Caroline's home birth: post-dates birth
One of the biggest issues that many women meet in the build up to birthing their baby is that of post-dates birth. The idea of risk in birth should a women carry her baby for longer than 40 weeks. There are many resources that you can read about post-term birth and I always highly recommend that women fully understand the implications surrounding induction of labour. Using your hypnobirthing tools to carefully consider what is best for you can really help you to make the right decisions for both you and your baby.
Over to Caroline…
The last days of pregnancy were very challenging as we faced a lot of judgement from the hospital (not from our midwife though) and no one seemed to think it was a good idea to trust that I was able to listen to my body. Reading "Give Birth Like a Feminist" and also the book by Sara Wickham (What’s Right For Me) that I got at your course really helped me, but this being my first baby, I still found it disheartening and had a moment of doubting myself. But we got there in the end and we're all super healthy!
Our son Phoenix was born at home the week before Christmas. As preparation for the birth, I did a hypnobirthing class and one free antenatal class, but we opted to not do all the antenatal classes that everyone seems to do. We wanted a home birth and felt that the hypnobirthing would be the most useful for us. I also did pregnancy yoga and read a small number of books
My pregnancy was very straightforward and easy right until the end, when we reached and went over our due date. We had an issue with our due date as given by the hospital however, as I tracked my fertility and ovulation and therefore had all my dates. According to the hospital I was one week more pregnant than I thought I was. This never mattered, until we were ‘over due’. Then a week makes a world of difference! We wanted to stick with our own due date, not with the hospital due date. Our midwife was super supportive and I was well and the baby was well, so she fully supported us. But the hospital started to get very stern with me, saying my choice to decline induction was statistically not a good option and that I was putting my baby at risk and one person even made me cry on the phone. As the days went on I found it harder and harder to stay positive, as all I faced was disapproving looks (at this point I had to be in touch with the hospital regularly). At the same time I really felt like I was close to birth and everything felt well.
I had two sweeps at home and on a Monday, after my second sweep, when I was roughly 41 weeks, but one day away from being 42 weeks according to the hospital, I had to go to the hospital to see a doctor to sign off on a plan of action. She asked me whether I was ‘okay’ with the risk of stillbirth rising exponentially after 42 weeks. I thought this was a horrible way of phrasing this question, as it makes me appear like I am stubbornly taking risks. But I said I understood the risk, and this was largely down to me reading about the difference between absolute and relative risk. They always make it sound so dramatic, even though the chance of being in a traffic accident is still higher than having a stillbirth! After the chat with the doctor I had to lie on the monitor for a bit to monitor the baby.
Funny as life is, I had my first noticeable surge when hooked up on the monitor! I felt excited and thought the whole situation was absolutely hilarious. This was around 6 pm and we walked home from the hospital afterwards. I could feel a few surges after this throughout the evening, but nothing major. Around midnight however things started happening and by 1 am I was on my hands and knees in the guest room with surges 8 minutes apart. We phoned the midwife around 3 am when I had three in a ten-minute window. We kept going at home and our midwife arrived at 6. At some point in the morning my boyfriend had set up the pool. Until then I was with the midwife and was mostly leaning over or on hands and knees around the flat. It was lovely to get in the pool, where I stayed on hands and knees. The moments in between surges are absolute bliss and I would quickly have a sip of my drink or have a bite of a snack. I listened to a playlist all throughout and had lavender oil in the diffuser.
Because labour had started before I had fallen asleep, I got very tired at some point mid morning and my water hadn’t broken yet. My midwife only did a vaginal examination twice, as I didn’t want any unnecessary ones, and I had asked not to know the result, because I didn’t think that would help me. The second midwife arrived around noon and I had some gas at this point because I was struggling with exhaustion and the surges felt a bit overwhelming at this stage. I remember thinking at that point that maybe an intervention wouldn’t be the end of the world!
My waters broke and at some point, the midwives had to get me out of the pool because I had some bleeding. I struggled to not push at this point as all my body wanted to do was push. It turned out the baby’s head had already started to come but there was still some cervix around the head. So I wanted to push but the tiny bit of cervix was causing the bleeding. The midwives discussed, it turns out they had never seen this in their careers, and decided to see if they could push the cervix back. They succeeded and Phoenix was born in our bed at 3 pm in the afternoon. It turns out he was a very big boy and this probably caused the complication. We all thought for a moment we had to transfer to hospital, so I’m so happy we managed in the end. Phoenix was calm as a cucumber the entire birth, and even when he was born he didn’t make a sound but was just very content and very healthy.
Looking at the placenta, the midwives said it didn’t look like a 42-week old placenta at all. I’m so happy I decided to follow my gut feeling and upheld our wishes, even when I found it so challenging towards the end.
Oh, and the doctor who I had seen hours before my first surge? She emailed my home birth team and said she had strongly discouraged me from following through with my plan. The home birth team leader smugly emailed back that I had gone into labour naturally and peacefully at home that same night.
Want to learn hypnobirthing with us? Don’t forget that we have a full Online Antenatal Hypnobirthing Class that you can follow in your own time anywhere around the world. It is only £39/$49.
The Online Hypnobirthing Course
We also teach antenatal hypnobirthing classes in London in person with our One Day Group Hypnobirthing Class.
In-person Antental Hypnobirthing Group Class
If you’d rather prepare for your labour and birth solo with Melanie you can do so in the privacy of your own home in person if you live in London or via the Zoom platform wherever you are around the globe.
Private Antenatal Hypnobirthing Classes