We joined the homebirth team after attending the second class of Anna’s hypnobirthing course. Being from Australia my husband, Para and I had very little knowledge of the NHS maternity system in the UK but we had never entertained the idea of a homebirth and after joining the team at 34 weeks we still weren’t. For us it was a way to get continuity of care and prevent unnecessary intervention, we had peace of mind knowing that we were able to transfer to the labour ward or birth centre at any point during the labour. 

Prior to joining the homebirth team we had seen a different midwife at every antenatal appointment, they ticked all the boxes from a care perspective but we were on the clock at every appointment and it felt very impersonal. We noticed a huge change from our very first appointment with our homebirth midwife, Harriet. She spent about an hour with us in our home getting to know us and how we envisioned the birth going, she went through the ins and outs and I expressed to her I very much wanted to see how I was feeling during labour in regards transferring to the birth centre or remaining at home. She was so supportive of what we wanted and encouraged and reassured us in the best way. In the back of my mind I always saw myself transferring as I was very keen on a water birth and just didn’t have the space to accommodate that in our flat. 

I had been feeling a bit funny from the Friday before I went into labour and messaged Harriet as I had a bit of a ‘bloody show’ late that night. Woke up on Saturday feeling fine thinking it was a false alarm. Para and I had planned to go see a movie in the cinema on Sunday night and we joked that it could be our last date night. I was 38.5 weeks and being our first baby I thought I definitely had a few more weeks of pregnancy to go. 

We got home from the cinema at 11.30pm and I was feeling alot of pressure and heaviness around my pelvic area, thinking this was due to the walk home and sitting for two hours, I ignored it, took a shower and got ready for bed. I started having lower back pain after my shower and asked Para to warm up the heat pack for me as I got into bed. Around 12 midnight I felt my first contraction. At the time I thought it was maybe the baby moving in an awkward way or bad pelvic pain, I was in denial for a good 2 hours or so. They started coming on every 15-20 mins and by the second contraction I could barely talk through it. 

Very different to what I was expecting early labour to be like as I had a whole list of things to do to keep me distracted and ignore it for as long as possible. After having no luck trying to sleep through, Para and I decided to start timing the contractions to see if there was a pattern at around 1am. They were ranging from 7-10mins apart and lasting about a minute. I moved to the living room to try watch some TV and be on my feet as lying in bed was too uncomfortable.

Our first call to Harriet was at 1.40am just to give her a heads up and she said it all sounded like good signs to call back when contractions had lasted for about an hour at 4 mins apart at that point she would think of making her way to us. We called back about an hour later at 2.45am, my contractions were 4-6mins apart but I didn’t feel like I could wait until they had been going for an hour at that point. I requested that she came as I they were already so intense and I felt like I needed her here. I was using the TENs machine and a comb at this point and was on all fours with my upper body on the couch. Harriet said she would be with us in 45 mins and if I got the urge to push to call an ambulance. 10 mins before she arrived I started getting urges to push and asked Para to place some puppy pads under me and get a blanket for under my knees as I was still in the same position.

I hadn’t even thought about transferring at this stage and Para knew I was comfortable and transferring would possibly stall labour as there was no getting me up at that point. When Harriet arrived at around 3.30am my contractions were 2 mins apart, she was initially concerned with the amount of blood I was loosing but asked if she could do a VE to check how far along I was before making any decisions to transfer. The examination was useful as it showed I was much further along than she even expected and the blood was due to my cervix changing really fast. Harriet was shocked as she expected to go back home and come back when I was in active labour a few hours later but wasn’t going anywhere now as I was 6-7cm dilated. (She respectfully asked us if we wanted to know how dilated I was to which I said to her “I don’t know, do I?” She responded with “well it’s alot further along than I expected”, which was all I needed to hear). 

I got back on to all fours and my waters broke 45mins later. The intensity of the contractions really ramped up after that and I started to have doubts as to if I could continue this at home. I asked Harriet for gas and air and Para to play a podcast of affirmations I had been listening to during pregnancy, which honestly carried me through the rest of the pushing. The gas and air I felt was more of a hinderance as I had to breathe it in during a contraction but I found it helped more if I was breathing out and trying to relax during the contraction so I stopped after a few tries. I remember saying “I don’t think I can do this” when I felt baby’s head crowing and but the encouragement from Para and Harriet kept me going. The second midwife rang the door bell as Harriet said “the heads out”. Para ran to let her in as she got a bit lost in the apartment complex and arrived back as Ayon was born at 5.12am. The look on Para’s face was priceless, I needed a few minutes before looking down and picking up Ayon to process everything and remember the first thing I said was “I knew it was a boy”. 

We feel so blessed to have had the birth we did. I went from being fearful of birth and not wanting to think about it at the start of my pregnancy to feeling empowered and excited to give birth and for that we will forever be thankful to Anna and Harriet.