My positive home birth story

Hey beauties, I think it’s about time that I wrote my positive home birth story, considering that it’s been 3 months since my little pigly was born.

we set up a birth pool and led candles in my living room.

So it has been quite a whirlwind couple of months to be honest and I think I’m still a little bit in shock that I am now a mother of two and that my little Nami is here. I feel so grateful to have gone through this journey and everything that culminated to Namiko coming into this world happened exactly as I wanted it to, albeit there were a few bumps along the road.

Starting over!

I honestly couldn’t be more grateful for all the love and support I received throughout my pregnancy. After having had a traumatic experience giving birth to Ty 8 years ago, I knew I wanted the second time to be different.

As soon as we found out I was pregnant I went about doing some research on how I could avoid having a medicated birth. I started reading more about Doulas and some people recommended I look into hypnobirthing.

Soon after that I stumbled onto The Positive Birth company, bought their digital course and literally had my mind blown.

Till I started going through their digital course, I literally had no idea that I could have a peaceful unmedicated birth. Listening to Siobhan gave me the information and the courage I needed to request a home birth. It was easier than I imagined, all my antenatal visits were at home and when I went into labour I had 2 midwives looking after me (one for me and one for the baby).

False labour?

So around 38 weeks actually when I was exactly 38 weeks pregnant, I thought I was in labor at least I wasn’t and then I wasn’t. I know this sounds weird but literally I started getting contractions started getting stronger I called my midwife call my Doula and called my partner.

It was pretty much all systems go as I was having surges all day and then at some point late afternoon around 5 PM everything just stopped. I mean seriously???

So I was a little bit disappointed to say the least. I thought I was going to be holding my baby soon but then I guess not.

In hindsight it was probably for the best. I say it happened for the best because I literally got bogged down with a sinus infection that was really bad, I couldn’t breathe at all as my nose and ears were blocked, my eyes were stinging and I had a fever.

Also just to make matters worse, on top of that I had a bladder infection so I had to be on a double dose of antibiotics for a week.

Will it be a positive home birth?

So literally on the week that I finished my course of antibiotics which was like a Sunday evening, that same morning on the Monday around 4:30 AM I woke up and I was feeling tightenings in my stomach. I went to the bathroom and I noticed that I had lost my mucous plug.

For those of you who don’t know what that is, a mucous plug pretty much seals the cervix and prevents any bacteria entering the uterus.

I sat on the toilet and I heard a huge plonk, so I got up and I looked to see what that was, that’s when i knew I had lost my mucous plug.

I remember going back to bed and telling Byron that I think this little man is coming today. Since we had the false alarm a week before I think he kind of didn’t believe me and to be honest I didn’t really think it was actually happening till way later that day.

Everyone sort of didn’t really bother or rush to my side. I pretty much told B to go to work, (he doesn’t work far from home) so if anything happened or the surges got stronger I’d call him. I also called my Mum and Jess (my doula) just to have them on standby should anything progress, but a part of me thought it was probably a false alarm.

So pretty much everyone was chilled and very laid-back at this point. I was getting surges throughout the day about 20 minutes apart and they were intense but they weren’t unbearable. I constantly needed to stop and catch my breath every time I got a surge which was always super weird to me as they’re be this intense 45 seconds of pain then I’d carry on with my day as usual.

It’s go time!

So it wasn’t until that evening that my surges started to kind of get closer together. At around 8 PM I was having them every 10 minutes and they were getting more and more intense. We called the homebirth midwife team to let them know and they informed us to call them when I was having contractions every 3 minutes. I had the midwife telling me to make sure was drinking a lot of water, staying hydrated and having something to eat. She also made me chuckle a little when she told me to try and take a nap if I can which to me was absolutely ridiculous because, ummm duh!!! (Kinda in a lot of pain over here). I’m like sleep I am not sleeping to that are you kidding me.

Around 10 PM things really started to ramp up, my surges were about seven minutes apart and they were so intense I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I moved myself into my bedroom turned off all the lights, I had my birth ball on the bed and was literally rocking myself back-and-forth just trying to breathe through the surges whilst listening to my Hypnobirthing tracks.

I was using this app called Contractions timer to just time my contractions and see if they were getting any closer together.

And at around 11:30 pm I started having them every five minutes and they were getting more and more intense. I could barely breathe with each one. At this point I told Byron that it was probably time to tell Jess (doula) to come round. Of course it was about 11 pm my darling partner decides to just send text messages. Wait what? I’m in established labour here, in a lot of pain and waiting to deliver this baby and you send a text message?

I remember just being really frustrated with him and telling him ‘you better pick up that phone and make these calls before we have an emergency of a different kind right now’, as in me murdering him with my bare hands.

Phone calls were made to doula, midwives and phlebotomists, phew ok now into business!

Who wants pumpkin pie anyway?

Jess got here pretty fast, but at that point I just wanted to be alone in the bedroom. She checked on me intermittently then her and Byron got busy blowing up the pool and setting up candles etc. I could also smell baking, but then I thought maybe I was just imagining things. Who could possibly be baking at a time like this? Turns out B thought it was the perfect time to make pumpkin pie. He was so proud of his creation and wanted to show it to me, bless him. He totally forgot about the bottom of the tray coming off and the entire pie ended up on our living room floor.

So while all this is happening I am still in my bedroom still using the up breathing techniques. Thank god for the positive birth company’s, digital pack.

Wow, ok so I think I’m waffling on now. Are you still reading? Still with me? Ok, good! The more I write, the more I realise that this is going to be one of those long blog posts. It may be long but I hope it’s at least entertaining just a little bit;-).

It was around 1am now and these surges were about 5 minutes apart now. I’m still slumped over my birth ball trying to breathe through them. About 2 hours later, Jess was a little concerned that I wasn’t in an active labour position as the surges had stalled at 5 minutes. She suggested I take a hot shower and boy did that ramp things up big time. As soon as I got out of the shower, the surges were coming fast and strong. Another call to the midwives was in order as the surges were now coming every 3 minutes.

The midwives arrived at 5:30am and they asked if they could do an internal exam. I had put on my birth plan that I would agree to only one internal examination. I find them very obtrusive and distracting so didn’t want a lot of them. To say I was shocked when Annie, my midwife told me I was already 8cm dilated is an understatement. There’s a part of me that still didn’t quite believe that I was in active labour. Looks like I would be meeting my baby soon.

At this point I was allowed to finally get in the pool and get some much needed gas and air. The gas and air definitely took the edge off a little bit and I remember Annie (midwife) telling me to take it easy and only breathe the gas when I was having a surge.

The amount of pain I was feeling at this point is indescribable in my opinion. There were some weird almost animalistic sounds coming out of my mouth. Definitely no way I could control it if I wanted to.

I felt a shift in my body and had a bit of wobble. I started crying and saying that I couldn’t do it. I’m told this usually happens right before the baby is about to come. I’m guessing that’s a sign that its time to push.

Annie checked the baby’s heartbeat and it seemed out little man was in distress as his heart rate was accelerated , so she had me get out of the pool.

At this point it looked like my plan of giving birth in the pool wasn’t going to happen, but I didn’t care to be honest. I just wanted my baby out safely. It was still going to be a positive home birth as long as I stayed calm.

The party moved over to the couch and this was the point I felt my body start to push. So obviously this ain’t my first rodeo, I’ve done this childbirth shindig before. Check out exhibit one below.

Here’s one I made earlier;-) my 9yr old son

The first time I gave birth I had ALL the drugs I could get. I kid you not in this one. I had the injection (can’t remember what it’s called), the gas + air and finally I begged for an epidural and got it. I was numb I felt nothing when it was time to push Ty out so I literally just followed instructions and pushed when I was told.

This time round things were a little different. I felt it all, boy did I feel it all, ha!

Anyway, as I was saying before I went off on another tangent, since I had an epidural first time round, I had no idea what to expect with the natural birth.

shit got REAL!

I didn’t know that pushing the baby out is kind of like a teasing dance. You push when you’re having a surge, baby travels down the birth canal a little bit but when you stop pushing he goes back again.

So there I was, crying my eyes out and thinking that I was obviously failing because this baby kept moving back after every push.

“He doesn’t want to come out, why doesn’t he want to come out?”, I cried. Thinking back on it now I have to laugh at it all.

Eighteen minutes of pushing and finally our little angel made his entrance in a somewhat dramatic way. Turns out my waters never broke and the little swimmer was born encaul (this means he was still in his sack). A little snip of the waters and I was holding my son and overwhelmed with emotion.

Holding Nami for the 1st time!

Wave of emotion, I actually did it!

welcome to the world Namiko

Skin on skin with Daddy

I couldn’t stop whispering to myself, I did it! Omg I did it! He’s here and he’s perfect. All the pain, the sweat and tears brought me to this moment. When I looked at my boy I knew if I had to, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Namiko Thando Stephen-Knight was born at 9:22am on a Tuesday morning. It’s been 14 weeks since his arrival and life has certainly been different but it’s been full of love and so much joy.

3 months of absolute joy

so peaceful

That’s about it folks! That is my positive home birth story and I hope you enjoyed reading it. If there’s one thing I would definitely recommend to everyone no matter what kind of birth you’re looking to have, it’s hypnobirthing. It literally changed my entire perspective on giving birth and I highly recommend The positive birth company. If you’re considering having a home birth but are not sure, I’d say definitely look into it, but it’s not as scary as it seems.

I’m going to do another post on things I wish I had done differently and some more of my recommendations.

Until then, if you enjoyed reading this post please do consider sharing it with your friends.

Also leave me a comment below and share your thoughts with me. Would you have a home birth, or are you totally against it? Let’s keep the conversation going below.

Till next time, love the life you’re living!

Amanda xoxo

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Amanda Millie

I am addicted to living up to the best version of me i possibly can. Perfectly imperfect and biohacking my way to long healthier and longer so I can be a present mama for my kids and myself.

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