Hi Maureen
Hope you are well. So sorry it has taken me so long to write our birth story for you, but hope it's better late than never. I've attached some pics as well including a recent one of Archie so you can see how he's grown!
Thanks for all your help, which made it a wonderful birth.
4 days after my due date I realised that something was happening & spent the afternoon on my birthing ball. When Steve came home from work at 6.30pm we went for a walk and then settled into the birthing room we had set up in the dining room of our house. The lights were dimmed and we had relaxing music playing. I used my birthing ball as well as keeping active, camel walking around. I leant over furniture and circled my pelvis to deal with my surges and had Steve massage my lower back. I also kept sniffing my Clary Sage soaked tissue, concentrated on my breathing and repeated my hypnobirthing affirmations.
About an hour after the midwife arrived, I got into the birthing pool. Initially I thought my surges were more intense when I entered the pool, however once I had settled in, I found that the water was soothing and helped with the surges. I settled into the position of kneeling up and leaning forwards over the side of the pool and again circled my pelvis, breathed and sniffed my way through surges. Steve was amazing throughout and kept me calm and relaxed.
I just knew when the baby was coming and told Steve that the head was there. I think the midwives thought I was too calm at that point for baby to be coming, but I trusted my body and was right. I breathed baby out and at 3.05am this gorgeous little thing floated up to the surface of the pool. Steve and I received the baby and brought it up for skin to skin contact. We were just content the 3 of us hudded together, gazing at each other and indulging in every second.
Finally, it was brought to our attention that we didn't even know what we had yet! We precariously moved baby into a position so we could see and there, we had a baby boy - Archie. We allowed the cord to fully finish pulsating before Steve cut it. Once out of the pool, Archie and I cuddled on the sofa in the living room and I breast fed him.
Steve was reluctant to have a home birth for our first child, but the more we looked into it, the happier he was with the idea and we are both so proud that we had a wonderful, drug free birth at home. The hypnobirthing helped immensely and allowed us to stay calm and in control and to trust that my body would do what it is designed for and it did, beautifully.
From Amy, Steve and Archie Evans x