Wow where to start?

What a journey.. From the start I knew I wanted a home birth after a traumatic first birth.

I suffer pregnancy related tachycardia and this was a battle I had to fight to prove a home birth was the best place for me. I had a birth matters session with the head of midwifery who could completely see the benefits of home birth and was so positive and supportive and signed it off at around 33 weeks..

Then Corona hit! Lock down!

Home births suspended…

Well I did what I could and again spoke to another senior midwife who again was pro home birth who assured me she would do all in her power to help.

Due date week arrived and home births are back on! it was meant to be. I had been having a surge/tightening every evening but by morning they had disappeared.

On the morning of Saturday the 25th my lovely home birth midwife came to see me, I was 40 weeks and 4 days. We discussed how everything will work, she told me the days she was on call and that Saturday as in tonight was one of them. I explained that every night I thought it was happening but by morning they had fizzled out and she recommended doing something to increase the oxytocin when they started, so i planned to have a nice candle lit bath that night, especially as it was my midwife on call that evening.

So we went for a walk to one of our favourite places and played hide and seek in the woods and chased our 2 year old around in the fields! We had one last Selfie as a family of 3!

The evening came and we put our son to bed. Normally this is a 2 hour battle of going in to tell him to lay down or give him this and that.. Not this time.. He took his 2 dinosaurs to bed.. Played for an hour and fell asleep.

I got a bath and my surges began! It was 9.30pm and I was having surges that lasted 50 secs every 3 mins… My husband suggested we got the pool going at 10pm as we have terrible water pressure worst case we could just empty it again tomorrow. Everything was good until I sat down.. My surges stopped, an 8 or 10 min gap! But then the next time I stood up I’d have the biggest surge!

We decided at midnight ish to try sleep and if it was the real deal then surely the surges would continue.
I manages about 45 mins of rest and in that time I had 3 strong and noticeably painful surges. With the last one I decided to get up. I checked the pool to see it was really full! Our room was roasting too.. I went outside to turn the hosepipe off, this was a great moment in my labour - I was stood in my underwear outside breathing in the fresh spring air, having regular surges and was sooo happy about it. The freedom that being at home offered, the ability to walk outside to cool down, very different from my first birth.

From the first surge I experienced I zoned into my breathing using the hypnobirthing techniques I had learnt and the freya app to guide me with my breathing. At 2.40pm I rang labour ward to ask for advice as although the surges were strong they were irregular and spaced out, plus if I sat down they disappeared.

After facing a difficult conversation with triage over if I was allowed a home birth and her needing to read my notes she agreed to call my midwife. I was really angry about this but my husband encouraged me to let it go as to not affect my zone. At 3am my midwife rang and said she would come out. She arrived at 3.30am and just sat and observed. She rang for another midwife around 4am and she turned up around 5am.

I breathed through my surges with the help of my husband rubbing and applying pressure to the bottom of my back. I really didn't feel as if I was in labour, it didn't feel painful. We laughed and joked. I overheard my midwife say to the community midwife that Victoria is not "established yet" she is talking too much... I remember her saying, your smiling so much - I was! I was so happy about how the situation was going, it was everything i had wanted.

I was classed as in established labour at 5.15am when I asked for the tens machine putting on.. I lasted for 30mins with tens machine before deciding at 5.45am to get into the pool.

I went to the toilet one last time before deciding to get into the pool and I said I wanted to know how far dilated I was but I also didn’t want to know either… My midwife was perfect, she explained that she didn’t feel it was necessary, the plan wasn’t going to change and if I wasn’t established and we felt the water was having a slowing effect then I could just get out. This made complete sense and I got in… Wow the relief!

I had a surge that felt so much better in the water, it made me regret not getting in sooner but then no more than a minute later another came.. But it hurt! Something clicked and she dropped right into my pelvis, I transitioned.. I said I couldn’t do it and I knew straight away what was happening. This is when I asked for the gas which my husband presented to me at 6.10am.. It was heaven, the surges were coming strong and breathing the gas and air helped regulate my breaths in and out further.

I then had the most amazing experience, I felt everything, I felt my baby in the space of a 1 or 2 surges move through my birth canal, I have to admit, I did say after this movement “that better be her head out!” it was a painful sensation that felt like my whole body was opening up, however the pain was an amazing feeling.. Indescribable.. The midwife replied to say she could in fact see the head.. The next surge my body pushed her head out, the relief.. My waters also went. The next minute I spent feeling my little baby turn, I felt every little bit.

The next minute at 6.30am my baby entered the world!

It was so perfect. I leant back and picked up a very little slimy body all 6lb 1 oz of it.. The cord felt short and I felt I couldn’t lift the baby up enough to see what gender the baby was so we just rested.

Eventually I gained the courage to reposition the baby's little body and revealed we had a beautiful baby girl! Brooke Erin McAleese. 

We had lots of skin on skin whilst waiting for the cord to go white. Once that had happened my husband tied the cord tie and cut it.

All was cleaned up and put away, and I got some pj’s on just in time for my son to come down. Never in his life has he slept past 7.30am.. The day he became a big brother he got up at 8.30am and didn’t come down until 9am to meet his baby sister! It was as if he knew..

Both my home birth midwife and the community on call midwife were perfect! I have to give special credit to my HB midwife/photographer! She captured the whole thing, I have images I will treasure forever!

I had an amazing golden hour with Brooke and she wasn’t weighed or checked over for almost 2 hours which was just perfect.. We declined vitamin K as the birth was complete perfect and uncomplicated.

Victoria and Kelso