Esthers Second Birth: That took forever (42+2 weeks), until it didn't!

This was my second baby, my first was a lovely birth in a freestanding midwifery led unit in london so this time I’d set my heart on homebirth in Norwich. The Juniper team at NNUH have a great reputation and from my first appointment I felt really supported and knew that homebirth felt right for me. The main driver for this was because my first birth was pretty fast and the worst bit for me was the taxi ride to the birth unit, so I wanted to avoid travelling in labour and risking a roadside birth!

I was really nervous about the process if something goes wrong, but at my home visit the midwife reassured me it would all be fine. She also told me that the nnuh team support homebirth a beyond 42 weeks which I know lots of nhs trusts aren’t keen on. 

But in reality I’d not ever really considered I might actually go beyond 42 weeks, because my first was born at 40+3, everyone told me my second would come early and I let myself get really caught up in that narrative!

So it was quite a shock when I got to 41 weeks and there was still no baby, I was getting constant messages from family and friends and everyone was asking me what the plan was. I was surprised about how readily people assume you will be induced, or that you don’t have any options after 42 weeks. Like suddenly you have no autonomy or ability to make decisions for yourself.

On my 40 week home visit I had a different midwife and she said that my bump measurement hadn’t increased since 38 weeks and offered me a growth scan but I declined. I started to have a wobble thinking maybe something is wrong and I should have had the scan, but in the end I’m glad I didn’t because by 41 weeks my growth was normal again.

At 42 weeks one of the homebirth team came to talk through a personal plan for me to go “post-term”, she had to read through a script which mentioned various studies and recommendations for induction but understood that I’d done my own reading and felt strongly that I didn’t want to accept induction as long as my baby was healthy. She was supportive and I found that reassuring. 

The nexts day I had a phone call from the hospital consultant who also had the same information to share with me, he was also not too pushy but I just got off the call as quickly as possible because all these chats were starting to make me feel anxious. In the end I agreed that I’d go in for a scan to check the placenta and cord at 42+4, and I accepted ctg monitoring for 42+2. 

Whilst it wasn’t the nicest chat the consultant accepted really quickly that I’d made a plan with the homebirth team and that they’d already discussed risks with me. I feel really grateful for the homebirth team here because it sounds like so many women don’t have this experience.

On the night I was 42+1 I got really emotional- I was frustrated and anxious, and so ready to meet baby boy (and not wanting to go to hospital for the continuous monitoring the next day!) So I tried to get my oxytocin going, I harvested colostrum and had a small glass of wine (as directed by my midwife 😂) I woke up at 4am with contractions - I left my husband sleeping next to me and moved around the room, noticing they were about 10 minutes apart. He woke up at 6am and we called the homebirth team to let them know I’d be having the baby today. The on-call midwife came round to see me at 7 which was so lovely because she didn’t have to! My sister in law came to pick up my 4 year old at 8am and the midwife left to change shift, reassuring me that the next midwife on shift would be in touch and to call back straight away if things ramped up.

My first baby was only 8 hours from first contraction to birth so I thought my second might be similar (or faster) but the rest of the day played out very differently- a lesson that nothing in childbirth is ever predictable 😂

We had a lovely day at home, watching films, eating nice food and hanging out. But by 5pm I was so anxious- my contractions were still only 1 every 10 minutes. I felt well rested and hypnobirthing breathing techniques were making it manageable but I was expecting to be holding my baby by then!

I decided to get proactive, I put on a hypnobirthing affirmations video (the one I listened to whilst birthing my first), got on the birth ball, asked my husband to give me finger tip massage on my back whilst I bounced and I fully got into the zone mentally. 

By 6:30pm my contractions were 1 every 6 minutes and they were SO intense I had to get into the pool and I really wanted gas and air so my husband called the midwives- it took ages to get through triage and we didn’t get a call back until 7:15. By then I was in full established labour but the midwife was at another homebirth so said she would take 25 minutes to get to us.

As soon as she hung up the phone my waters popped and I had the most intense urge to push.

I really wanted to birth on all fours but when I tried to move into that position it felt awful so I stayed sitting with my back against the side of the pool holding onto the handles. I put my hand inside myself and could feel my babies head in my birth canal, so I told my husband he was coming. He then tried calling back the triage but we got stuck on hold!

Only at that point did we remember our lovely neighbour friend is a midwife - so we called her… pretty much as she answered I birthed his head whilst she spoke to my husband and calmed him down. All I could focus on was bringing my baby out safely, a couple more pushes and I caught his body in the water, I lifted him to my chest and he cried straight away which was a huge relief!! My husband put a towel around us (directed by our neighbour!) and I tried to keep my baby warm… I kept asking what the time was but my husband was too stressed out trying to get hold of the midwives to answer me 😅

He didn’t need to worry though because within 5 minutes the midwives arrived- at the same time as my neighbour, who wanted to make sure we were all ok. I waited and birthed the placenta with baby still attached then we got out onto the sofa. We had the most wonderful golden hour skin to skin with him left on the cord whilst the midwives and my husband tidied up and wrote up notes. I felt really relaxed and supported, even whilst dealing with the horrific afterbirth pains! I finally got to have my gas and air when they checked me over - I was so sore I felt sure I’d need stitches but by some miracle I was fine.

Our midwife got a call saying another homebirth was about to happen, and both the delivery ward and mlbu were full - she didn’t want to leave us but I told her to go so they didn’t have another BBA on their hands 😂 she came back at 4am to check on us and help with feeding which I was so grateful for, and she kept me company and helped me harvest colostrum and establish breastfeeding whilst my husband got some sleep. 

It was just so peaceful and relaxing being in our home with our beautiful new baby, and I was lovely to have support coming to my door - so I didn’t have to worry about driving anywhere or packing any bags. Our son came back the next afternoon and it was just a beautiful moment to all be together in our living room now an extended family of four 🥰