![]() It was only a trickle at first but by the time Laura from the home birth team arrived accompanied by a student midwife a couple of hours later I was having regular contractions…it was actually happening! Then on the Wednesday night 10 days passed my due date, I was sitting at the kitchen table chatting to my sister and I felt my waters go. ![]() This was a relief but I was still constantly anxious about what was going to happen. As long as my waters didn’t break there was no reason I couldn’t go the full 2 weeks passed my due date before we even had to think about a section. Maybe I was just destined never to experience child birth.Īt my 40 week appointment with the consultant and the head of the homebirth team we agreed it was best to avoid an induction and to just see how things went. Maybe I just wasn’t capable of going in to labour. Again my due date came and went and I began to panic that it was all going to happen again. ![]() In the end I decided to move to the home birth team for the last few weeks of my antenatal care with a view to them coming out to me once I went into labour and then accompanying me in to hospital so that I could be in surgery in minutes if my section scar ruptured during labour. There was some toing and froing during the pregnancy about whether or not this was the case, with some medical staff saying there was no reason I couldn’t and others saying I really shouldn’t. When I got pregnant this time round I had already made my peace with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to have a home birth. It was months before I was able to talk about it all without crying and it’s taken me a long time to get over. I wasn’t until after it was all over that I realised how upset I was to have missed out on the birth I’d wanted. The operation itself was really calm, the surgical team were amazing and we were thrilled to have our baby boy. They ran some tests and confirmed there was no sign of infection, but with no amniotic fluid left around the baby, him still being breech and with no sign of me going in to labour any time soon, a section was really my only option. As soon as she said it I knew what it meant my waters had been broken for at least 5 days. She replied ‘that’s not mucus, it’s meconium’. As I sat down she asked what colour the discharge had been, I said dark green. She had a look and asked me to get dressed. I mentioned the discharge before she examined me. Five days later, on the 18 th of May, I went for a stretch and sweep with the consultant. The discharge continued for the next few days but apart from a very mild cramp here and there, nothing else happened. I was excited, this must be the mucus plug, things were starting to happen. ![]() Five days passed my due date I noticed a thick, dark discharge when I went to the loo. As my due date approached, one by one the other mums in my NCT group had their babies until I was the only one left. I covered the house with positive birth affirmations and focused on having a calm, natural breech birth. I did lots of research on breech births and was sure all the months I’d spent studying hypnobirthing would soon pay off. It was recommended that I elect for a c-section as soon as Sam turned breech but I was determined to birth him vaginally, even if it was going to have to be in the hospital. We spent the next couple of weeks trying everything we could to get him to turn including an extremely painful ECV (external Cephalic Version), Moxibustion and even a few evenings spent lying upside down on an iron board propped up against the sofa! Suffice to say none of this worked and we decided a home breech birth was too risky. At my antenatal appointment the next day the midwife was feeling my tummy and thought she could feel a head where a bum should be so she sent me for a scan and they confirmed it. I remember sitting watching my stomach rippling one Sunday night and wondering what on earth was going on. We even did a trial run to see how long it would take to fill up and I had a lovely soak in it in my cossie! Then at 38 weeks Sam turned breech. I bought a load of towels from the charity shop and some cheap shower curtains and we hired a birthing pool. At my NCT class I was the only person even considering it and I could tell some of the other mums thought I was mad but I was undeterred. I was positive it was the best place for me to give birth. Several of my friends had had them and my sister had also unexpectedly given birth at home without complication. You’ll understand why when you hear it.īefore I was even pregnant with Sam I knew I wanted a home birth. Before I tell you my most recent birth story, that of my now 8 week old son Charlie, I want to tell you about the birth of his big brother Sam.
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