Claire's Story
After a fairly ‘text book’ pregnancy I finally reached my due date and nothing happened!! So many people (including Kay) had warned me that this would happen but I suppose I had expected to prove them all wrong and go into labour just before or on my due date. This however was not to happen as I ended up going a week and a day overdue.
My contractions started on Friday night at around 10pm and by 11pm I knew that things were going to happen. Kay had performed a cervical sweep the day before and I had a ‘show’ early Friday morning. I rang my mum (who was going to be my birth partner) at around 10.30pm to warn her, and then rang Simon to tell him that he better come home and think about sorting out the water pool.
The contractions gradually got more intense and closer together so at 2.45am we called Kay to let her know that baby was on his way. Kay was willing to come out at this point but I decided that I was coping o.k and she told me to ring her again when my contractions were about 1 to 2 minutes apart. It took until about 5.30am for my contractions to get to this point at which time we rang Kay and she arrived at around 6.20am. I was feeling the contractions mainly in the lower front part of my tummy at this point, and although I had only been having the stronger contractions for about an hour it felt like ages at the time!
I asked Kay when I could get into the pool and she said to get in whenever I felt that I needed a little extra help, at which point I replied “that was about an hour ago!” and so I got into the pool.
In hindsight I feel that I got in too early as my contractions slowed down once I got into the pool. By about 8.30am I decided that I needed to stay out of the pool to get baby moving again, although I was feeling really tired by this point as I had been up all night and had no sleep since Thursday evening.
By 9.00am my contractions had become much more frequent and stronger and all I kept wanting to do was go to the loo!!! This did however make me move around a lot more and I think that that helped in moving the labour forward. Kay was extremely supportive during this time (as well as mum) as I did feel as though I couldn’t keep going at one point, and she then reminded me that the other option was to go to hospital, and I really didn’t want that unless there was a medical reason. The thought of this kind of gave me the extra bit of energy I needed at that point to continue.
At around 10am I decided that I did need a little extra help so asked Kay to go and get the Entonox from her car and boy was that good stuff!!! The first time that I used it, it made me feel really dizzy but it did take the edge off the pain and after a couple of goes it really started to help.
At this point the contractions were really strong and I had to time going out to the loo in between them which was not easy and I found myself holding onto the sink, the stairs and anything else I could grab on to on the way there!!
I did find that swaying also helped me to get through the contractions, I had planned to use a birth ball during contractions but found it too painful sitting down and getting up so ended up not using it. It was easier for me to grab onto the edge of something (the pool or the sofa) and lean over during the contractions.
At 10.35am my waters broke during a contraction and to be honest I didn’t really notice as there was not a lot of fluid, which surprised me as I had expected there to be a lot. After the contraction finished I got into the pool and the contractions then started to come a lot stronger and more frequent.
I can’t really describe how the next stage felt I just knew that I needed to push and my body sort of ‘took over’ and I started pushing. Matthew then decided to make a very quick entrance into the world and was born after only 22 minutes of pushing (thank goodness!). Kay told me that she could see the head and the next thing I knew she was telling me to lean back so that I could catch him once he was born. It was an absolutely amazing feeling to be able to hold my son as he entered the world. I caught Matthew and pulled him up onto my chest and then the first thing I did was to check he had 10 fingers and toes!!!!
Matthew let out a gasp as I pulled him from the water and then a cry to let us all know that he had arrived. Once the cord had stopped pulsating my mum cut it and Matthew had truly made an entrance in the world.
After the placenta had been delivered we gave Matthew a bath (as he was covered in bright yellow meconium) and then I sat and had a lovely cuddle with him in bed.
The actual birth seemed to happen so quickly and it was so relaxed being in my own home that I wouldn’t want to give birth anywhere else if we have any more children in the future.
My partner Simon found the whole idea of a homebirth quite daunting at first and was really worried about it throughout the pregnancy. However now after listening to other people from our antenatal group, he says that the whole experience of a homebirth suited him well, as it meant that he was free to come in and out of the room when he wanted and to a certain point go and grab 5 minutes to chill out upstairs.
Matthew had a few problems feeding at first but these were resolved within a couple of weeks and Matthew is now very happy and content gorgeous little baby boy.
Kay was an absolute star throughout the whole pregnancy and birth as well as being available for the month afterwards. She made an amazing experience even more special for us. I would like to thank her for all her support and advice throughout the time that we employed her.
