(Laura and Gary had planned a homebirth. Baby had turned from being breech, so all looked set for them….)

I woke up early Monday morning around 2:30am thinking my waters had broken – I had a little trickle. I then started with mild period cramps. When Gary’s alarm went off for work, I told him I had a feeling she’s coming today!

I spent the morning bouncing on my birth ball and contacted the midwife to let her know I thought my waters had broken. The midwife came out to check my waters around 11am (we were planning a home birth). By this point I was having surges but very comfortable on the birth ball and concentrating on my breathing.

The midwife had a feel of my belly and was concerned baby was breech and phoned Calderdale hospital to get me in for a scan at 12 (baby had previously been breech but had turned after an ECV). By the time we got to the scan, I was having more intense surges. Luckily, the scan showed baby wasn’t breech.  A midwife examined me and I was 6cm, so I decided to stay at the hospital.  

Gary was allowed to come in at this point. We had a birthing pool in our room so once I got in there I managed to start relaxing and concentrating on my breathing again. The midwife was amazing and had read my notes – she turned the lights down and made the room as calming as possible. She just left me with the support of Gary to help me through the surges.

Our baby girl was born in the water at 07:07pm.  We were we at home with our beautiful baby girl by dinner time the following day! Our birth didn’t go to plan with the home birth but I still had a amazing experience. I had a slight complication with my placenta coming out so it actually worked out ok in the end because we would have had to come into hospital for that anyway. 

Rebecca’s classes really helped us both. I honestly think if we hadn’t have done them our experience would have been completely different. As a first time mum, it really helped me prepare for what was going to happen so nothing came as a shock. And the breathing techniques are amazing! I did start having a panic close to the end and stopped with the breathing. Gary reminded me about my breathing and helped get me back in the zone – I started to feel more comfortable again then. 

Thank you again.

Laura, Gary and Bonnie xxx