I just wanted to let you know that we had a beautiful little girl on Friday night! She was a very HEALTHY 6.6lbs (!) and we managed to have an absolutely incredible home birth as planned despite a couple of difficulties along the way!
We both want to say a huge thank you as we categorically wouldn’t have had such a beautiful experience if it wasn’t for you and all that you taught us.
We had never considered having a home birth until the Active Birth Weekend and despite you never pushing it you allowed us to see how beneficial it can be and after our birth we couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.
The lead up to the labour was very gradual over 48hrs but actually it was so enjoyable as Danny and I acted as normal as possible.
I made him go to work on the 1st day and spent it by myself pottering before getting broken sleep through the night. The 2nd day when the surges were stronger but still totally manageable we went for a gorgeous long walk in Regents Park with me walking through my surges with the fresh air in my face and a few odd looks from passers-by!!
It was so great as it took our minds off it instead of being at home anxious. That night it continuously progressed but I was still largely managing to sleep between 10 minutes surges which no doubt helped until 4am when it really kicked in.
I then had a very intense and frustrating time as unbeknownst to me the baby’s head had got stuck so whilst I was in full labour with immense pelvis pressure, it wasn’t actually progressing as it should.
When the home birth midwife arrived late morning (I wanted to hold them off as long as possible but in hindsight should have called earlier) she instantly managed to get the baby’s head to turn by big bounces on the ball, side stepping up and down the stairs and high sidewards lunges on the stairs. 
Unfortunately however because of the hours of pelvic pressure, at this point I myself decided I couldn’t cope with the pain any longer and was pretty much begging to go to hospital.
Luckily I had a truly amazing midwife (and boyfriend etc!) who pretty much refused to let me go as she knew I could do it and it wasn’t what I really wanted.
It’s 100% at this point that if we had been in the birth centre I would have transferred to the labour ward and taken any drugs I could have done which I would have ultimately hated and probably wouldn’t have worked.
She helped me cope with very very calm slow gentle breathing to help relax my pelvis whilst others were telling me to do far deeper breathing which wasn’t working as I was so tense.
She also played mind games (in a good way!) by making me feel inside for my baby’s head which was immensely motivating.
L
o and behold when they did another examination a few hours later (after I still refused to believe it was progressing!) the baby’s head was crowning and I was told instantly to push which I did after screaming expletives to them to get me back in the pool (the other midwife wanted me to remain lying down on the bed!!!) and within 10 minutes she was out!
As I said looking back, despite the hours of feeling like I couldn’t cope, it was so so beautiful and like our little cocoon which continued straight after the birth as well.
The only thing we should have done is probably call the midwives before but as my experience at the hospital in the days leading up to it had been so awful I was so mistrusting and didn’t want them anywhere near me! Luckily we got different midwives!
Also I wouldn’t go in the pool until the last minute – several times we tried it as we thought we were almost there and both times it slowed everything down. You had warned me about this but it’s hard to know!
So THANK YOU again and I really hope to see you soon.
