Empowering home birth

The History of Home Birth

When it comes to thinking about your options of where to give birth; one of those options is that you have the right to give birth at home. Giving birth at home with a midwife was the norm before the NHS was founded in 1948 and changes followed along with policies about where women should give birth led to hospital births becoming the norm. If you would like to read more about the history of birth the lovely Emma Ashworth has written a blog post on it titled the “History of Birth”.

Home is often were we feel safe, calm and relaxed which in turn means our birth hormones such as oxytocin are at their highest. This is why you are are often encouraged to stay at home for as long as possible during early labour even if your birth place of choice is at a hospital or a midwife led centre. When our birth hormones are supported this can help labour to start and help labour to progress.

Some areas have a dedicated home birth team or they have the community midwifes that support and attend home births. It’s important when considering your birth options that you find out all you need to know about what your trusts offers to support a home birth.

Everyone is entitled to give birth at home if they wish to and giving birth at home may be giving birth in a birth pool, on a bed or even in the shower!

The lovely Jen Dowding who is a baby massage instructor at Basking Babies UK offered to share her beautiful home birth story of baby Ethan. When I spoke to Jen to asked her if she used any techniques and she used hypnobirthing breathing techniques during her home birth and used up breathing and down breathing and she was amazed at how much that helped!

Home Water Birth of Baby Ethan

Planned and actual water birth, First home birth - first baby was in water at a MLU attached to the hospital

Jen writes:

“It all started much like my daughter Harriet’s labour four years previous, only this time I was in less of a rush to serve an eviction notice as I knew there was every chance baby could go ‘over’ in terms of dates (she was born without intervention at 41+5 and I’d been booked in for an induction that very day)”.

At around 11pm on Sunday 20th Feb I was awoken by mild contractions which continued in a start/stop fashion throughout the night. On Monday they’d peter out and then return, getting up to every five minutes for an hour by Monday evening but then fizzling out! I took my daughter Harriet (4 years old) to school as normal on Monday morning and her nan picked her up that afternoon take her back to her house. I had considered keeping her at home but thought it might stall things or possibly upset her to see me in pain.

Early on Tuesday afternoon, things started to really power up - particularly in my lower back - and I called triage when I was experiencing around two contractions in every 10 minutes. My first labour had gone on quite intensely for three days so I knew this one might too but I was very aware I was at home this time and I wanted some extra support. A lovely Midwife Petra arrived about 45 minutes later and initially didn’t think I was as far along as I’d hoped as I was managing quite well. At that point I asked for an examination and a sweep as I was feeling pretty tired and de-motivated. As it turns out I was 3cm dilated with a ‘stretchy’ cervix so the decision was made for Petra to stay and be joined by another midwife. Meanwhile, I ate some jam on toast for energy (and to bring the ketone levels down in my wee!).

I walked around a bit and bounced on my ball alone upstairs, using a Tens machine and breathing for pain relief while my husband and midwives got the pool ready. Then at 5.30pm, I finally climbed into the lovely warm water and the relief was instant - and so welcome - before contractions started to pick up again once more. The pressure in my lower back was intense but I managed to chat to my husband and watch Friends episodes in between contractions which were 4/5 in 10 by this point.

After a couple of hours in the pool, contractions slowed a little but were intense and I didn’t feel like anything was progressing. I was using gas and air to breathe through them at this point. I’m not sure it helped with the pain but it did distract me a little! Just before 8 pm, I asked Petra to break my waters to relieve some of the tremendous pressure I was feeling.

As requested on my birth plan, nothing was offered unless I asked for it so I felt in complete control throughout.

Shortly after the membranes were ruptured, I lost a little control telling everyone I couldn’t do it but a lovely student midwife Jade encouraged me to breathe baby out rather than pushing which helped me to regain control and I didn’t suffer any tears, just a few grazes. I could feel he had a lot of hair just like his sister had when she was born!

At 8.34pm, I brought baby up to my chest and my husband revealed he was a little boy. I hadn’t even bothered to look before that point, I was just so relieved and happy to have baby on my chest.

We had a lovely period of undisturbed snuggles and I asked for an active third stage shortly after as - to be totally honest - I wanted to snuggle up in fresh clothes and have some tea and toast alone as a family. It wasn’t long before the placenta came away and there we were, +1!

“To say Harriet was thrilled to meet her brother the next morning would be an understatement”

Baby Ethan

Ethan was born 22nd of February 2022 at 8.34 pm, a surprise boy to join his older sister in completing their little family

Where to hire birth pools from?

You can hire home birth pools from lots of places such as:

• Local Doulas

• Home birth Facebook Groups

• Online

• Some hospitals

If you are local to Nottingham you can hire from the Home Birth Facebook Group or you can hire from the Birth Pool in a Box (you can be based anywhere) and I have a 10% code I would love to share from with you:

https://birthpoolinabox.refr.cc/kerry1

Hypnobirthing can help you to find out what your options are and support your right to choose where you would like to give birth; whether you would like to give birth at home, a hospital birth or giving birth in a midwife led centre or ward.

A BIG THANK YOU TO JEN FOR SHARING HER BIRTH STORY OF BABY ETHAN, IT WAS A PLEASURE TO READ AND SHARE SUCH A BEAUTIFUL HOME WATER BIRTH STORY FOR OTHERS TO READ AND SHARE.

Updated 10/07/2023