Birth Story - Joena, Jason and Jasmine

Our baby girl was born mid-August and my memory of the labour and birth is an overall feeling of having been relaxed and calm. The story really begins five years ago after our first child was born because I took a long time to get over the experience and vowed to have the next baby ‘under a bush down the end of the garden'! It was only recently that I realised that this was actually a metaphor for having privacy and seclusion, rather than really needing a rather large bush to fit under!

So, in an attempt to achieve that privacy and respect for the process of natural labour and birth, we sought independent midwives who could also support us in having our baby at home, as we had heard many cases of friends being discouraged/refused home-births with the NHS service in the area.

As soon as I spoke to Joanne on the phone, I knew we were on the same wavelength; especially as she knows about Ina May's ‘sphincter law'! Joanne and Katie came for an initial chat and we had every confidence that they would support us in being as hands-off as possible with this labour and birth.

So, when I was in labour and felt it was time to call them as it would be an hour's journey to get here, I asked Jason to phone. I'd had mild ‘crampings' all Thursday morning which were regular and frequent, but they stopped as soon as I told Jason I was having them! So I decided not to mention it again until I was sure there was ‘no going back'. I had surges all day on the Saturday; manageable and not particularly uncomfortable – so I made a ‘birth day' cake, knowing that our next baby was going to arrive soon.

I went to bed to get some sleep and told baby that I'd be really happy to meet her that night. At 4 a.m. I awoke feeling stronger surges, tried to relax with the hypnobirthing but couldn't go back to sleep so woke Jason to let him know it was ‘the real thing'. I tried to relax with him cuddling me but I needed to move about so got up.

I moved into the spare room with Jason, thinking that we could leave Jacob, our nearly five-year old son sleeping, but he woke up and came to join us! After a while I felt I needed to let Joanne and Katie know so they could set off on the hour journey to reach us.

By the time they arrived, I was in the dark in the bedroom, listening to the hypnobirthing and relaxing in a corner where I could move around or be sitting down on the floor. I found the surges almost too strong if I stood, so alternated between being upright and being on the floor.

Jason popped in to see me from time to time and before I knew it, several hours had passed! Although I was still relaxed and managing the surges with the breathing, I was getting fed up that nothing much seemed to be changing and I was getting impatient to push!

Joanne came to see me and I was momentarily overwhelmed with emotion – probably a mixture of relief to know she was there, plus excitement and apprehension to know that I was going to be giving birth fairly soon, or so I hoped! She later suggested I wander about and have a change of scene to take my mind off waiting for the urge to push!

I took a bath and needed Jason to support me for the surges, then came down to the kitchen and made everyone a drink! The surges seemed to get stronger and closer and I was feeling the need to push whilst hanging on to Jason or leaning on the worktops for support. Once the waters broke it wasn't long before baby's head was coming out and I reached down and exclaimed “I can feel the ears!”

It seemed as though Joanne was pulling on the baby or something, but it was actually baby wriggling to try and turn to come out. She suggested I changed position to help baby out and then passed the baby to me, which I cuddled against my bare belly whilst grinning with delight!

We were all thrilled to have a healthy baby girl and she latched on and started breastfeeding like there was no tomorrow! We eventually made our way upstairs, delivering the placenta on the way, still attached to Jasmine as we were considering a ‘Lotus birth' and wanted to leave the cord uncut for as long as possible.

So Jasmine and I snuggled up in bed and stayed there for two days making the most of having breakfast, lunch and dinner in bed! As a family, we managed to have two more days together before having visitors and gradually I began to do more and more at home before being ready to go out.

This ‘babymoon' period has enabled us to settle in as a new family of four, get breastfeeding well established and get to know Jasmine and her communication.