Birth Story By: Emma Davies

A Planned Homebith

The morning I was 4 days over due I woke feeling uncomfortable, not contractions but just achy all over. I carried on with the day as usual. With 3 kids to care for I didn’t have time to sit and think. Jack my eldest is 10 and my 2 girls Lily and Willow are 7 an 2. Later on I decided to tell my photographer I felt a bit off so she came over to make sure she knew how to get to my house. Not long after she left I had my first contraction at 5:30 in the afternoon when I was nesting, so I carried on clearing the mess I had made getting everything out and got another contraction 10 mins later. That’s when I knew this was it. Hubby was doing dinner, so we sat down to eat and they continue at 10 minutes apart.
Not only did I eat my dinner I ate the half of hubby’s dinner he didn’t want as I wouldn’t be able to eat during established labor as I tend to be sick. At this point the kids caught on to what’s going on as I kept putting my knife an fork down to take deep breaths. They start to get excited. I told them to stay calm as there would be hours and hours to wait (number 3s contractions started at 5.30pm an she arrived at 12.15 in the afternoon the next day)

In my head I planned to get the kids to bed as we would need the rest for tomorrow, so while I breathed calmly and rocked my hips, hubby cleaned up dinner, the kids were upstairs playing (meant to be getting pj’s on but far too excited). Hubby popped to the shop and when he got back he could tell by the way I was standing and leaning onto the tv unit I was in a little bit more pain than before. I think he realized before I did it was going to be faster than last time so he made sure as much of the housework was done while coming to rub my back during contractions.

   I wanted my children to know I was there for them even when in labor.

Lily came downstairs and helped with rubbing my back, it felt great! Willow popped down as she wanted something. She wanted picking up but as I was having a contraction I couldn’t pick her up or talk to explain so I put my hand round her just so she didn’t think I was ignoring her. She seemed to understand and she went back upstairs.

 Getting ready for Birth

I sat on the loo for a while trying to make sure I was cleared out but also being in too much pain in that position to move from it, (this is when I realized it would be tonight an not tomorrow after all). Hubby popped back to the shop for energy drink so he could stay awake for the night. when he got back he got the rug down from upstairs as it was non slip and washable it was ideal, so I went to kneel on it to rest while I had a couple more contractions, (then I was going to get the sheets an towels out). I put a status on facebook for people to put their guesses in of if they thought baby was a boy or girl.

Jack an Willow came down and sat on the sofa watching me. Hubby went upstairs to have a shower and get the kids clothes that I had brought especially to look good for the photos. I wondered if I should get my photographer to come over but worries she would be waiting for hours so I felt down to see where baby’s head was and as I couldn’t feel any of the head I decided not to call photographer. Less than 5 mins later as I was a little bit sick into a bucket an just as hubby came back downstairs to find half of baby already out he caught HER just in time as lily stood an pointed to say baby was coming.

Birth can happen VERY quickly!

Baby let out a little but healthy cry. As I was hugging her I noticed she had the mucus plug on the top of her head.
I then latched her on to feed an asked willow if she wanted to aswell. This was a big help in delivering the placenta which came just 16 minutes after baby.

Photographer came to take a few pictures.

(The cord that was the life line for Baby)

(Placenta Pills!)

I tied and cut the cord an hour after the placenta was delivered. We weighed Baby (her name is Clover) and found she was only a teenie tiny 5lb 2oz.
I left baby with daddy and kids having cuddles while I cleaned up and had a shower. I then of course came back to cuddle my 4 children and counted my blessings one, two, three, and now four. 

 

 

 

~~~~~~

I am so glad Emma shared her story here as I think there is a lot of stigma around home births. The research is solid that home births are as safe as hospital births in low risk pregnancy. So glad that proved true for this family. 

A Picture Of Modern Birth

This birth story and others from the August 2015 due date group can be found on this blog. They are being shared by mothers who want to give new moms and old a window into that birth looks like today to empower others to make choices for themselves. LittleCrunchy.com fully supports evidence based birth and wants to help however we can. Please feel free to leave comments and questions and check back for more birth stories from this great group of women!