Before I was pregnant I was terrified of giving birth. I actually had nightmares about it from time to time. And I thought that when it came to it, I would happily take whatever pain relief was on offer. I was not one of these ‘hippies’ who felt the need to try and do things naturally – why suffer when there’s no need?
In my professional work I happened to cross paths with an independent midwife when I was 12 weeks pregnant. She told me about the naturality of birth and explained how women have been specifically designed to birth their babies. She also explained how modern medicine has interfered far too much in this natural process, often making it far more traumatic than it needs to be. She went through the physiology of birth, about the hormones involved and how babies are born and the best positions to be in to accommodate a baby moving through the birth canal. She explained why shows like ‘One Born Every Minute’ display the worst kind of births and how unhelpful they are. She put forward the research evidence which shows that women who are calm and relaxed and in a familiar environment supported by people they trust have the best and most comfortable births and she also showed me the evidence that birthing in hospital puts you more at risk of complications and interventions.
I can honestly say that after talking to her, all the fear I had about giving birth was gone. I was confident that, providing the baby and I kept well throughout the pregnancy, I could birth my baby without the dread or drama I had previously thought were unavoidable.
At 20-30 weeks pregnant, I had seen 4 different midwives on the NHS and hadn’t really connected with any of them.
Appointments seemed rushed and impersonal and the whole standard of care was lower than I wanted for such a special time in my life.
After talking to the independent midwife I now knew I wanted to have a homebirth but not really knowing or trusting my NHS midwife made me nervous and I knew that also on the NHS, protocols have to be stuck to and that the transfer rates were quite high for first time mothers who try to birth at home.
Naomi Lee
q
It was at this point that we hired an independent midwife. This way I was guaranteed to see the same midwife through the rest of my pregnancy, the birth and after the birth (which, incidentally, was for a month afterwards unlike the 2 postnatal visits with the NHS). The lady we chose was just amazing (Erika); she genuinely cared about our family and treated us as if we were her only clients. She was available on the end of the phone whenever we needed and appointments usually lasted about an hour and could be in the evenings so that my husband could be there too.
I also loved how she asked me what I thought about processes like birthing the placenta, vitamin K supplementation, vaccination etc, rather than telling me what I should do like the NHS were doing. She gave me both sides of the story; the research evidence for and against each procedure and let me make an informed decision.
This high level of care and continuity of care enabled me to feel supported and empowered and I believe I had such a positive experience because of this.
I went in to labour at about 10pm on 2nd June and things seemed to get going pretty quickly to begin with.
However, 10hours later and feeling like we weren’t really progressing any more,
I was getting tired and fed up. Baby’s head was apparently in a bit of an
awkward position and he was struggling to get into the right position to come
out. We decided to do a quick catheterisation as I was unable to urinate
during labour due to baby pressing on my bladder so much, and when that still
wasn’t speeding things up enough, we were going to try a cervical stretch/sweep to hopefully increase contraction length to help move things along. At that point we found that I was fully dilated and ready to push baby out. It was likely that due to his head position, I wasn’t getting the feeling of needing
to push. After that, he was born (not without a phenomenal amount of effort!)
within the hour. It wasn’t quite as I imagined if I’m honest, I pictured myself
giving birth in the pool but the water was slowing contractions down so I ended
up pacing the house, up and down the stairs and ended up on all fours giving
birth on the landing!
It was absolutely amazing to give birth at home, with such incredible support from my husband and the midwife and that moment when I felt my baby rush out of me was indescribable. Our Son, Alexander, was born at 11.36am on 3rd June, weighing 9lb, 9oz. I was then able to get straight into my own bed and bond with my baby in comfort and peace while my husband and the midwife cleaned up. Two hours after the birth we were ordering Dominoes pizza and drinking Champagne! The memories I have from that time will always stay with me. I feel so blessed and privileged to have been able to have this type of birth, and without any pain relief or intervention.It was absolutely amazing to give birth at home, with such incredible support from my husband and the midwife and that moment when I felt my baby rush out of me was indescribable. Our Son, Alexander, was born at 11.36am on 3rd June, weighing 9lb, 9oz. I was then able to get straight into my own bed and bond with my baby in comfort and peace while my husband and the midwife cleaned up. Two hours after the birth we were ordering Dominoes pizza and drinking Champagne! The memories I have from that time will always stay with me. I feel so blessed and privileged to have been able to have this type of birth, and without any pain relief or intervention.