A really long post - I wrote this for my own benefit so apologies if some things don’t make sense!

My home birth - Maxine 18/10/17

~5.00am I woke up to a bit of a cramp combined with feeling like I had wet myself a little. I got up and changed my pants and debated if this was my waters or if I had just lost bladder control!

I got back Into bed and 10 minutes later had the same thing happen again so I started googling ways to check. When getting back into bed mark stirred so I told him "I think my waters have gone". He sleepily replied that I could have his glass and reached for the bedside table.

I spent the next 2 hours trying to snooze but not succeeding constantly googling whether I was in labour etc! Mark didn't find going back to sleep as hard. I had a couple of quite well spaced period pain like twinges but was unsure if these were contractions or if I was imagining them!

6.55am I had had enough waiting around and leapt out of bed and into the shower. Mark at this point was still snoozing away with the dog duo! I had made the (sensible)!decision it was best not to go to work as I was still leaking what I had now accepted were my waters. I called Claire on the cover line who excitedly asked me questions and confirmed my hunch that I probably shouldn't go to work.

Figuring things were going to make slow progress since contractions were few and far between and were just the odd cramping i wandered in to work to set my cover and collect the last few bits of food out my drawer! Each new person to walk through the door was regailed with "I think I'm in labour but it's fine nothing is happening but i am about to go home!"

After setting my cover I wandered home - again experiencing the occasional cramping.

Once home mark (who had ignored my instruction for him to go to work) and I took the dog for a walk, when we got back I settled on the sofa to watch some trashy tv. I just about manage to get through a program when the contractions started getting hard to ignore. I called maternity triage and they said they would send someone over soon to confirm my waters had gone. They advised I put on the tens machine as well so I did. Mum came and collected duo after his lunch time walk.

The midwife arrived around midday and confirmed yes my waters had gone. She then examined me and found I was 2 cm dilated. She leaves telling us to ring again when the contractions are 3 in 10 minutes.

About an hour later I've reached that point and call them back - they said they would send her over again later. Mum returns from taking duo to hers and the contractions start to get hard to manage so we ring back after only a short period if time.

Jane the midwife from earlier arrives about 4pm and is surprised by how quickly we've progressed and offers me gas and air which makes me feel light headed and drunk but takes the edge off. When she examines me she find I am 5cm - enough to get in the birth pool!! Unfortunately the birth pool had gotten a bit cold so mark spent rather a long time running back and forth with kettles!!

The contractions are also starting to make me sick - after jane examined me I puked into the bin and everything else I try to eat or drink makes a reappearance- gutted because I was looking forward to my birth snacks!!

Eventually the pool was hot enough and getting in was a massive relief - it really helped with the pain.

The next couple of hours were a blur of contractions in the pool - demanding water as the gas and air makes your mouth dry and throwing up the water.

Mark put himself on gas and air duty and during a contraction would hand it over and help me focus on breathing.

Two on call midwives - Emily and Sophie arrived and Jane left. I don't remember looking at either of them until after max was born - I was in a world of my own.

Around 7.30-8 I felt the contractions change and a need to push - which basically felt like I needed a big poo. This part felt like it went on forever but really was over very quickly. I spent most of it wondering when they were going to tell me they could see the head but too scared to ask in case we were nowhere near that stage. Eventually I could feel the start of her crowning - a bit of an unpleasant stinging feeling and they said they could see the top of the her head!! The next 5 minutes or so we're pretty tough but the knowledge that it was all nearly done kept me going. When her head was half out I could feel her moving around (her arm was also out) and I could hear the midwives and mum saying they could see her face and that he chin was stuck. During the next contraction they told me to stand up a little bit as she was hitting the bottom of the pool and she was here!

The midwives caught her and helped me turn around and hold her on my chest. Max was born at 8.36pm. By this point she was screaming! Her cord was quite short so it was hard to keep her out of the (now quite cold) water. The vernixy sticky alien like creature cried, mum cried, Mark cried - I was far too buzzing to cry!! After about half an hour the cord stopped pulsing and mark cut it. I then got out the pool and moved to the sofa to deliver the placenta. Long story short the placenta took about an hour and a half to deliver after the cord was cut. We tried many things such as gravity, breastfeeding, walking and I was told to empty my bladder as this often holds things up but I couldn’t so was catheterised on my sofa - 2 litres of wee came out!! I initially didn’t have the injection but after 45 minutes had it although it made no difference! The midwives were admitting defeat and called the hospital and sent mark to dress max and grab some things. The hospital midwife said I would have to come in but suggested as a final attempt to sit in the bathroom in he dark and “let it go”. 5 minutes later we had a placenta!

The midwives examined me and I got to enjoy some more gas and air to take the edge off them poking about - much nicer without a contraction to breathe through! I escaped with a very minor graze which I barely noticed 2 days later.

By 11pm we were on our own and ha the daunting task of dressing a screaming newborn. The meconium poo also made an appearance whilst mark was holding her - I managed to catch it and wished I had just let it fall on the bathroom floor!!

The whole thing (and the first few weeks) are a bit of a blur. It was really tough but every time I reached a point where I struggled to cope there was something to help (TENS, gas and air, birth pool, the end in sight).