My Homebirth Journey by LAJ
This month, January 2012, I am currently a whole 6 years either pregnant or breastfeeding. But six years ago, when I got my first pregnancy test, a future homebirth wasn’t something that had entered my head as even a vague possibility. Six years ago, in my mind, homebirths were for other women, risky women perhaps, and also women that were completely sure of their ability to birth naturally. I wasn’t one of those six years ago......so what changed??
Well, the changing point for me was giving birth to my son Evan. I didn’t have a traumatic birth, I am not particularly angry at the system, but I can say, that his birth wasn’t what I dreamed it would be. For a start I had a lot of intervention. I refused pethadine, and was then cajoled into having it. I had oxytocin to speed things up, an epidural for the pain, and to top it all I then laboured with three other women and then gave birth in a room that was also used for storage!!! Shell shocked after the birth, my husband, Eoin, was told to go home as it was late and I had to look after a newborn with no help and no support.
After educating myself about birth, preparing birth plans and thinking that I really could work the system to have the birth I wanted, I returned on my second pregnancy, to the Dublin hospital, only to repeat the same birth. The only difference was that when I requested the epidural, I was waiting 45 minutes for it, by which time I was ready to push. It was a blessing in disguise though as it meant that I had gone through the birth without pain relief and on discharge from the hospital I knew that I would never be back.
By the time my third pregnancy came around, I was well prepared and had my midwife in mind already on speed dial. On getting a positive test I told my husband the great news and immediately booked my midwife. By the time I went into labour we knew her really well, she knew the family, my kids loved her, and the whole family were involved in the pregnancy, including my mum who was going to be here/minding kids at birth.
So....here is the birth story.
On a Tuesday night in July, when I was a day overdue I had a show. Of course I was so excited then that I didn't sleep, and every mild twinge I was thinking, 'is this it'?? On Wednesday my sister in law Deirdre, took the kids for us, now aged 2 and 4, as I was having some mild contractions during the day. But they would come on for an hour or two and then go away so it wasn't really getting into a pattern. However myself and Eoin enjoyed the kid free time and decided to make the most of it. We went and did some shopping, had lunch out and picked up the last few bits and pieces we needed. The contractions continued like this until Thursday night when they ramped up, and when they were 5-7 minutes apart and I felt I needed some support, we called the midwife. She came over and my mum came to stay the night too. Eoin worked at getting the pool temperature just right. At the time, we were watching season 3 of Dexter so I told him to leave it on as it was a distraction for me and it focused everyone else in the room on the tv and not on me!!! I'm sure the midwife thought we were bonkers at this stage as I think a lot of people like candles burning and a calm environment, I wanted blood and murder and so I ordered the tv to be left on. Of course it had to be the few episodes with the most sex scenes in it and I think it just about made my mum, midwife and husband just a little uncomfortable. But hey, what did I care at that stage!!!
At around 3.30am my midwife was all set up. We thought birth would be soonish and we were all set up for an imminent birth. At 4am, I was 6cm, and when I just about couldn't take the pain anymore, my labour just stopped. It was bizarre, we tried to get it going again. I got out of pool, got dressed and myself and my midwife went on a midnight powerwalk around the block. But my contractions were just not going to get going again. So we discussed the possibility of maybe breaking the waters but decided against it. In a homebirth you are on the clock after the waters break and if I didn't deliver within 24 hours of my waters breaking, I would have had to transfer to hospital. So we decided to call it a day and for all of us to get some rest. My midwife said before leaving that she had a feeling that things would move quickly when my waters break so instead of completely packing up she arranged her things in a bag so that if we were in a hurry she would be ready. But she expected to be back within a few hours.
24 HEADWRECKING HOURS LATER!!!! I was so annoyed. Where was my labour gone??? I was having painful contractions every 15 minutes or so throughout Thursday and Friday night, but managed to sleep perfectly well with the tens machine on and I was annoyed that it just wasn't ramping up. Also, I was starting to worry that I would have to go through my painful Thursday night labour all over again to dilate and I was worried I wouldn't cope.
At 4.30am on Saturday morning I got up. Had a couple of painful contractions but at 15 minutes apart I thought that they weren't really being all that helpful. So I played around on facebook and read magicmum for a while and at 6am my waters went with a pop.
I still wasn't all that convinced that labour was starting up again but I had promised the midwife I’d call if my waters went, so I did. I told her I had no contractions to go with it (I was still very grumpy), so I would call her back in 30 minutes to see if anything had started. I also called my mum to come as I wanted someone here to mind kids when they woke up.
5 minutes later I got a whopper of a contraction, and just had a feeling this might be it. Thankfully my midwife had ignored my request not to come and when I called her back, she was already on her way. Another 10 minutes later I felt something like pressure and so we made another call to the midwife and my mother to get a move on. In a strange way I still wasn't convinced myself that this was it. The contractions were nowhere near as painful as what I had laboured through on the Thursday night. But another contraction came 5-6 mins later and this time I got a definite urge at the end to push. Holy Shit I thought. Midwife called us herself and said she was almost here. What I find so amazing about this is that she knew what stage I was at better than I did . Another contraction came and I roared at Eoin to take my pyjamas off. I was still not in a lot of pain and still I was getting a break between contractions but my body was definitely starting to evict this baby!! Thankfully a few minutes later, in ran the midwife. She checked me quickly, checked the pool temp, got me into the pool, and within another 3 pushes, baby Eabha was born. My mum walked in as the head was born. She was born at 6.49 am, and only really about 30 minutes after I realised that perhaps labour was starting up again!!!
So I sat in the pool for a little while longer holding baby Eabha. I just could not believe she was here, and how easy the delivery had been. Within a few minutes she latched on like a pro. Evan, my eldest woke up and came down to say hello to his new baby sister and a little while later Emma woke up too. My mum made everyone tea and I delivered placenta and got cleaned up. A little while later we all sat on the couch and midwife laughed that we did the labour on Thursday night and went straight to delivery 26 hours later!!! She said she never really had a birth like it!!!
So we weighed baby Eabha and she came in at 9lb 6oz, my biggest baby, but easiest birth and no stitches required (unlike the other two births).
By far this has been the best birth experience of the three and the fact that my midwife just fit into my family has made it all the more special. Being at home meant I could rest properly after birth with lots of support around me.
For more information on having a homebirth in the Republic of Ireland, then check out the info now published on the HSE website
The Homebirth Association also provide help and support with a list of private midwives.
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