Birth story - Samantha Jones
Birth: 22 4 2005
Following the experience of my first child's birth in a local NHS hospital, I was prompted me to look for alternatives when I fell pregnant with my second child. I felt the lack of continuity of care by midwives both during the antenatal and birth process and lack of information provided to prospective parents could have been improved on.
I found the Kent midwifery practice on an internet search and signed up with Virginia shortly afterwards. I explained I was looking for a more natural birth, perhaps at home, or water birth. Virginia was fully supportive of my wishes and did not feel pressured at any point to book into a hospital. My partner however had reservations regarding the home birth ("what if something goes wrong, what if you need a doctor"etc etc) so we compromised by having a hospital bag packed by the front door just in case and continued with plans to hire the birthing pool for the home birth.
One week early on 22 April, my contractions started at about 4 am. They weren't the initial gentle twinges I'd experienced during my first birth, but full on and only ten minutes apart. Keeping a note of when each one occurred and TENS machine in place, I lasted another couple of hours and subsequently phoned Virginia to let her know the state of play. They progressed to every five minutes apart a few hours later and I then asked my partner to get Virginia to come over asap as I realised at this point that my labour was proceeding quickly and I needed her support. Tearing down the motorway with her flashing light on, Virginia arrived about 8ish with her kit, by which time my contractions were only every two and a half minutes apart.
The birth pool was ready and waiting (in our conservatory) although our central heating system barely coped with the water needed, so we ended up boiling two kettles simultaneously to top up the warm water. I got in the pool when Virginia arrived and found this really helped alleviate the pain of the now regular contractions. We put some music on, lit a scented candle and after about an hour and a half later (and much grunting and shouting, and display of embarrassing bodily functions!) approached the last stages of labour. The contractions were less regular but lasted longer, I felt I was no longer in control and my body was telling me to push. Virginia was very encouraging by telling me the baby was coming soon. By this time my waters had not broken, we could see the baby's head between my legs although it was still in the sack, one last gentle nudge and the baby arrived. We tore the membranes from her and pushed the cord away from her neck and she laid contentedly on my chest for a good hour whilst the cord pulsated. Finally my partner got to cut the cord, much to his delight as he was never given the opportunity to do during the birth of my eldest child. We celebrated the birth afterwards with a glass of champers!
Without doubt, the home and water birth was the best decision I'd ever made. If anyone had told me I would give birth without pain relief I would never have believed them. We could not have done this without the support and knowledge of Virginia. The recovery period was also much quicker and with very little bleeding and only a small tear, I was even able to do the weekly shop at Tescos only a day or so after the birth. We continued to see Virginia after the birth of my daughter as I was experiencing problems with breast feeding. Again thanks to Virginia's support I have been able to breast feed my daughter sometimes helped by using a pump.
I would recommend anyone to consider hiring an independent midwife, sadly the constraints of the NHS and the unnecessary interventions that sometimes take place during childbirth mean our experiences of labour are not always what we would like them to be. Virginia was able to guide me through the whole process and support my own beliefs of a more natural delivery.
