I knew on New Year’s Day 2010 that I was pregnant. We
were in England with our 2 year old daughter spending
Christmas with my parents and had decided to try to
conceive our second child whilst there (our daughter was
“made in England”) – unlike most well-laid plans this
one worked out!!
The estimated due date was 17 September 2010. I spoke
with my husband from very early on about having a home
birth. He wasn’t entirely convinced, but said he would
be happy to support me in whatever choice I made. We had
formed a great relationship with our midwife from the
first pregnancy, Mary Ritchie, and we phoned her as soon
as we got back from the UK to see if she would be our
lead maternity carer (LMC). We were thrilled when she
said she would.
Our daughter Caitlin came along to almost all of the
midwife visits and scans and she too formed a very good
relationship with Mary – she even named her dolly after
her!! Mary was very supportive of my wanting a home
birth and was able to reassure my husband’s concerns. He
came round to the idea and we started planning and
preparing for this.
I have always been a water baby – I am a Piscean and a
very keen swimmer. I knew I wanted to have a water
birth; I’d used the bath at home during the early stages
of labour as well as the bath at the hospital briefly
during the latter stages of my first labour and had
found it very helpful in managing the pain of
contractions and my anxieties about what lay ahead!!
We booked the birth pool, organised with my
Mother-in-law for her to be the support person/carer for
our daughter during the labour and set about planning
where we would set up the pool. We have a large bedroom
and I wanted it to be there – close to the en-suite
bathroom and also the bed. My husband, as a structural
engineer, was very concerned that the old floorboards in
our Villa weren’t up to supporting the weight of a
1000kg of fully laden birth pool, so he put in some
extra supports under the floor before setting up the
pool.
My due date came and went. As I suspected there was no
sign of an imminent birth – no show, no lightening, only
mild Braxton Hicks. I tried raspberry leaf tea,
acupuncture, and most of the other methods to induce
labour with no success, so had a membrane sweep on 23
September. There was still no sign of anything happening
apart from a very light show on the 25 and 26 September.
Monday 27 September arrived and I was really frustrated
and emotional. I was sick to death of everyone phoning
and texting asking if I’d had the baby, and of the
neighbours interrogating all of my visitors!! My husband
arrived home from work just after 5pm and we had tea. I
broke down in tears and told him I was going to go for a
walk and wasn’t coming home until I was in labour. I
left the house at 5.40pm and walked down the hill. I
started to get what I thought was only Braxton Hicks’
almost as soon as I left the house and these continued
every 6 minutes or so throughout my 30 minute walk. I
had a shower when I got back to the house and the
‘Braxton Hicks’ continued to occur at the same
frequency. By 8pm they were happening every 5 minutes
and a little more intense. I told my husband that we
should phone Mary and see if she would come and do an
examination.
With my first child I had had two days of latent phase
labour – irregular contractions that were intense enough
to prevent me from getting much sleep, but not really
doing much else, and I wanted to know if this was likely
to be the case again. Mary came out to see us at 9pm and
told me I was only 2cm dilated. She told us to both get
some rest and that we may be in for the long haul again.
I was very disheartened, but got myself into the
mind-set that the contractions weren’t strong and that I
could sleep through them.
My husband and I settled off to bed. I must have got
some sleep initially and was then dozing in between
contractions. At about 12.45am they suddenly seemed a
lot stronger. I decided that I must be being silly, as
they couldn’t be that strong. I decided to get out of
bed at 1am and go into the lounge, so I wouldn’t disturb
my husband. I quickly discovered that I really was in a
lot of pain and ended up crawling and calling out to
him. He finally heard me about 10 minutes later and
helped me back to the en-suite where I sat down on the
toilet. Sitting on the toilet seemed the only position
that was bearable, and I refused to move! I asked him,
between contractions, to start filling the birth pool
which he did. He phoned Mary at 2am and updated her that
I was now having 3 contractions in 10 minutes.
The midwife arrived at the house at 2.30am and I asked
her to do an examination as I desperately wanted to get
into the pool, but didn’t want to risk slowing things
down by getting in too early. She found I was 8cm
dilated – I was really surprised at this as everything
seemed to be going so fast. I got into the pool at
2.40am and the relief was immediate; my back pain seemed
to virtually disappear. I wanted to push, but Mary told
me not to until my waters broke. She called Michelle,
the second midwife, who arrived at 2.55am.
It seemed to me like I was in the birth pool for ages,
the contractions seemed to space out, but from looking
at my midwifery notes it was only 15 minutes after
getting into the pool that my waters broke at 2.55am. I
spent my time in the pool kneeling, either leaning
against the side of the pool or just supporting myself
on my knees. I began pushing at 03.06am and almost
immediately could feel the baby’s head crowning. I’m
sure I only pushed about 5 times and at 3.10am our
beautiful baby son, Ethan was born into my hands. He was
so relaxed and alert. Ethan weighed 7lb13oz, measured
55.5cm in length, with a head circumference of 35cm.
Just perfect!
The whole experience was amazing. I had hoped that our
daughter would be awake to see the baby being born, but
she slept through the whole thing, even though our
bedroom is just across the hall from her room!! It was
like Christmas morning when she woke up at 7.30am and
discovered the “special delivery” in Mum and Dad’s bed.
Seven months on from the birth and our family of four is
thriving. Ethan is almost crawling, is a wonderful
feeder and sleeper and dotes on his big sister. She, in
turn, loves to give him cuddles and to sing to him. My
husband and I are so happy with our family of four.
