Sarah's home waterbirth

After a week or two of ‘false’ labours my waters broke at 1am 5 days after my due date. Contractions started about 2am. I was surprised how intense they were straight away. I knew Amabella was posterior which really scared me so I was trying to do exercises to turn her but it wasnt working. I'd been trying to turn her for the previous few weeks – I'd managed it twice but woken the following mornings with her limbs all poking out of my tummy again!

Nick set the living room up with fairy lights and candles and we came downstairs so we could start the hypnobirthing techniques and massage. Well he started the 'light touch' massage which we’d practiced twice daily for weeks. ‘Irritable Uterus’ which I'd had since 6 months had been very painful and light touch worked amazingly well in the later stages of pregnancy. So now I was actually in labour but I couldnt bear him to touch me! It was a bit disappointing. My back hurt too much with each contraction so unfortunately my main form of pain relief was out the window straight away! I had the relaxation CDs on in the back ground on repeat until we gave birth 16 hours later and concentrated on the breathing techniques which I kept up until the birth – it worked incredibly well.

I called the midwife who came at 10.30am and stayed for an hour and I eventually asked her to do the one and only examination and found me to be 5cm dilated (the baby’s heart beat dropped dramatically when she examined me – (I'm not surprised it was quite invasive I thought!) and she wanted to transfer us to hospital which I was gutted about but we managed to convince her to monitor us a bit longer and everything went back to normal).

She said I could get in the pool at this point too - I literally threw all my clothes off and lept in!! Think she was a little surprised at my eagerness ;o) She left at 11.30 saying they’d call back about 1.30pm but within 20 minutes my contractions got much closer and intense and the back pain was pretty unbearable. I really panicked at this point because unfortunately I hadnt dealt with my fear with regards the operation I'd had on my spine and became convinced that my back would break as I gave birth. Shame really – I let this fear dominate. I got Nick to beg her to come straight back which she did. I was crouched in the pool leaning over the edge with my head next to Nick's who was basically encouraging me the whole way through. I wasnt saying a word, just breathing very deeply and slowly (I thought I was moaning and winging and saying I couldn’t cope but apparently I hadnt said a word for hours! ;o) they said I was fantastically brave and relaxed!

Another midwife arrived at 2.30pm and she said she has the gas and air in her car. I recall being really irritated that she hadn't brought it into the house but was concentrating too deeply to say anything. Eventually I must have blurted it out that I NEED IT NOW!!! Once I got the gas and air it really helped with the breathing, distanced me from the excruciating back pain (because she was posterior more than my previous back problems I think) but kind of slowed everything down in my head so every 5 minutes felt like half an hour - weird side effect. I also started getting a bit irrational at that point and got really upset and scared that my back was going to break because of my operation. This fear stayed with me until the birth unfortunately. I wish I'd been able to forget about my back issues cos that took over a bit from then on.

Anywho, on the outside at least, I stayed super calm, still crouching on the edge of the pool and deep breathing, thinking about how important it was that my daughter had the best possible journey into the world. Finally I felt that crazy and overwhelming urge to push. I very quickly tried the nudging instead but I really can't comprehend how that works when the pushing is SO powerful. So I tried really hard to let my body do its thing. 40 minutes later I'd dragged nick, fully clothed into the pool to 'hold my back on'!! He was holding me up, I was lying across him and making animal noises as I pushed like my life depended on it and apologising to the midwifes that they had to look at my privates!!. A gloomy day till then, the sun suddenly came out and the heat was amazing it was so magical for a moment. The midwives remained hands poised. They said they didnt need to get involved, that I could do it all myself like my notes had indicated. I kept feeling the baby's head getting close to the opening but then popping back in again and that felt really discouraging - I was worried they'd make me transfer because it wasnt happening quickly enough. In reality it happened like clockwork and they weren’t at all worried. A few minutes later with one almighty push (I should have been patient and could have avoided ripping) I birthed and delivered her myself onto my belly and let her wriggle around until she managed to find her first drink of milk ;o) pushing lasted for 45 minutes. She was born, all purple and fat and slimy and incredibly beautiful at 6.36pm, July 14^th, just the way we planned. She didnt make a sound, just looked around with big wide eyes.

We sat crying with relief and gazing at her cuddled up in the pool for about 5 minutes before realizing that the water had turned almost black with blood. The midwife told me to get straight out which was difficult because the cord was a bit short and she was still attached and I was all wobbly and faint. I was on our couch while they waited for the cord to stop pulsating then clamped and cut it and then had the injection for the placenta delivery because I was bleeding heavily. The placenta came out in a couple of pieces but I had an inkling it wasnt all out - don't know why.

[Sarah later passed the rest of the placenta after feeling unwell for 3 weeks]

Amabella and Sarah

Although for some reason I felt a bit traumatised afterwards, I couldn't have wished for a better birth for Amabella. She had a calm gentle entry into the world and has been calm and easy ever since. She’s 12 weeks old and sleeps through. We can take her anywhere. I've had to go back to work recently but Nick brings her in for feeds every few hours which is working out fine :o) We are loving being parents. If possible it's better than I ever imagined. The love you feel is unreal. (Don't get me wrong the first few weeks were tough! And breast feeding is not easy to get right so needed lots of help with that).

I definitely support hypnobirthing and believe that if madam hadn't been posterior that I could have dealt with the contraction pain no bother as they weren’t hurting much at all with the relaxation etc....But our hypno-waterbaby is definately a relaxed laid back happy one!

I should emphasise that the breathing worked incredibly well and that as a result I have the calm contented baby that I dreamed of. Although I still found it very painful it helped prevent me from going into panic (at one point when it got really bad I started hyperventilating and Nick talked me down, calming my breathing within a minute or two. I remember feeling the pain become unbearable when I was panicking. The pain subsided as soon as I got hold of the slow breathing again. Amazing really. I should also say that the fear release was more important than I gave it credit for as it was one area nick and I neglected and could of helped with my back problems.