Hi Shelley, thank you so much for your kind words. I think I must have manifested the homebirth because I was due to be induced on Saturday 4th. My goal was to have a spontaneous birth, I was advised by the midwife to book an induction on day 12 - I could refuse it if I wanted to. So I called up on day 12 and they asked me to go into the day unit and I said no.

I did go in for monitoring and a stretch and sweep day 13. The consultant didn’t hold back when advising me of the risks and it did worry me. I got upset because I really wanted to avoid induction but I had to accept that this was looking very likely. I decided to wait until Saturday (42+1) and because my cervix was open they would have broken my waters so felt like that wasn’t as artificial as the pessary and drip. However, baby had other plans!

On Saturday morning around 5:40am, I woke up with a contraction. I then had another around 6am and they soon went to every 2 mins. I couldn’t really do too much in the way of showering or getting ready to go to the hospital. The contraction tracker app kept telling me to get to the hospital and I just knew I wasn’t going to make it! Tim contacted my mum and she collected Arielle just before 8am. Then he called labour ward, still optimistic that we were travelling to the hospital and I shouted I’m not going to make it. The midwife asked Tim to call 999 and she was going to arrange the on-call midwives to come. The issue with calling 999 is that they keep you on the phone until the paramedics arrive. They were also telling Tim to get towels and get me to lie on my back etc but we both knew from the courses we took with you and Cally that it wasn’t necessary to lie down.

The paramedics arrived first and I asked for their gas and air. Then the midwife turned up and I asked her to check baby’s heartbeat, once she confirmed that baby was ok, I knew I could totally get in the zone and birth our baby at home. I found the gas and air a bit more useful this time around and used your technique of breathing it in as the contraction started and then breathing through the rest of the contraction. The tens machine was also an amazing tool. I had the hypno tracks on the speaker, the bedroom was dark and Tim sprayed the room with essential oils. This makes the birth sound picture perfect but I must admit things felt pretty intense, at one point I dramatically announced that I was dying and told Tim to tell everyone I loved them (haha)!  

The midwife said that it sounded like I was transitioning. Then suddenly I felt this rush of endorphins/ adrenaline and I knew baby was coming. This gave me such a boost and I knew that I could do it.

After the initial organising Tim had to do (he was incredible, he knew that he had to create the right atmosphere and didn’t hold back asking the paramedics to be quiet), it turned into the most wonderful experience!

When baby came, (I was stood up leaning over the bed) Tim got to announce the sex - it was a beautiful baby girl with a mop of blonde hair. The cord was quite short so I couldn’t sit/ lie comfortably with her on me, so I chose not to delay cord clamping, but Tim cut the cord. I also experienced after pains that were as intense as the contractions so I decided to opt for the placenta injection. The good news was that I came away with a graze in my vagina and a small tear on my perineum. No stitches required.

Baby Lila was born at 10:05am weighing 8lb 7oz. She came out wailing until she was breastfed. After the midwives did their obs they left us around 12.30pm. Tim put all the towels used on a hot-wash and had to use vanish on one tiny stain on the carpet from my waters breaking (haha). Then it was baby cuddles until Arielle joined us back home at 5pm.

The fears I shared with you during the course were 1. The car journey while having contractions - didn’t need to worry about that! 2. Arielle staying overnight away from us - didn’t need to worry about that! 3. Tearing - didn’t need to worry about that either! It all worked out perfectly and I couldn’t have been prouder of Tim and I.