I never timed my surges or had any vaginal examinations / Heather

I found out I was pregnant 4 days before my expected period. Dylan made me take the test early because he was sick of me worrying. We both stood in the bathroom and slowly watched the positive line appear. We couldnt believe it! We were so happy. I chose to have my antenatal care at my local GP clinic which is shared between the head GP and a midwife. I was 15 weeks when I got told that FSH had a birth centre and I applied there straight away. I already knew that I didnt want to birth in the mainstream hospital. Its funny, because Im a big believer in everything happens for a reason. I got told not long after that the FBC was full and I'd go on a waitlist. At my next midiwfe appointment, I found out that my midwife was also a private midwife and did home births. I loved this idea, but at the time, I just felt like I needed to know more.

This is where Renee comes in! I booked the hypnobirthing course with Renee and Dylan and I left so empowered and informed as first time parents. I knew once the course was finished that I wanted a home birth and I couldnt want to get back to my midwife and tell her. My pregnancy went amazing and I felt really good the whole way through! As my pregnancy moved along, I started implementing the hypnobirthing tasks. I listened to my hypno tracks, which were also really helpful when I had some trouble sleeping. I made myself a positive affirmations pin board which I put in my dining area and saw each day. I stretched, spent time on all fours and on my exercise ball and I saw a chiropractor for the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy to make sure my body was all balanced for the best chance at a physiological birth. I had my positive affirmations board visible in my birth space.

 Throughout my pregnancy, I also watched documentries, listened to podcasts, read books, became an ABA member and attended a breast feeding seminar and watched countless hours of home birth videos on instagram. I really manifested and worked hard to have the birth I wanted.

 My estimated due date was Friday 7th August. Dylan was still working and when I woke on Thursday I was having period pain. I took myself out for lunch and noticed them getting a little stronger. I had dinner plans with my friends and thought well this feels like my last outing for a while I'll still go. Come 10pm, I went to bed but couldn't sleep or really relax through them. I went out into the lounge and sat on my exercise ball watching SBS Food! At 2am, I woke Dylan up to let him know things were definitely progressing. He came out and set up our birth space by hanging fairy lights, lighting candles and getting the birth pool ready.

 At 5am, I put on the TENS machine that I hired from Renee. It initially wouldn't work and I was close to a meltdown, thinking can’t I do this without it. Finally we got it working and it really was a godsend! Dylan phoned our midwife at 6am and she came over shortly after. Time becomes a little blurry from here on in for me.

I spent about 10 hours sitting on the ball, rotating my hips side to side and breathing through each surge. I had tranquil chambers the hypno track playing the whole time. My eyes also remained closed the whole time and I didn't talk to anyone as I really had to focus through my surges and keep myself in a good head space. My space was dark and quiet.

I never timed my surges or had any vaginal examinations. It felt irrelevant to me and I just needed to trust my body.

I eventually got into the pool as I had been putting it off for a while as I knew I had to take the TENS machine off to get in and I wasn’t sure how I'd manage without it. I remember when the first surge came while I was in the water that I had to do a big vomit from the intensity. Dylan kept pouring water over my back and rubbing my head as we all sat in silence and I breathed through the surges. At times, Dylan would remind me to slow my breathing down. I really needed that because as the intensity increased, I was finding it pretty uncomfortable in the water.

After a few hours, my midwife suggested that I go do a wee so I had help to get out of the pool and walk to the toilet. I felt so much more in control sitting on the toilet. I then went on all fours on the bathroom floor and had some hip squeezing when the surges came. I remember the feeling changed and I told my midwife that I needed to push. I sat back on the toilet and started to push.

Dylan sat on the floor in front of me with a towel on his lap and after about 20 minutes, I stood up with one arm each around my mum and midwife and pushed her head out. I heard my mum say "omg I can see a face". The next surge, I pushed baby Edie out into Dylan’s arms at 235pm on Friday. I couldn’t believe I had done it. I was on such a high! 

I got back into the pool with Dylan and started to breastfeed Edie to release more oxytocin and help birth my placenta. We had our uninterrupted skin to skin and waited for her cord to stop pulsing before Dylan cut it. Some time had passed and I ended up having the syntocinon injection to help bring out my placenta. I laid in bed and breastfed more but nothing was really happening. I tried sitting on the toilet, squating in the shower and bearing down but the placenta wasn’t budging. I was busting but I couldn’t pass urine, so I ended up agreeing to having a catheter put in and 2L came out!! My midwife had said my bladder was pushing my placenta off centre and that’s why it had trouble coming out. 6 hours later, I coughed it out in bed. I had some tearing that my amazing midwife stitched up the next day once swelling had gone down.

 I remember Dylan saying "thank god we don’t have to listen to that music track anymore". I had the Tranquil Chambers track playing for hours and hours! I had a lot of people tell me "wow you’re having a home birth for your first baby". I wouldn't have it any other way now, the birth of Edie was everything that I worked hard for and more!!