Tanya's home birth story during the pandemic

One of my beautiful Mums, Tanya, is kindly sharing her birth story on my blog this week…such a privilege to be by your side, you are an absolute covid 19 birth warrior xx

Tanya’s story covers the following topics -

• a large baby, not engaged or in the optimum position prior to labour 

• home birth

• hypnobirthing

• doula support 

• TENS machine

• PPH and hospital transfer 
  
  After a traumatic hospital birth with my first baby I knew this time I had to do everything I could to have a positive experience. I opted for a home birth with a Doula (the wonderful Jenna Rutherford) and an IM and I practiced hypnobirthing every day, read several great books (How to Have a Baby by Natalie Meddings being my ultimate #1) and read the positive posts in the Positive Birth group from birth-ed regularly! 
  
  On Saturday 6th June and at 40+3 I woke up with random contractions, which I'd been having for weeks, so I ignored them. I went to my chiropractic appointment and she gave me an adjustment that she said had a pretty good success rate at getting labour going! I felt quite fluey for the rest of the day so I slept the whole day! Really glad I listened to my body and didn't wear myself out walking or bouncing, which is what I did the first time round.
  
  I went to bed at 9pm with light contractions that lasted a good 30 seconds or so but were far apart. I told my husband to inflate the birth pool and said I probably was going into labour. At 12.30am the cramps were stronger and 'holding' properly, probably 5-7 mins apart and I was no longer comfy in bed (during labour I never once timed my contractions, and I was never checked for dilation either). I woke my husband up and told him to start filling the pool.
  I had my bloody show and soon I was kneeling and leaning on the sofa with my tens machine on. The tens worked really well to give me control and I felt good using my up breathing. Jenna arrived at around 2am (I think, I can't say I was clock watching)
  I felt a bit of a ramp up in intensity and wasn't happy upright so I lay on the sofa for a rest. I knew my baby had some work to do to get in the right position so I followed my body's lead to rest and give him time to move. My midwife Michala arrived around 3am, and her second not long after. Contractions were now very intense and didn't feel purposeful so I asked to get in the pool to help me get into the right position as I really couldn't move from my side lying position. I think I got in at about 4.30am.

  The pool was amazing and allowed me to get on my hands and knees during contractions. I was sick at one point but I remember telling Jenna I felt like I was at the spa with the water and my twinkly lights and affirmations everywhere!
  
  By about 7am my lovely midwife said I should get out of the pool as they thought it might be slowing my labour down. I think I might have been holding back as my daughter was asleep upstairs. Once she was picked up, we moved upstairs and my husband and I lay on our bed. My Tens machine was my best friend at this point, as contractions really ramped up again! I used up breathing and did a fair amount of mooing which felt good.
  
  I still didn't feel my baby moving down and at about 8am my lovely midwife said maybe it was time to consider a vaginal examination. I told her I was worried that if she examined me and I was only a few cm dilated that I would give up and ask to be transferred into hospital for pain relief, as at this point contractions were intense. She asked me if that was what I wanted and I said no, so we decided together to wait a bit more, and at around 8.30am the midwives came back in as I had started to make different noises and felt the urge to push!
  After 20 minutes of contractions on my side we moved to a squatting position, which worked very quickly and my waters went properly with the next contraction (they had started to leak when pushing started). I had 3 more extremely strong urges to push and my baby's head was crowning. My midwife said "he has so much hair!" And I remember saying "he's nearly here, I'm doing this." The 'ring of fire' was actually really manageable for me and didn't last long at all.  
  
  With the next contraction I asked everyone to tell me I could do it and I was met with an amazing chorus of "YOU CAN DO THIS!!" from the room. I beared down and his head was born. The room filled with a sacred silence as we all waited for my baby to be born with the next contraction. Time slowed- I can vividly remember this moment. The next contraction and my 9lb 5oz son came out with his arm wrapped around his neck- my midwife said she had never seen a baby born like that! 
  
  I cried "I did it!!" As I lifted him up. I had accidentally given birth on my brand new carpet in my bedroom but I caught my reflection in the wardrobe mirror and saw myself lifting my son to my chest, which was awesome. He latched on straight away and the placenta was born easily about 10 mins later. 

  
  After birth, I unfortunately suffered a PPH (I knew I might as I had one with my previous birth) and had to be transferred to hospital for a blood transfusion, but I tell you what I was having the high of my life and did not care at all. I kept telling all the nurses in the hospital about my awesome homebirth. The PPH would have happened wherever I'd given birth, and I believe that my calm and positive home birth actually helped me to recover/not to feel stressed about what couldn't have been avoided. 
  
  So there you go, best experience of my life and I am so proud. Thank you to my doula Jenna for all your help pre-birth and to get me to a place where I was confident enough to do this, and for all your help leading up to active labour. If anybody is considering a doula but is worried about the "1  birth partner" rule in hospitals, I would still highly recommend getting in contact with a doula as they can help you to power through latent labour at home (the longest bit!) and get you to the point where you can travel in to hospital with your partner and feel confident that you'll be able to go straight to labour ward. Having gone down the "cascade of interventions" path the first time round, I can tell you that having a doula was instrumental to me not needing any pain relief or birth intervention this time.
  
  I also want to give a nod to hypnobirthing as that really helped me at the tough stages- it's essential preparation in my eyes! birth-ed have an online course that Megan Rossiter can sign post you to :) 
  
  Thanks for reading!

  Tanya, Mum of two beauties

  x