FTM, accidental home birth.

On Friday morning I woke up and had what I thought was a small leak and a bloody show and thought I was in the early stages of labour! I saw my midwife that afternoon who checked my waters and advised they were not leaking and it was just my mucous plug and my cervix were still shut completely.

 

Throughout Saturday I lost more of my mucous plug and it seemed to be getting more watery, I was planning on following up with my midwife on Sunday to check again it wasn't my waters...

 

9:30pm I felt my first niggle but wasn't sure if it was just trapped wind I tried to sleep but I just couldn’t and by 11pm I knew that it wasn't wind and probably not braxton hicks.

 

I left my husband in bed and went and watched Schitts Creek to keep those oxytocin hormones going and bounced on my gym ball. By 2am they were becoming obvious and I was bleeding a bit more so that’s when I called the birth centre as I was confident that it was progressing and not a false alarm and they advised that the blood amount was ok which helped me relax more. I was still comfortably talking through the contractions but put on the positive birth affirmations in the background of the tv and I started using the fitball to labour over.

 

3:30am I’m exhausted having not rested and still not in too much discomfort but the contractions were too much to sleep through so I moved onto the hypnosis tracks from hypnobirthing, alternating between the surge of the sea and rainbow mist. I found that I was able to go into that hypnotic state- I was listening to one of the tracks every night as I went to sleep from about 34 weeks.

 

My husband woke up around 4:30 and tried to help but I didn’t want to be touched or spoken to as I felt like I was in such a good zone and was happy to keep going on my own. So I moved from the sofa to my granny flat which we had set up as an early labour space for me.

 

Things get slightly hazy and chaotic from here, timings below are based off husbands call history:

6am- Phil calls the doula and tells her that I’m labouring but I’m happy to keep going on my own with the hypnosis tracks and we will keep her posted

6:30- we call the midwife and tell her how I’m going, still down granny flat and surges are still about every 4/5 minutes and lasting around 50/60 seconds.

6:51am- I made my way back to the house to start getting ready for the birth centre. I brush my teeth and I’m thinking about jumping in the shower. We called the midwife again and as the surges were still not too close and long we agreed with our midwife to stay at home for an hr

7:15- the intensity had increased and We call the doula and ask her to make her way over to the house.

My waters break whilst labouring over the fitball. I crawl into the shower fully clothed. I pull down my pants and touch between my legs and can feel his head and yell out to my husband.

7:25am- husband calls 000 and he can see baby crowning, the operator talk him through what to do.

7:34 - time of Austin’s birth, I only pushed a few times whilst on all fours. I was quite distressed during this time as it was all happening so fast. My husband caught him and he made some noise. My husband then passed him through my legs to me and I rubbed his back and he started crying loudly.

7:39- called the doula back and said she was too late.

 

The paramedics arrived a few minutes after he was born and my husband let them in. My husband cuts the cord and we make our way in the ambulance to John Hunter where I birth the placenta. I have a grade 2 tear which they stitched up and we were discharged from the hospital 5hrs after arriving. Not the birth I had envisioned but so grateful we were both ok!

 

Maddy