what a lovely and detailed home birth story thank you for sharing it xx

bump (for 1st baby home birth poster)

Lovely story, and very encouraging (I'm due tomorrow!).

@ Footprints: The doctors can only advise you against a home birth; they can't actually make you go into hospital. There's a worrying amount of women who seem to be under the impression that their doctors get to call the shots. They don't. *shakes fist*

wow a big well done to you hunni you were very brave to ave your first at home

congrats xxx

and love the name

well done!!!

out of interest did they say anything against having a HB due to your BP being high when pregnant? I've been told that as I had high BP when pregnanat with DD that this time I'll have to have a hospital birth- really want a HB but not sure they're going to let me.

K xx

Congratulations, it is especially lovely to hear of ladies having their first baby at home. Well done & enjoy your lo x

Congratulations on Frazer's safe arrival! U must be very proud of yourself! Thanks 4 sharing ur story, i love reading them!!

Many congratulations. I have a pool on standby in my dining room - you are very strong and single minded to be able to still labour despite the 1 midwife issue and the meconium in the waters and good on your MW for being stable and level headed to keep things on an even keel and not scare monger you into transferring.

Its a lovely birth story and you should be proud of yourself. Congratulations again

debs

Fraser Macfarlane was born on Tuesday 29th April - 3 days early, weighing 8lb 3oz. It's taken me a while to get on here I know but thought some of you might be interested!?

Fraser is our first baby and we'd decided to have a water birth at home. I'd had high blood pressure most of the way through pregnancy but fortunately it remained normal throughout labour.

Monday night DH and I went for an evening walk, when we got home I had a 'show' quite a lot of it (tmi?) but tried not to get too excited.

Midnight that night I woke up with back pains that came and went every 10 minutes or so. I managed to massage my own back for a while and sleep in between, then DH joined in the massage throughout the night. By about 5am I was too uncomfortable to stay in bed so we got up and put TENS machine on, lit oil burner with lavender oil and watched a movie. (In hindsight, I had actually had a sore back and twinges in my tummy for two days before which must have been my body getting ready.)

DH was getting concerned when the contractions were coming every 2mins and so rang for MW. MW came at 9.30am - I was 1-2cm but fully effaced and ready for my body to start dilating. She thought there was a possible tinge of green to my discharge which could have been meconium but wasn't sure and my waters hadn't gone by this point. MW went away until 1.00pm - contractions got much stronger and more frequent while she was away and I spent the time trying to eat, rest, drink, watch TV, wander around the house making a documentary style video for the new arrival and continued with TENS.

When MW returned I was 4cm - so now officially in labour :-)  She was still a bit suspicious about meconium and then had phone call to say there was no other MW to come out later. I ignored both of these things and tried to focus on here and now and let the worry of having to go into hospital wash over me!

At 2.00pm I began to use gas and air. It made me feel a bit drunk and dizzy to begin with but soon got the hang of it and spent the majority of my labour with my eyes shut and focused on my breathing. I alternated the TENS and gas and air depending on each contraction.

4.00pm was allowed into the pool. MW suggested no gas and air for a while so now had to manage contractions with no pain relief except the water....I did it!! I was amazed at the difference in the pain in the water - it still hurt but I felt more comfortable and it was easier to move about. Nearly all my contractions hurt in my back and hardly any pain in my tummy - I didn't expect this at all and hadn't heard of anyone else feeling this unless their baby was back to back, which Fraser thankfully wasn't.

About 5.00 a second MW phoned to say she'd be able to come - phew! I also had my community MW and a student there, they were nearing the end of their shift but wanted to come out and see how things were going. As luck would have it they were able to witness the whole thing before their shift was over, it was the student's first ever birth!

My waters broke about 10 minutes before Fraser arrived and there was a reasonable amount of mecoium in it, so MW said we'd have to think about getting paramedics on stand by, but 10 minutes of pushing (in total) and out he came - no tears or cuts - hoorah! 

My birth plan requested that the placenta be left to pulsate then cut and I'd deliver it without drugs but MW was concerned about Fraser who took a few moments to take his first breath so clamped and cut cord immediately and then after 15 minutes of very little action from placenta we decided to have injection. I didn't mind either of these things and MW's explained fully what and why they were doing things all the time. Apart from that the birth went pretty much according to plan.

Tips? My yoga/NCT breathing classes were so helpful. TENS machine we'd hired was amazing and of course the pool was