My Waterbirth, Homebirth & Hypnobirth

My second birthing experience was beautiful, peaceful, gentle, ecstatic and enjoyable. But it wasn’t exactly as I had planned…

The plan was to have a waterbirth at home, in our peaceful mountain village. I had ordered and shipped in an Aquaborn birth pool from the UK. I would be using Hypnobirthing techniques for a calm and gentle birth as I did previously. I had discussed all my requirements with my amazingly positive midwife, Nurse Lowe who despite never having facilitated a waterbirth before was very experienced in birthing and exuded a calm, non-nonsense confidence. My friends Katie and Mickey were on standby to pick up the nurse and bring her to my house when the time came. I had also asked three of my friends to be in attendance at the birth – Trudy was going to look after my 15 month old girl Keeyah, Martha was going to set the ambiance with essential oils in the burner and relaxing music in the background, and Celia would record the event with photos and video. It was a perfect plan!

Trying out the pool a few weeks before the birth!

In the weeks leading up to the birth I set up a baby guessing game on the blog and watched excitedly to see what people thought the sex, weight, date and time of delivery would be. I secretly favoured all those guesses who gave me an afternoon birth and jokingly chastised Trudy for guessing my baby would be born at 4am!

Because I had been charting my cycle using Fertility Awareness Method, I knew my date of ovulation and conception. By my calculations, baby was due on October 9th. However I also knew that only 5% of baby’s are born on their due date so was open to it being out by a few days according to the will of nature and my baby.

On Friday 3rd October my sister-friends and I made a belly-cast. That night I waited for Al to come home from work to show him the marvelous creation. From this date on he would be on leave to support me in the days leading up to the birth and to be home after baby was born. We still had a long list of things we wanted to get done before baby arrived so I was glad this time had come to get on with the final stages of nesting. The first thing that needed to be done was to get a plumber to come and fix in the water heater so that we had a supply of hot water to fill the birth pool.

Belly Casting complete!

That evening I spoke with Al on the phone at 6:30pm and he told me he had done most of our shopping, was just heading to the market for our fresh produce and expected to be back within the next hour. I bathed Keeyah, got her ready for bed and expected to see him after she fell asleep. When 8 o’clock came I began wondering where he had got to, when it was 9 o’clock I was a little concerned but continued to busy myself with all my nesting chores. By 10 o’clock I was vacillating between worry and annoyance…why wasn’t he answering his phone, where was he, what was going on??? At about 10:30pm I heard a scuffling noise on the porch and opened the door to see Al with blood on his face, clothes dripping with sweat and dirt. What had happened? After assuring me that he was not hurt, my dearest explained that he had just had a car accident and the vehicle was a write-off…it was a shocking event but after the initial distress I just gave so much thanks and praise he was still alive.

Unfortunately, despite his optimistic declaration of escaping without injury, by the time Al got to bed he was aching all over. I massaged him and lay nearby as he drifted off into a restless and painful sleep. Despite being really tired I did not sleep at all that night. In the morning it was worse, he could not walk or move but insisted he stay home and not go to the hospital. With lack of sleep, and the weight of heavy pregnancy I felt exhausted at having to look after both our 15-month old and him just days before our 2nd baby arrived - this was definitely not on my birth plan.

My friends Katie, Mickey and baby Nancy came up later that day to take me to the hot sulphur springs. It would have been perfect for Al to soak his injuries but the pain he was in prevented him from even getting down the steps of house so I left him to rest while I went out with Keeyah. I knew from past experience that a soak in the hot tub could really bring on labour in these last stages so I remained cautious by just soaking my feet most of the time.

A quick soak in the hot tubs at Ti Kwen Glo Cho

On Sunday 4th October I woke up gently with a sense of profound peace, wellbeing and beauty. This special tranquility was like nothing I had ever experienced  - it was like being in a most delicious dream, floating away on blissful energy. I took quiet, deep breaths and lay there watching the sun radiating through the windows, savouring this unique moment of love and light. My sweet reverie then came abruptly to a halt as Keeyah woke up next to me wanting breakfast, Al woke up needing to be helped out of bed and I looked around the room realising that it needed a really good clean-up!

For the rest of the day I was busy with cooking and caring for my loved ones but I felt an urgency about making sure our bedroom was cleaned up with fresh sheets, tidy shelves and mopped floors. Martha kindly came up to assist me as Al still could not walk and needed much rest. Together we got the room refreshed and I was more at ease. I started feeling that the baby was coming soon but was sure that the very slight twinges I was having were just ‘practice’ braxton hicks. I certainly didn’t want anything to happen yet…we were not at all ready!

That evening I saw my neighbour, Diane as she walked home and we had a brief conversation. She had agreed to do my hair in braids before the baby came and I told her that we had better do it in the next few days because I was feeling some movement. She agreed and told me to call her if anything happened before then and we needed help. I then spoke with Katie on the phone who advised me to call the midwife to give her a little advance warning in case we did have to call her that night. Although I was adamant that my baby was not coming that soon I called her and she said she would pack her bags of supplies ready.

The rest of the evening skipped along quickly and although I was really tired I stayed up to complete some articles I was working on – there just seemed like so much to do. I saw Trudy on Skype and told her I was feeling some little movements but, I typed ‘of course it is just practice – not the real thing’. She said she could some in the morning if I needed her but maybe the baby would already be born! ‘No way’ I said laughing at the computer screen and typing, ‘it won’t happen that fast’.

Finally at 10:30pm the need for sleep got the better of me and I crashed into bed so grateful that Keeyah is an all-night sleeper. At last I was going to get some good rest. However at exactly midnight I was awoken by the first big contraction (surge) - my body and baby were telling me that we were going to birth soon! Yikes…so much for not being ready!

I woke Al and we lay for a while timing the surges…7 minutes apart and nothing strong. Together we began to quietly clear space in our room and went into the other room to blow up the birth pool with the electric pump that was quick but a little noisy. Outside a heavy storm pelted rain on the roof. During such tropical downpours our water sometimes gets dirty or even cut off so I sent up a prayer that there would be enough clean water for the pool. Oh yes the pool – we still didn’t have hot water connected so every pot we had was filled and placed on the stove to boil water.

I was still thinking that we had plenty of time so I went online to find out how long the water could stay in the pool and remain hot. However our Internet suddenly went down so I called my Mum to look it up for me. Since it was only about 5am in the UK at the time she did not answer her phone. I called Katie to give her an update but didn’t want her to get the midwife just yet as it felt too early. I walked around with surges getting stronger but not longer – still only about 30 seconds each and quite manageable. Even though they stayed very short in duration I could feel the surges heightening in intensity and once I reached a point where I could not talk through them, I called Katie again. It was just before 3am and she insisted that now was the time to get our midwife as it was at least a 45 minute journey. I agreed and asked Al to then call Nurse Lowe to tell her to get ready. As the phone was ringing I said to him ‘Tell her that I’m not sure I’m really in advanced labour yet so I hope she doesn’t mind waiting around for a few hours’. As soon as I uttered these words my waters gushed all over the floor, my baby’s head dropped down into transition stage and in a brief moment of panic I cried out and finally realised that this baby was going to be born before day break.

As soon as Al finished talking to the nurse the phone rang again. It was my Mum returning my call. All I could say was ‘Mum I can’t talk now, the baby is coming and we are by ourselves…call you later!’ My dear mother must have spent the next few hours pacing the floor wondering what was happening!

The transition phase of labour is a strong turning point and to manage the intensity of the feeling I dropped onto my hands and knees and sang loudly. Of course this woke up Keeyah who was initially dazed at the 3am wake up call but quickly adjusted to the confusing but exciting scenario. Her presence meant that Al now to carry her aswell as the boiling pots of water from the kitchen to the pool. He could still barely walk so after I crawled into the bedroom and rested comfortably on hand and knees at the foot of the bed, I called my neighbour Diane and asked her to come and help. What a blessing to have such a great neighbour, she was here within 10 minutes, carrying pails of hot water and even woke up our landlord downstairs to have him boil water for the pool too!

Amidst all the pool-filling action I chose to relax and go into my own meditation. I had read in the HypnoBirthing book that there was no need to push during labour until the baby reached crowning stage. I had watched videos of other women doing this and there really was no better time to try out the technique for myself.

Hypnobirth practice

Each surge of my body I met only with my breath. I relaxed, went within and was surprised at how quickly I was able to lose my ‘logic monkey mind’ and just go with the flow of my body. It was utterly amazing to feel this little being move further and further down the birth canal all by itself. As the baby descended slowly every few minutes, amniotic fluid would drip down and my body felt more and more expansive. I felt so privileged to be participating in the magnificently intelligent process of natural birth. I felt pressure in my thighs but there was no ‘pain’, instead ripples of pleasure pulsated through me as I got closer and closer to meeting my baby. At one point I looked at the time – it was around 3:30am. I smiled – Trudy was right I was going to have my baby at about 4am!

A car pulled up outside, the door opened and my midwife was finally here. Although I felt completely calm in my birthing process I relaxed so much more as she entered the room. I was now ready to give birth at any moment. I looked up at her, smiled and said excitedly ‘The baby is almost here!’ She wanted to examine me so after the next surge I turned over and let her confirm what my body already knew – I was fully dilated and ready. She told me that I could start to push but I felt that I wanted to breathe a bit more and continue to enjoy the process – besides, was the pool water hot enough yet?

A few more pails of hot water were poured into the tub and I got the green light to go ahead and get in. Aahhhhh….sweet, lovely, delicious! It felt so good to be in the water, even though the pool was not even halfway full it was enough to sit in and splash about. I continued in the same breathing relaxation mode for about another 10 minutes until suddenly I reached a point where every cell in my body instructed me to do something else – PUSH! So I began a push, not with effort or strain but as completely instinctual response. I reached down and felt the baby’s head bursting through into the world. In this split second my focus shifted and, even though I could have relaxed once again, I decided to continue the push with a more determined conscious effort. With that one big momentum, the entire baby emerged from my body, into the water and my hands. Nurse Lowe reached in and together we swiftly bought him to the surface to lay in my arms. What an incredible birth experience, so easy, and enjoyable that I wished it could have lasted longer to savour it! I hugged my sweet little baby and then peeked to find out that we had created a boy. ‘I knew you were a boy’ I whispered. ‘Welcome to the world’ we sang. It was 4am and Keeyah was held up at the edge of the pool to get a glimpse of her new baby brother – Amarii.

Big sister Keeyah takes a glimpse at her new baby brother.

Baby Amarii on the day he was born