Jennie's story, Birmingham - home water birth using hypnobirthing

"Positive Birth Story – Home Water Birth using Hypnobirthing

Baby S born 7th April 2010 weighing 7lbs 15oz 

My due date was Thursday 8th April and on Tuesday 6th April OH had the day off work so that we could attend my grandmother’s funeral. Family members had 'joked' that the stress of such a day might trigger early labour. 

Having got through the service and wake feeling emotional but generally OK, I was having pretty regular Braxton hicks and we decided to take a short walk in the park later in the afternoon. We sat down to enjoy a cup of tea and a cake in the tea shop and I felt a different sensation in my bump which was more like a strong stitch. We took this as a signal to get home and comfortable, ordered a takeaway curry for dinner and caught up on my daily allowance of raspberry leaf tea. 

Lying on the sofa watching TV at about 11pm I felt a slight popping low down and to the front of my bump which felt like a little bubble bursting. I wondered whether this was my waters but couldn’t feel anything. Five or so minutes later I went to the toilet and realised that I did not have control of the fluid that was coming out. After sitting on the toilet for a few minutes I started to let myself believe that this was it and that my waters really had broken. 

I called the birth centre and the midwife on call said she would come out and see me within the next hour or so to assess what was going on. As we had planned a home water birth we had a pool to inflate and I had been anxious about the noise using the electric pump late at night so OH got on with inflating the pool while I relaxed in bed listening to the affirmations and rainbow relaxation CD (Hypnobirthing) on repeat. The midwife arrived sometime in between 12.30am and 1am and having checked my pads confirmed that my waters had broken, advised me to go to bed and get some rest and reassured me that for most women whose waters break early, labour starts within 24 hours. She also explained that if it didn’t, I would need to have antibiotics after about 18 hours and they would want to induce me after 24. She told me to call again when my contractions were coming every 5 minutes or so. 

With the birth pool inflated and the hot water boost on, we went to bed. I was listening to the affirmations and rainbow relaxation CD on my iPod when I experienced what I later realised was my first surge (contraction). The only way I can describe what this felt like was as if I was desperate for the toilet and had been holding it in for too long. I went to the toilet then got back into bed and dozed on and off for a couple of hours with the CD on my iPod and surges coming and going. 

By about 3.30am I found that breathing and relaxing whilst lying down during surges was becoming difficult and I was more comfortable moving around or sitting on the toilet so I was continually going back and forth to the bathroom. At about 4am I came into the lounge, lit some candles, put the affirmations and rainbow on the stereo and used the tens machine and birthing ball through each contraction. OH then got up at about 6am and started to prepare the room, laying shower curtains underneath towels to cover our (light cream!!) carpet and sofa and began to fill the pool as we knew this would take some time due to our small water tank! 

For the next couple of hours we continued like this, me leaning over the birthing ball and gradually increasing the power on the TENS machine as my surges got stronger. I was also timing my surges using 'Contraction Master' App. on OH’s iPhone. In hindsight, although this gave me something to focus on during this time, I think it did prevent me from fully relaxing and going inwards and I was always conscious of having an 'aim' of stronger, longer and closer together surges and checking my progress. 

During each surge I was trying to visualise a green balloon in my abdomen, inflating with each inhalation and having this to focus on was helpful although I did find that once each surge got stronger I had to breathe through my mouth rather than my nose and inhalations became more challenging. 

At approximately 8am-8.30am I called the midwife as my surges were now coming regularly every 5-6 minutes and were lasting anywhere between 30-90 seconds by my calculations. At this point I felt like I needed OH with me during surges and in between filling the pool with pans of hot water he came and massaged my back and pressed my shoulder (which had been a relaxation anchor we had learned and practiced at hypnobirthing) and reminded me of what we had been practicing in terms of breathing and relaxing. 

The midwife arrived sometime between 9am-9.30am bringing a student with her. She asked me some questions about the timing of my waters breaking, etc. and observed me during surges for about 30 minutes, feeling my bump and assessing how I was progressing. At this point she said that although I was having 3 in 10, I was not in established labour yet and told me that the surges would get a lot stronger than they were at that point. She said that they were going to leave me to it and to call her once I was regularly having 3 in 10 surges that were 60 seconds long. I asked her when I could get into the pool and was told that I needed to stay out of the pool until I was in established labour and there was a midwife present. In the meantime she said that I could have a bath if I felt that I would benefit from it. 

As soon as the midwives left I felt the need to move so I went and sat on the toilet. From this point the surges seemed to get quite intense and I was calling for OH to massage my back each time. I had started to tense up and OH was pushing my shoulders down with each surge and reminding me to breath. I stayed sitting on the toilet for about 30 minutes while OH filled the bath. At this point it felt like I wasn’t getting much of a break in between surges and they were feeling quite intense. As soon as I was able to, OH helped me into the bath and although the heat of the water was soothing in between surges, almost instantly they became much stronger and I felt a pressure pushing down which was uncomfortable whilst lying or sitting so I was lifting myself up with each surge while OH massaged and poured water over my back. In total I remained in the bath for about 30 minutes and during this time I first started to feel my body pushing. I told OH that it felt like my body wanted me to push and we both felt like I should be trying not to do that and to just focus on breathing. 

During the whole of my labour, this was the only point that I doubted myself and my ability to relax and have a positive experience. Not because of the sensations I was feeling but because I was remembering that the midwife had said that I wasn’t in established labour yet, that the babies head was only 3/5 engaged and that I would probably have a while to go yet. Had I realised that I was actually in transition at that point and that I was nearly there, I am sure I would have felt differently. As it was I was experiencing very intense surges and thought that I would have several hours ahead of me with worse to cope with. 

At about 11.30am I told OH that I needed to get into the pool despite having been told by the midwives that I shouldn’t. I just knew that I needed deeper water to get more comfortable and as soon as I had the opportunity I did just that. Getting into the deeper water so that I could lean over the edge of the pool and still have my bump and lower back submerged was a huge relief. At this point OH was calling the midwife, boiling water for the pool and simultaneously trying to massage and pour water over my back. He told the midwife that things had progressed quite quickly and during the time he was on the phone, the midwife was able to hear me during a surge and said that she would come over straight away. In terms of the noises I was making, OH described it as a “wail” I certainly wasn’t screaming or shouting and I don’t think I had any control over it. I never panicked or felt like I couldn’t carry on, just had to keep moving with each surge and I was still really benefiting from having water poured over my back and OH massaging me. Although my surges were very intense at this stage and I could feel my body pushing the baby down, I still wouldn’t describe this as the agonising pain that most women talk about and I think this is due to the fact that I was not at all scared and I was just letting my body do what it needed to do. 

The midwife arrived at 12 noon still with the student and has later told me that she was very frustrated that I was already in the pool when she had told me not to get in until she got there. She was also concerned that there wasn’t quite enough water in the pool and I could hear the panic in her voice as she looked down, saw the baby crowning and called the second midwife on the phone and told her to come quickly. I heard her saying to the student “this baby is coming now” and telling OH to get more water. She asked me whether I wanted her to order any gas and air and I replied yes as this was what we had discussed previously although I don’t honestly think that I would have used it, even if it had arrived in time! 

As the baby was on his way out, the midwife was struggling to get me to stand up to monitor the heart rate and surges were coming thick and fast. She was fantastic as although I had never spoken to her in detail about hypno birthing and breathing the baby out, she never once asked me to push, she just kept telling me to breath and to let my body do what it wants to do. I kept remembering the J breath and although I wasn’t able to do this quite as quietly and calmly as I had practiced, I did find it incredibly beneficial to breath in very quickly then blow out the exhalation as slowly as possible. Doing this and being guided by the midwife, the baby's head came out and stayed out at either 12.12pm or 12.15pm (I can’t remember exactly!). I could feel that the head was out and the midwife told me to just relax and wait for the next surge so his body could turn. With the next surge his body slipped out, the midwife guided him through my legs and helped me to sit backwards so that I could lift him out of the water in front of me. He was born at 12.17pm no more than 17 minutes after the midwife had arrived back at the flat! The second midwife arrived at 12.25 while I was still in the pool holding baby S who was alert and looking around very calmly at this point, turning his head when he heard either mine or OH’s voice (adorable!).

After a few more minutes of skin to skin in the water, I was helped out and onto the floor, propped up by lots of cushions and pillows to deliver the placenta. Baby S stayed with me during this time as I wanted the cord to stay attached until it had stopped pulsing. After 30 minutes or so, it had stopped so the midwife clamped it and cut it (OH didn’t really want to do this) and the placenta was delivered naturally shortly afterwards. 

The gas and air arrived at about this point and the midwife decided to keep it in case I needed stitches but when I was examined it turned out I didn’t need any. 

The midwives cleared up everything except the pool, even asking where I keep the cleaning products so she could scrub up a spot of blood off the carpet! They did their initial checks on Baby S, weighing him etc then left us to it. OH had some time with him skin to skin before I moved to the bedroom and got comfy. OH spent the next hour or so clearing everything away and putting all of the furniture back into place then we had a few hours in bed, just the three of us, relaxing, having lovely skin to skin cuddles with Baby S and talking about what an amazing experience we had just had.

Unfortunately later that evening Baby S started to show signs of being poorly and we did end up taking him into hospital but we were so pleased to have been able to give him a calm and relaxed water-birth at home and I personally felt rather proud of the fact that all my hypno birthing practice had paid off!!!

Having spoken to the midwife since, she said she couldn’t believe that this was my first baby and how well I had coped with the whole labour. She said that when she had seen me first that morning, the fact that I was so calm during surges was one of the reasons that she felt I was not in established labour and because I had not had an internal examination we would never know whether I was much further on than she had thought at that time or whether I had just progressed very quickly from that point onwards.

Although I didn’t have as calm an experience as we had witnessed on the DVDs in hypnobirthing class, I had an incredibly positive experience. It was very intense at times and I couldn’t say that it was totally pain free but it certainly wasn’t the agony that I had initially feared. I was in control throughout and I attribute this to the positive mindset brought about by regular practice and listening to the affirmations daily. The breathing techniques, massage, water and support from OH were all I needed in terms of pain relief."

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Melissa's story, Darlington - relaxed birth with pool and gas and air

"1st baby - 18/09/00 - Hospital

I was just 20, had been with my boyfriend (now husband) for just 9 months when we discovered I was pregnant.

Due on the 21st September (our respective Grandmother's birthdays!) we moved out of our 1 bed rented flat on the 16th September and into my Mother in Laws until the contract was signed on the 3 bed house we had bought.

Clearly, moving house shifted things and the following day, whilst having Sunday lunch at my boyfriend's Aunt's, I felt my first contractions. I only know now, that's what they were, at the time I just thought it was a bit of stomach ache.

We went to bed that night, at this point I thought that perhaps something was happening after I had terrible diahorrea.

Woke up in quite a bit of pain in the early hours and went downstairs to watch the rowing on the Olympics! At the time, we were in the middle of a fuel crisis and so getting hold of taxis to get us to hospital was somewhat of a challenge. Luckily, my boyfriend's uncle had some fuel in his car and took us through to the hospital at about breakfast time.

As soon as I got there, I went straight into the birth pool. I knew I wanted to try this but I also went in with an open mind and would've had any drug going had I needed it.

My Mum and my (then 17yr old) sister travelled the 20 miles to the hospital to be there as soon as possible.

I'd sayed in the pool as long as possible with no other pain relief but suddenly got the urge to be on dry land. I got out and onto the bed where I was examined - I have no idea how far along I was at this point but it was pretty close to 10cm. It was at this point, when I got the urge to push, that I felt I needed a bit of gas and air.

Didn't much grasp the breathing in and out with the gas and air but the mouthpiece was great to bite down on!

Apparently the pushing part took a fair while, and at 12:55pm - just a few hours after arriving, our little boy, Alexander Regan was born just as the clouds parted and the sun came out. He weighed a very healthy 8lb 11oz and had done no damage to my nether regions!

All in all, it was a very relaxed birth."

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Anna's story, UK - pool labour with prolonged 2nd stage and forceps

"A delayed second stage forceps birth.

Sunday 2nd January 2011 about 8pm, just had dinner, sitting at home watching rubbish on TV and contractions started. Like bad period pains which came on, got more intense, and then disappeared. That happened every 3 mins or so, and lasted about 30 seconds.

I left it for about 2 hours to check the patterns weren't a figment of my imagination - and then phoned the midwife unit at the hospital. They said they were understaffed, so I'd have to go to labour ward instead.

We got there, buzzed and was let in, and eventually shown to an assessment room. A midwife called Anna with a very strong Polish accent came and met us, examined me, and put me on a trace for the best part of an hour. I was 3cm dilated, but not totally effaced. She said my "contractions" weren't contractions, but were tightenings. I could have slapped her!

So we came home, and sat it out. My TENS machine helped a bit, so I lay in bed with that on all night, didn't really sleep at all.

Monday 3rd January 2011 - by morning I was feeling quite sick, I think I decided it was the TENS machine, so took that off, and instead went for hanging over my yoga ball and trying to chill out. Contractions were still coming every 3 minutes up to 5 minutes, and lasting about 60 seconds. The intensity was increasing.

By that evening, I was so much less comfortable, they were more intense, and I wasn't coping brilliantly. TENS and paracetamol just weren't cutting it. I phoned the labour ward again, and they said to come in. So off we went again!

This time we met a midwife called Lisa, who took me straight to labour ward, rather than an assessment room. She examined me, and I was 3cm... but this time totally effaced, and the contractions were contractions. She said there wasn't a lot to do there and then, and suggested I could go home, or have a shot of Pethidine to help with the pain, and stay on a ward. Because Tom would have to go home, and we'd both be on our own, I decided not to have the Pethidine, but to go home instead. Got back home (after getting petrol and having several unpleasant contractions and therefore funny looks in the petrol station!) at about 10pm.

Tuesday 4th January 2011 - at about 3am, having not slept for the second night running because of the "discomfort", I decided to try having a bath, to see if that would ease things at all. Well... it didn't! I was still timing things, and it slowed the contractions down a little, but made them longer. Tom got up when I was in the bath, and sat with me with a worried look on his face! I decided to get out of the bath and phone the hospital again, they told me to come in.

I got in to an assessment room, met Claire the midwife, and she examined me (4cm and totally effaced), and put me on a trace, contractions were much stronger now, and I definitely needed some help with the pain. She gave me a shot of Pethidine, and told us we weren't going home without our baby... that's what I needed to hear. The Pethidine made me feel very warm and fuzzy, that's the only way I can describe it really. It did take the edge off the pain, and I got about half an hours sleep listening to the trace. Claire suggested we went for a walk around the park opposite the hospital, so we got outside just in time to see a crowd of people with big cameras standing in the middle of the park staring at the sky. Apparently there was a solar eclipse, but it was cloudy, so I think some very expensive cameras went unused! We did two laps of the park, with Tom predicting which lamp post we'd get to before the next contraction hit... and when it did I'd hang off his neck. Thank god for a tall husband!

When we got back from the walk, I got back on the bed in the assessment room and Claire brought us some tea and toast - having been aware we hadn't really eaten all night. The tea and toast was great, but the effects of the Pethidine hadn't left me and as soon as it went down, it bounced. I was very proud of not throwing up on myself... I was passed a bowl just in time!

After that joyful experience, we were told there was a room with a view down on labour ward for us. So we were moved to a room which overlooked the car park - and told that having a window was a massive benefit... well it was, but strangely enough I wanted the curtains closed so that no-one could gawp.

We were fairly soon introduced to Hilary the midwife and Beth the trainee. They were the day shift. They told us the room with the pool was free, and so we moved across the hall into there. I got into the pool at about 9.30am. It was lovely and I was quite comfortable in there.

Contractions were getting stronger and so I started on the gas and air. I can't say it took the pain away, but each contraction was a distant memory as soon as it was over. So much so that when Hilary was asking me how the contractions were, I had to say "ask me on the next one"!

After a little while in the pool I felt a pop and a gush, the strangest feeling, but it was obvious to me my waters had gone. It was like my ears had popped... but of course it wasn't my ears!

We had local radio playing, which matched my taste in music pretty well. Although I have no idea how many times we heard Take That, Ellie Goulding and Adele. No bad thing really!

I think the midwives decided I was transitional when Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing came on the radio and I just lost it. Absolutely sobbing. I can't really say now if it was transition or second stage, or if it was the sentimental side of me thinking of my amazing friends from the miscarriage groups one of whom has made that song very poignant - you know who you are!

At this point (about 12 noon I think) Hilary said, "I think we'll have a baby by 2pm". Well if that's not tempting fate, I don't know what is!

Hilary asked me to get out of the pool so she could examine me at about 1pm, I was 9cm dilated, but a tiny bit of my cervix was thicker again. They decided that my baby had turned back to back and possibly had changed head position so her chin was pointing upwards - not great news for a nice easy pool delivery.

They suggested I leant over to the left hand side to try and help the baby turn back, so I got in the pool and kept going, trying to lean over as much as possible.

I think it was at this point that I remembered I wanted to donate placenta/cord... anything that would be useful for stem cell research. So Hilary called in the lady who works for the donation team and I filled out some paperwork. They were very amused that I was in a fit state to do so!

At about 3pm, Hilary asked me to get out of the pool again so I could be examined to see if anything had changed. I was still 9cm, and still have this lip on my cervix. At this point, the contractions were making me pretty tired, and were quite intense, but I had no urge to push, so it was declared I had a delayed second stage and that a Syntocinon drip was a good idea.

I then asked for an epidural, because I was scared of not being able to cope when it got more intense than it was.

The anaesthetist was called, and the obstetrician came in to set up the drip. I felt a bit of a failure, but had a weird feeling that I'd always need help... so went with it.

There was a change in shift of midwives at this point, so in came Fanny the French midwife (yes really). We had a good chat, and it turns out she knows my obstetrician friend in Poole... small world!

The epidural was absolutely fine while being placed, the anaesthetist was very complementary about my ability to stay still while having it administered. He said he hadn't had a lady at 9cm who could stay as still before.

Unfortunately the epidural didn't quite do it's job. It was perfect down my left hand side, totally numb, and couldn't move my left leg at all. But on the right hand side, it didn't completely work. I had a pocket of pain on my right hand side, in fact it felt like I had a big bubble of trapped wind (who knows, maybe I did!). Because the baby had turned back to back, they wanted me to lie on my left, and this was just impossibly agonising, so no matter how many times they suggested it, I couldn't do it.

I think at some point here, there was another change of midwife, and we met Lottie - who I think was a trainee, or recently qualified - she was being supervised by Lisa who we had met the night before. I didn't warm to Lottie... but by this stage I wasn't warming to anyone!

The drip kept getting upped... which I hated. I really do think it's quite an evil invention. The obstetrician came in, examined me and finally the lip in my cervix had gone and I was fully dilated. Time for pushing.

But there was still no urge to push, of course the epidural had taken that away. So I was told to push anyway. I started pushing, and kept being told to push into my bottom. Well, I couldn't feel my bottom, all I could feel was this pocket of pain on my right hand side. So every time I pushed, it hurt. I wanted the gas and air still... but they kept taking it off me so that I would use my breath to push, not use it for gas and air.

So pushing wasn't going well, and the obstetrician came in (a different one now!). She was very unhappy with me, as I had pretty much given up pushing as I couldn't feel any urge, any progress and it just hurt more and more. She said I had 30 minutes to push the baby down or they were taking me to theatre. She also doubled the dose of the Syntocinon drip at this point - so I told her she was inhumane!

I knew I had to keep going and didn't really want a section (although if anyone had said it was a possibility I'd have said 'just do it). So I pushed and pushed and pushed with all my might. In a little under half an hour, I had pushed pretty well and they could see the baby's head. Thankfully the baby's obs were absolutely fine the whole time, no distress at all. I was so tired, that they took pity on me (I think you could call it that) and wheeled in a forceps kit, and the ventouse machine. They were telling me all about the ventouse machine - but then suddenly I was having the forceps positioned.

The obstetrician told me it would be at least 3 or 4 pushes for the head, and then the same for the body. Well... one push later the head was out, and then a half push later, the body was out. We were told we had a little girl... it was such a shock. I don't know why as for the first half of my pregnancy I was convinced she was a she! It was also a shock that she had so much hair!

Tom was handed a pair of scissors and told to cut the cord - he hadn't been sure he wanted to, but the scary obstetrician didn't leave him with much choice! Our daughter was handed to me and she lay on my chest for a minute or so. The paediatrician then had to check her over because it was an instrumental birth.

I had had a cut, and then started losing blood (750mls in total). Our daughter was declared fine (10 and 10 on her APGAR) so handed to Daddy while I was stitched and sorted. Once that was complete, she was weighed, and then handed back to me.

She weighed 4535g at birth, and was born at 22.12pm on Tuesday 4th January 2011. She was 13 days overdue, and just beat the appointment we had for induction on 5th Jan. Her due date was 22/12 - so numerically she arrived on time, it was the time, not the date though!

The name Sadie Beatrice was at the top of our list for a girl for the whole of our pregnancy, and so at some point I said to Tom, "is she our Sadie then?" and he said yes with a big grin.

We finally brought her home on Friday 7th January and I can honestly say I have never been as happy to get her home. She's changed our lives in so many ways."

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Anon's story, UK - overdue home waterbirth

"I'd had to fight to keep my homebirth because I was past term + 14 by scan dates, although that was a week ahead of where I was by LMP & ovulation (so according to the scans I was already a week pregnant when I started my last period!) and I have a strong family history of "late" babies. Had to see the consultant at T+15 (Monday) and the one I saw basically bullied me into a hospital birth, which left me me very upset (mainly because I dreaded the thought of being strapped up to monitors the whole time, which he told me I'd have to be because I was now "high risk"), but then I went home and researched my position and the risks involved. Basically the NHS claim that the stillbirth rate trebles after 42 weeks is based on very dodgy - not to mention old - data, and more recent research shows that the risk only really begins to rise significantly after 43 completed weeks. (In fact at 42 weeks the risk is only about the same as at 38 weeks!) So I wrote a letter to the Supervisor of Midwives (based on the one on www.homebirth.org.uk but with some personal justification added) saying that I was continuing with my plans for a homebirth. Handed it in at the antenatal clinic when I went for monitoring on Tuesday, and also showed a copy to the nice mw who was doing my monitoring, and she took it upon herself to make a phone call and put a copy of the letter in my file to make sure that the message got through. I'd been booked in for induction on the 11th if he hadn't appeared by then; considered backtracking on that too, but decided to stick with it in the end.

On Tues night / Wed morning I got up for my customary 3am loo visit and things felt a bit wet, so I put in a pad and went back to bed. Contractions started at 4.10am, about 10 mins apart and lasting 45-60 seconds. I was feeling them in my back to begin with, and had had no back pain at all up to then, so that was how I knew they were the real thing starting. Around 5.40 I called the hospital (having been told to call early in labour since it was a homebirth) and at 6.30 the on-call mw came round. She established that I was 2-3cm and "nicely effaced" (I'd had 4 sweeps, the last one at T+13, and each time was 1-2 or 2cm but with cervix still long & posterior, so it was a relief to hear that I was actually progressing, especially as the trickling seemed to have petered out by then) and stayed for about an hour. I was coping fine by breathing through the contractions - using HypnoBirthing techniques - so after that she left me to wait for the community mws to come on duty. The lead mw arrived around 9.40 and was very impressed that I was on the Internet in between contractions right up until I got into the pool at 4cm! She told me that because I was beyond T+14 my case was outside their normal protocol and so they had to have a third, supervisory, midwife present for the birth, and they also needed to listen in to the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler every 15 minutes. That kind of monitoring was no problem at all! The second mw was my usual community mw, so it was nice to have someone there whom I already knew, and the supervisor (consultant midwife) was delighted to be asked to attend a home waterbirth because it's something she hardly ever gets to do in her current role.

At 11.40 I was starting to groan through the contractions (though I was still getting a decent break in between - I think the interval was about 7 minutes, and I don't think they were lasting more than a minute or so) so I was examined and told I was 3-4cm and could get into the pool when I wanted to. I pottered around online for a little bit longer then decided it was time to get into the water. Almost as soon as I got in, contractions started to pick up and I had two without a break in between - though apart from that they never really got to the stage of coming too thick & fast to give me a breather. Started using gas & air at 12.30 and was soon bellowing my way through the contractions (DH said I sounded like a moose!). The hardest thing was not being able to make a single out-breath last the whole contraction, and having to stop and inhale. I'm not sure how much the gas & air actually helped but I wasn't about to stop using it to find out! The mws were great, very encouraging but respecting my request to be left to get on with it as far as possible. I started to feel the urge to push at 12.48 (according to my notes) but it still took a while after that: my waters went with a big "pop" at 1.32, the mw had a quick feel at 2.12 and said the birth was imminent, and Xander was born at 2.19. I fished him out of the water myself and within a few minutes he latched on and started to feed. We noted that he still had loads of vernix on him - not post-mature by any means! 

One mw estimated his weight at about 7 1/2 pounds but in fact he turned out to be a whopping 9lb 7oz when weighed! Not only that, but I realised later, when I looked at his charts in the red book, that he had an enormous head - just short of the 99.8th centile line for boys and would have been off the scale for girls - in other words, if you were to line up 300 newborns in order of head circumference then he'd probably be the biggest!

We were left skin-to-skin for nearly an hour and I could feel the uterus contracting, but after nearly an hour the placenta hadn't yet come out (I didn't realise I had to push it out!) so I was asked to get out of the pool so that it could be given a gentle helping hand (I had asked that the cord not be pulled). I managed to stand up but couldn't lift my leg over the side of the pool, but gravity, a bit of bearing down and some very gentle coaxing by the mw got the placenta out intact within a minute or two. Left the pool water rather red though!

Blood loss estimated at 350-400ml, and I had a 2nd-degree tear - with hindsight, it was no wonder given the size of his head! - but it was left unstitched as suturing would have required a trip to hospital. (It healed up OK.) The after-pains were a lot worse than they were with DD, but I gather that's normal for 2nd & subsequent babies - and they did seem do their job very effectively, according to the mw when she visited the next morning. Was told by the lead mw that I shouldn't take ibuprofen if breastfeeding, which was news to me (and to my normal mw!) but the paracetamol wasn't helping so I looked it up online and the NHS site said that small amounts get into breastmilk but it's unlikely to harm the baby, so I went ahead and took it anyway.

Incidentally, it turned out that both of my children were born at T+10 by my dates - if that's not consistent then I don't know what is!"

Click here for a link to comprehensive home birthing information

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