Laughing Girl
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2009
- Messages
- 1,243
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi everyone, hope you enjoy our birthing story...........
I'm Rachel and at 42 years old, having given birth to our first daughter at home when I was 40, was determined to give our new little one the same start in life. A couple of things began to get in my way, namely that our pregnancy went "over due" - Elodie was born at 40 + 11, and my age at this length of gestation seemed problematic to some of the senior anti natal staff who were monitoring us at the hospital.
We had had various scares throughout our pregnancy from the hospital - first of all we were told that because Elodie's head measured small in comparison with the rest of her - its on the 3rd centile whereas the rest of her is on 40th or so, we were told she may have a condition called Craniosynostosis, or 'flat head' and this resulted in a very anxious mummy for a long while - we had to have various growth scans to see if her head growth was indeed being restricted by a fused skull or whether it was simply that she has a dainty head.
She has a small, very dainty head!! Panic over, thank goodness.
At 36 weeks I was told by my midwife that our baby was breech - panic stations as there is no midwife on our home birth team who has experience of breech delivery and we would have had to have birthed on the labour ward.
A scan showed that she was wrong -
Saved once more!
Our 40 week date came and went, and whilst i was confident that all would be fine, I found myself feeling pressure from the hospital to book an induction. I held out and said no but went for monitoring twice a week where all was fine - a good heartbeat, lots of movement and tonnes of fluid so there was no arguing with that really.
At 41 weeks I was beginning to get restless though, and the thought of a hospital delivery loomed. For our family, that would have been a disaster. My eldest daughter is just turned two, and we've not been separated for longer than a couple of hours at a time. We co-sleep and she is breastfed on demand which is sometimes during the night. Neither me nor my husband wanted Isla's introduction to her younger sister to be a trauma for her and we wanted everything to continue as normally as possible for all of us. I was beginning to get really upset about the whole situation and felt out of control and trapped, which, with the additional ambivalence of becoming a mother of two was really spiralling my emotions to strange places.
I begun to feel that I needed to have a big release, a big cry and an admittance that i was scared of our situation and that until i did this, our new baby would not be born.......so on the morning of 23rd, at 40 + 10, I had a weepy conversation with my older sister over the phone and got a lot off my chest. It worked. Shortly afterwards, a began to feel slightly crampy. I didn't mention this to anyone and the cramps stayed mild and hardly noticeable for the remainder of the day.
Isla went to bed at around 8pm and my husband and I followed at 10.30pm after having made sure that the lounge was all ready for our birth. I fell asleep at around 11.30 and at 12.30am woke with a start - I felt like I had been hit by a wall. I went down stairs but had to go back up to wake Cam as I needed to be with someone. I phoned our doula Ema and suggested she came, and phoned our midwife who set off immediately.
I stood under a warm shower for an hour or so - Ema and the midwife, Jo, arrived at 1.30am and I was rocking my hips to and fro, gyrating through the contractions, rubbing my tummy and talking to my baby.
After a while, I started to feel a bit faint and moved into the lounge. I sat on a ball and leaned up against a big bean bag, moaning very loudly and using gas to move through the contractions. Cam rubbed my back and Ema coached me when my breathing came too fast.
After a couple of hours of hard work, our little girl was almost ready to arrive. My contractions changed and I began to feel her moving down. I did nothing except concentrate on relaxing as much as I could, to make her descent as gentle as possible. No gas now, I didn't need it and wanted to be fully focused. She stayed in the birth canal for quite a while, moving down in her own time. I kept feeling inside my vagina and could feel her soft head. We decided I could do with a wee as I'd not had one since the beginning of our labouring, so we all went into the bathroom and I sat on the loo. A few seconds later, Elodie Hannah's head crowned, and Jo caught her as she slipped out into the loo!
She was here at last. At that moment, Isla woke up and my husband went up to our room to bring her down to meet her younger sister.
What an amazing night for all of us.
I'm Rachel and at 42 years old, having given birth to our first daughter at home when I was 40, was determined to give our new little one the same start in life. A couple of things began to get in my way, namely that our pregnancy went "over due" - Elodie was born at 40 + 11, and my age at this length of gestation seemed problematic to some of the senior anti natal staff who were monitoring us at the hospital.
We had had various scares throughout our pregnancy from the hospital - first of all we were told that because Elodie's head measured small in comparison with the rest of her - its on the 3rd centile whereas the rest of her is on 40th or so, we were told she may have a condition called Craniosynostosis, or 'flat head' and this resulted in a very anxious mummy for a long while - we had to have various growth scans to see if her head growth was indeed being restricted by a fused skull or whether it was simply that she has a dainty head.
She has a small, very dainty head!! Panic over, thank goodness.
At 36 weeks I was told by my midwife that our baby was breech - panic stations as there is no midwife on our home birth team who has experience of breech delivery and we would have had to have birthed on the labour ward.
A scan showed that she was wrong -
Saved once more!
Our 40 week date came and went, and whilst i was confident that all would be fine, I found myself feeling pressure from the hospital to book an induction. I held out and said no but went for monitoring twice a week where all was fine - a good heartbeat, lots of movement and tonnes of fluid so there was no arguing with that really.
At 41 weeks I was beginning to get restless though, and the thought of a hospital delivery loomed. For our family, that would have been a disaster. My eldest daughter is just turned two, and we've not been separated for longer than a couple of hours at a time. We co-sleep and she is breastfed on demand which is sometimes during the night. Neither me nor my husband wanted Isla's introduction to her younger sister to be a trauma for her and we wanted everything to continue as normally as possible for all of us. I was beginning to get really upset about the whole situation and felt out of control and trapped, which, with the additional ambivalence of becoming a mother of two was really spiralling my emotions to strange places.
I begun to feel that I needed to have a big release, a big cry and an admittance that i was scared of our situation and that until i did this, our new baby would not be born.......so on the morning of 23rd, at 40 + 10, I had a weepy conversation with my older sister over the phone and got a lot off my chest. It worked. Shortly afterwards, a began to feel slightly crampy. I didn't mention this to anyone and the cramps stayed mild and hardly noticeable for the remainder of the day.
Isla went to bed at around 8pm and my husband and I followed at 10.30pm after having made sure that the lounge was all ready for our birth. I fell asleep at around 11.30 and at 12.30am woke with a start - I felt like I had been hit by a wall. I went down stairs but had to go back up to wake Cam as I needed to be with someone. I phoned our doula Ema and suggested she came, and phoned our midwife who set off immediately.
I stood under a warm shower for an hour or so - Ema and the midwife, Jo, arrived at 1.30am and I was rocking my hips to and fro, gyrating through the contractions, rubbing my tummy and talking to my baby.
After a while, I started to feel a bit faint and moved into the lounge. I sat on a ball and leaned up against a big bean bag, moaning very loudly and using gas to move through the contractions. Cam rubbed my back and Ema coached me when my breathing came too fast.
After a couple of hours of hard work, our little girl was almost ready to arrive. My contractions changed and I began to feel her moving down. I did nothing except concentrate on relaxing as much as I could, to make her descent as gentle as possible. No gas now, I didn't need it and wanted to be fully focused. She stayed in the birth canal for quite a while, moving down in her own time. I kept feeling inside my vagina and could feel her soft head. We decided I could do with a wee as I'd not had one since the beginning of our labouring, so we all went into the bathroom and I sat on the loo. A few seconds later, Elodie Hannah's head crowned, and Jo caught her as she slipped out into the loo!
She was here at last. At that moment, Isla woke up and my husband went up to our room to bring her down to meet her younger sister.
What an amazing night for all of us.
)
