On the Thursday evening (9 days overdue) around 9pm I was bouncing on the ball watching TV when I started to feel occasional surges. From the braxton hicks I had been getting previously I knew this was different and started to get excited, but also knew it could still be a false start or take a while to build into ‘real labour’ as they felt fairly mild. I got ready for bed to try and get some sleep in, but by the time I had got in to bed (around 9.30) they had got a little stronger and were every 7 minutes or so apart. I felt confident it was time, so I told Sam to start blowing up the pool and at around 11pm he called the delivery suite to let them know I was in labour and to give the home birth midwifes a heads up. It was Rose & Philippa on duty and Sam text Rose to let her know, and that we would call back when the surges were 2 in 10 mins for around 2 hours (the approx advice we had been told for home birth midwife call out). 

At this point I was using my Hypnobirthing breathing, listening to relaxation tapes & measuring the surges on the Freya app. I didn’t manage to get any sleep as they were too strong to sleep through, but I appreciated the downtime to fully relax between surges and used it to rest as much as possible. 

I stayed this way in bed for a while, lying on my side and breathing through the surges as they got stronger. I had also asked Sam to attach the tens machine to my back as they geared up and he was giving me sips of water and a back massage. By about 3.15 I suddenly needed to be upright on my knees on the bed, and I could feel that the surges were right in my lower back, pushing down into my spine which was really intense - and I needed to adjust my breathing to accommodate it. I told Sam that he needed to call delivery suite and Rose now as I really needed the additional support and ideally some gas and air, I remember feeling quite sorry for myself at this point and had a cry (I wonder now if this was my transition period!).

Having my previous labour and birth to go on, I knew there could still be hours ahead of me so I had held off on getting in the pool until I really needed it - now I wish I had done it earlier! Although my surges had been fluctuating between 4 and 9 minutes apart Rose confirmed at 3.50am when Sam called that she would come over and I felt a huge relief when I heard this. She also confirmed I could get in the pool if I wanted. This was now about 4am. I got undressed and held onto Sam’s shoulders as he led me downstairs. Standing up triggered a hugely intense surge that lasted the entire time I was walking down the stairs and I knew then that this was going to happen a lot quicker than we had thought. I think Sam could tell by my breathing too that things had massively stepped up a notch or ten! 

I got in the pool and the warm water felt amazing, again I wished I had got in earlier to experience that relief. The next surge I had was huge and I had moved into the phase of my body involuntary pushing, which I recognised from my last labour too. I could feel her travelling down the birth canal. My instinct was to be on all fours in the pool and I said to Sam ‘this baby is coming!’ - the midwifes still hadn’t arrived, and Sam called Rose to check what he should do. At 4.10 Rose was 20 mins away in an Uber but her advice was to call 999 if he could see the baby’s head - I couldn’t speak at this point as my birthing instinct had taken over and I was reaching down to feel if her head was there. Sam felt and saw her head too and hung up (slightly in shock) to call 999 - this was around 4.30. From there they told him to hold the head lightly and encouraged me to do a small push to encourage her out - the feeling and energy was unreal and I felt her head come out. Another push and her body followed into Sam’s arms who pulled her up from under the water. I was gasping in shock and by the time I turned my head round she had already started crying and looked really pink and healthy. I took her on to my chest and checked if she was a boy or a girl as we had kept it a surprise (a girl! We were convinced it would be a boy!)  The cord felt quite short so I had to move my leg over to pull her up properly. Sam was still on the phone to the call handler at this point who told him to keep her dry with a towel and get a shoe lace to tie the cord off - we checked that it was already white and had stopped pulsing before doing this. He also found out then it was a girl when they asked - in all the drama he had forgotten to check and I hadn’t said! We were only alone just the three of us for around five minutes and then in to the room came Rose and shortly after, 4 paramedics. I was in shock, breathing heavily and shushing the baby rhythmically as she was crying. 

Sam cut the cord with Rose’s help and I got out the pool to go over to the sofa with the baby and wait for the placenta to be delivered. I really wanted this to happen naturally to feel what it would be like, but knew it can sometimes take a while. Luckily it didn’t take long as I was having quite uncomfortable surges, and with a bit of encouragement it came out and we saved it to be later encapsulated. Rose checked me and confirmed I had no tears, just a graze. 

Alma Tove was born at 4.35am, just 10 or so mins after getting into the pool and she gave me the dream birth I had hoped I would get - at home, in the pool. The Hypnobirthing techniques I had learnt without a doubt enabled me to get through it all without any pain relief. After my first birth which ended up becoming extremely traumatic and assisted following 34 hours of natural labour, I feel so privileged to experience birth in its rawest form this time - feeling everything and letting my body do what I knew deep down all along it could.

Astonishingly our 23 month old slept through the whole thing and woke up at 7.30 completely unaware of what had happened right outside his bedroom! 

Our experience with the Homerton homebirth team has been incredible. Our midwife Harriet, has been hugely supportive throughout the pregnancy and came to see us in her day off the day after Alma was born - the care and passion from all the team is huge and makes such a difference. This, plus using our Hypnobirthing techniques, knowledge and Anna’s reassurance that I could do it, made the fact that we gave birth without any medical assistance empowering, rather than terrifying.