In this wonderful birth story, Charlie talks us through her home birth of her second baby. Charlie and her partner did my full Hypnobirthing course with their first baby, and refresher course with their second. I love how honest and raw Charlie is about how she roared her baby earthside with full intensity! Birthing bodies are AMAZING and strong! This is an inspiring read! Enjoy!
"After a straight forward, natural, drug free birth with my first baby 21 months ago at a Birth Centre, the plan for baby no.2s birth was the same just at home.
I had a 12 week blood result of low PAPP-A, a which is placenta protein. This can effect growth and placenta function but the growth scans were all fine for us. However, I had a feeling, from about 32 weeks that he was going to be born around the 37 week mark. Baby sat on the 50th centile the whole way through pregnancy with the extra growth scans and at my last scan at 36+6 weeks estimated weight was 7lbs.
3/4pm on a October 2nd [37+2 days] I started having period type pains. Woke up a few times in the night because of cramps then at 2am I could no longer sleep through the sensations. I started having mild-moderate contractions at about 3am which were inconsistent, 5-12 mins apart.
From 2am until My husband and son woke up I was bouncing on the ball, collecting colostrum, using the breast pump, walking etc to get things going but nothing really made things progress. Once the boys were up we just got on with our morning. Dog walk/breakfast etc however I could hardly eat.
10/11am my boy went to sleep for a nap so instead of trying to get things going I just lay down, cuddled him and relaxed which was clearly what I needed. By 2pm contractions were coming strong and 3-4 mins apart
3pm we got my son collected from our house and my husband started putting up the birthing pool.
3:15pm asked our midwife to come over
She arrived at 3:45/4pm. And I asked her to check my cervix dilation which was 5-6cm
As I was in active labour a second midwife was called who arrived at approx 4:30pm.
By 5pm I was having less than 1 minute between each contraction and they were INTENSE. My waters still hadn’t broken and I really wanted to get in the pool. I asked the midwife to break my waters (I was 10cm at this point) and jumped in the pool at approx 5:15pm. [I had my waters with my first broken at this point too as they just wouldn’t break themselves as the membrane was so thick]
By this point I hadn’t eaten really anything for 24hrs and my ketones in my urine were high so my husband was feeding me spoons of Maple Syrup in-between contractions to keep me going
After 20 mins of pushing/howling in the pool. Baby Mack was born into the water at 5:37pm. After maybe 10 mins in the pool I got out with Mack and got on the sofa. Once the cord went white, my husband cut it and my placenta was delivered maybe 20 mins after that.
The midwife said my placenta was maybe a teeny bit grainy so could be because of the low Papp-a? But I’m really not sure if it effected us. My boy came home at approx 7pm to meet Mack which was the cutest thing ever then my husband put him to bed.
After nearly 2 hours of skin-skin and feeding, the midwife’s took Mack off me for his weight and checks etc. He was 6lb6. I was also fine with no tears. My toddler took about 90 mins to fall asleep so at 9pm my husband finally got to come down and hold his boy After a quick pizza we were all in bed asleep at 10pm. Dreamy.
Totally blessed to have had two natural drug free births and so happy I got to birth at home this time! It was pretty hectic and crazy. The dogs barked the entire time as I roared my way through the contractions and we almost didn’t get the pool ready in time.
Grateful beyond words to be supported by the most incredible midwife, who was my main midwife for both my boys births who is honestly the best! And obviously Nate being the best husband and birthing partner I could ever dream of my boys are so lucky to call you their daddy.
We were lucky enough to do Terri’s full Hypnobirthing course with my first pregnancy and did a refresher this time around. Terri not only taught us the Hypnobirthing methodology and how to apply it throughout the stages of labour, she also taught us the science behind birthing, the hormones, contractions, birthing positions etc. I felt like learning everything I needed to know about birth, along with practical ways to work through it was extremely empowering and allowed me to make informed decisions with my birth plan. My thoughts on birth before doing Terri’s course were very much go with the flow, and my husband was absolutely petrified once we had completed the course we both had so much confidence in my natural abilities which ultimately allowed me to have the two amazing births I had!"
Investing in your antenatal preparation can be an absolute game changer! If you want to find out more about my course and about my Hypnobirthing style of teaching, then grab your free place on my Introduction to Hypnobirthing on February 27th at 7pm on Zoom. Take control, get prepared and feel ready for one of the most amazing days of your life - the day you birth your baby! Click here to book!