Darcy's Birth
When I fell pregnant I naturally assumed that I would have my baby at hospital as I had done with my first child (Libby). I had received good care during the delivery of her and had no reason to change my plans until I started to read very negative reports in the paper about he state of my local hospital’s cleanliness and until one of my friends went in to hospital, had a straight forward birth and was readmitted 24 hours later in the ICU with septicaemia.
I started to have serious doubts about whether having my child in the hospital was the right way forward. My husband (David) was very positive about having a home birth so I started to research the best way to proceed. Inevitably my search led me on to the Internet where I found the Kent Midwifery Practice site. I read all the birth stories and felt very positive about what I was reading and felt very excited about the prospect of giving birth at home, in the my own environment. David too was very keen to explore this further, so we arranged to meet Kay and on the spot felt that this was the right midwife for us and for me the best way to have my second daughter.
Kay made David and I feel at ease right from the beginning and each time I met Kay for my appointments I felt even more positive, despite having the inevitable nerves about labour and pain relief, but Kay reassured me every step of the way. My daughter was due on the 3rd August but I had been early with my first and I felt very sure that this pregnancy would be the same! It was, one week before my due date I had gone to bed but felt very restless, I moved into the spare room and eventually dropped off to sleep but was woken a few hours later with a strong contraction and a show. I woke David excitedly and told him that things were starting to happen. We’d had a false alarm earlier in the week so David was a little concerned about phoning Kay at 2.30am in the morning if we weren’t sure, but the look on my face convinced him!! We phoned Kay who arrived an hour later to find me having contractions every 5 minutes! They weren’t strong contractions but I felt that we were well on our way! I strapped on the tens machine, felt very in control, and wandered around the house. Libby slept soundly upstairs and we talked about the best way to move her if we had to. At 6am my contractions had started coming on very strongly and I started using gas and air. Kay was fantastic, remained with me continually and reassured me at every turn. Meanwhile at 7am David roused our friends down the road, woke a sleepy Libby and walked her down the road, on a balmy July morning to stay with them as long as we needed.
I think the fact that we had sorted Libby out and that she was happily with her friends relaxed me and the contractions really took off. I asked Kay for some pethadene which seemed to help for a while and I felt that I was heading towards the pushing stage. Then, everything stopped, no contractions, no pain, nothing. I was very bemused by this turn of events, but Kay assured me that this was normal and that some women do experience a period of “rest”. I did however find this phase very hard, I didn’t know when the contractions were going to start again, how far along I was and I did even at one stage ask to go to hospital! Kay was brilliant; she was calm, confident and very reassuring. I then spent about 40 minutes in silence, having words with myself in my head that I was the only one that could do this, that I desperately wanted to meet our baby and that I would cope when everything started up again. Kay asked if it would help if she checked how dilated I was and when we talked that through we decided that we would just let nature take its course. With Libby the midwives had checked me a few times throughout my labour to see how dilated I was and I had found the experience so painful that during my meetings with Kay she had advised me that she rarely has the need to do internal checks and that for the most part they were an unnecessary procedure. I was pleased to hear that!
At about 9.00am my contractions started up again and this time in earnest. I was in full labour and within a few minutes I was panting my way through contraction after contraction. Kay and David were constantly by my side, reassuring me, whilst I went on all fours, in silence, with a mantra in my head of “you can do this, you can do this!”.
My waters had broken a few hours back and I suddenly felt a huge desire to push and it was a relief to do something with the pain and I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately my baby had the umbilical cord hooped around her head (she was not in danger) but as I was pushing she was being held back and so I felt like it was one step forward and two steps back but Kay was at hand to tell me what she could see and it helped my progression and my mind set. This final stage did take longer than I had expected but as soon as she could Kay unhooked the umbilical cord and with two final pushes Darcy Elizabeth was born on a hot July day 2008. I was so overcome with emotion and so proud of our beautiful 8lb 5oz baby that giving birth at home seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
Giving birth is the most painful and rewarding experience that a woman can ever go through but having had a hospital birth followed by a home birth I felt that Kay took all my concerns, fears and my previous hospital encounter and turned this birth in to the most positive experience that I have ever been through. I had no intervention throughout my entire labour and this was what I had wanted more than anything. I gave birth in my own home, with the two people I wanted with me and I feel proud and empowered to have done so.
Thank you Kay for giving me an experience I will never forget…………………….
