Rosie and Alex’s first baby- home, water birth experience

“On Thursday 1 June 2023, our baby boy’s due date, I went to bed saying to my husband, Alex, that it was the first night I had not had any Braxton Hicks (pre-labour warm ups!) after almost three weeks of them. Alex’s final words were maybe you are going to go into labour tonight and your body gave you the night to relax first.

My labour began at 3:45am on Friday 2 June, when I woke up and suddenly felt cramps in my tummy. I went to the toilet and noticed that there was blood on the toilet paper so knew that this could potentially be the real deal! However, after all my hypnobirthing preparations, I wanted to rest and sleep if I could as sometimes this can go on for a little while. I lasted about thirty seconds before getting back out of bed and onto my birthing ball.

Alex woke up when I came into the bedroom and said does it feel different this time and I said that I thought it did as these feelings felt much more intense than the pre-labour warm ups I had been having. I called upon my hypnobirthing strategies and stayed relaxed and calm, breathing through the surges and allowing my body to take the lead. By 5:30am my surges had been coming frequently and more intensely so I wanted to get in the bath and enjoy the feeling of the water. This felt absolutely wonderful. Alex put on our hypnobirthing music which we had been listening to for several weeks with the Rainbow Relaxation so the sounds immediately took me to my relaxed and happy space. I had read a lot about going into Labour Land and I was excited about this, just being present in the moment and letting go of everything else. One of my favourite affirmations – my body and my baby know what to do and work in perfect unison. This couldn’t have been a truer statement for my own experience.

We phoned our Birth Keeper at 6:30am and she said to call back at 7:00am if the surges were continuing to come through so frequently and she would set off. I stayed in the bath for an hour or so, sniffing my lavender and enjoying having the warm water poured over my back during my surges. I was surprised that by this point I was making primal ‘ahh’ sounds rather than breathing through each surge like I thought I would. However, again, spending much time reading about this in hypnobirthing meant I knew what I was doing was normal so I let my body continue to take the lead, as it knew what it was doing. Our Birth Keeper left at 7:00 and arrived at 8:30am and I continued to stay in my Labour Land whilst she observed me and left me to stay in my oxytocin filled space. My Birth Keeper asked if I would like to try the TENs machine which I did and to my surprise absolutely loved it! Pressing the ‘boost’ button felt wonderful during each surge.

By 11:30 she said to Alex it was time to fill up the pool which I was surprised about because I had no idea that I was getting so close to having my baby. I opted for no vaginal examinations or monitoring of any kind as I wanted to keep the whole process natural and uninterrupted which suited me perfectly. At 12:30 I got in the pool and the feeling of absolute joy washed over me as the intense feelings of the surges subsided in the warmth of the water. Within a couple of minutes in the pool, I felt the need to bare down and then felt a slight pop as my waters released in the birthing pool. I said to my birth keeper “I can’t do this!” and she said “you can and you are!” and then I shouted back before my next surge “it’s the transition!”. Again, hypnobirthing had taught me all about this so I knew that this stage of labour meant I would be meeting my baby imminently.

By 13:20 I could feel his head coming down slowly and visualising everything opening gently and slowly exactly like the image of the rose with the head in the centre. I chose to birth in the squatting position so I could see his head coming in the mirror. I shouted ‘it’s got hair!” which gave me such a huge boost of oxytocin that the next part felt so easy and beautiful as the rest of his head came out. After his head came, my birth keeper needed to slightly move him as his shoulder had become a bit sticky, I didn’t feel or know any of this was going on as I was still absolutely in Labour Land. My baby boy decided after this to do a little somersault out instead of coming out straight which meant I had some second degree tears, again I didn’t feel any of these tears happen or any pain but was told afterwards.

As the rest of my perfect baby came into the water, I caught him and put him straight onto my chest. It was the most euphoric and wonderful moment of my whole life. The feeling of joy is one I could never put into words. The whole birth was so beautiful and empowering.

I wasn’t worried going into the birth, both Alex and I were really looking forward to the whole experience and hypnobirthing had really solidified all our feelings that birth is the most natural thing in the world if we can keep the oxytocin flowing and be in a relaxed and confident space. Having been a Home Birth baby myself 30 years ago and witnessing both my sisters have their babies at home, there was no question for us that I would be birthing my baby at home too.

Since the birth of my perfect boy, I was honoured to witness my sister giving birth to her baby girl four months later with just her husband, our mum and myself present as the labour was so fast the birth keeper didn’t arrive in time! She also drew on her hypnobirthing sessions with Yvette to have the most wonderful birth at home too. I felt so privileged to be there and felt I could completely relive the feeling of joy witnessing her give birth so calmy and powerfully too.

Rosie and Alex.

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