Theo’s Home Birth with lots of great birthing techniques

I hadn’t started thinking about a home birth until around halfway through my pregnancy and this coincided with our hypnobirthing classes, it really was a no brainer for me, home seemed like the only place I would feel calm and relaxed and have control over my environment.

My surges started on Wednesday night at about 9.00pm and I didn’t tell my partner or mum so they could relax and get a good nights sleep. They came on and off for the next twelve hours.

By 2.00pm the next day they started to ramp up so we moved up to my bedroom, I was using my breathing techniques and we had candles, essential oils and my playlist on and I was using a comb for my acupressure points. We called the midwives to come at around 9pm by which point I was getting some good relief from my tens machine and breathing.

Once the midwives arrived we moved downstairs and filled up the pool, my surges were getting stronger and more intense so I consented to an examination, I was 6cm dilated which gave me fresh encouragement we were over half way there, they monitored babies heartbeat which was strong and at about midnight I started to have gas and air and got into the pool.

I felt instant relief from the water and stayed there for a few hours. Towards the end my contractions started to slow slightly so I used nipple stimulation (which also worked for stimulating my early contractions) and they continued to come, I was breathing through the surges and imagined them moving the baby down with every exhale and the final push happened at 3.57am on Friday morning with my partner holding one hand and my mum holding the other and Theo was born in the pool, Kal (my partner) grabbed him out of the water and handed him to me and I’ve never felt such relief and a sense of achievement in my life!

I don’t think my labour could have gone as perfectly as this without all the hypnobirthing techniques we learned and I would highly recommend anyone who is pregnant and thinking of hospital or home birth to give it a go! (p.s the breathing techniques are also really useful for the post labour poo)