I woke up on the 7th July around 7am, I’d been gradually losing my mucus plug for about 5 days, I felt cramping in my gut. I called the midwife around 8.30am, my waters broke at 11am. I bounced around on my ball and breathed through each contraction, they came once every 5-15 minutes and were nowhere near as bad as I thought they would be. I kept thinking I need to stay calm as these are bound to get more intense and difficult.

The midwife arrived around 3.30pm and I asked for an examination to check how far through labour I was and I was 6cm dilated already. We started setting up the pool in our dining room but once it was ready my contractions slowed and I had a gap of 25 mins and 15 mins so had to wait for those to pick up again before I could get in the pool around 6pm. My back had really started hurting by this point so it was a huge relief to be in the pool. I had a cup of tea and pretended I was at the spa, it was bliss. From here the contractions got more intense, I changed positions between all fours and on my back. After about an hour in the pool my body started pushing and around 45 minutes our healthy baby girl was born, 7lb 12oz. All in all around 12/13 hours labour, in the comfort of my own home, I just stayed calm and breathed through the contractions and didn’t even think to ask for pain relief at any point because it was never as bad as I was expecting.

Also, I had 2 midwives the whole time until the end when they were due a shift change so two more midwives arrived to take over but I was so close to having my baby that they all stayed so I delivered with 4 midwives - you certainly don’t get that level of dedicated attention in a hospital in the UK! These women were incredibly empowering and calm and they just let me do my thing with no intervention except words of encouragement and helped me focus when it was needed.

I know this isn’t the case for everyone and I am fortunate in my anatomy, the size of my baby, and the position she was in that I was able to cope so well but I also think this is in huge part to being in the comfort of my own home and having completed a hypnobirthing course which helped me understand what was going to happen and how to stay calm and breathe through it. But I wanted to share my story for anyone considering a home birth or nervous as a first time Mum (this was my first so I had no idea what to expect).

I needed some stitches afterwards which the midwives gave me gas and air for. I had to pee before the midwives left and it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I was expecting - probably partly as I managed to stay hydrated throughout the labour. Also (TMI but…) the first poop I had was a few days after the birth and that wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I was expecting either!

Basically what I’m saying is, stay calm and relaxed, it won’t be as bad or traumatic as you think. You got this Mamas 💪🏻💕

NICU moms!

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