Gramma sat with baby, whilst the midwives took me to ensure I could wee (probably the most painful thing I did that night! ! Still brings tears to my eyes! ! 😖😖😖) and then my husband took me upstairs to shower and get fresh clothing.

The midwives dressed and weighed baby, and went over some key information on feeding, burping, sleeping etc, then they tidied up and left round about 1am as did my Gramma. And suddenly there were 3...

It couldn't have gone any better, everything went exactly as I had hoped for and my midwives were fantastic.