3rd Baby Alfie born at home just like his siblings.

Here I'm honoured to be sharing the amazing home birth of Alfie, I'm blessed to have been able to support this family all 3 times! Ellie and Josh have had all 3 babies born at home in there living room, Ellie isn't keen on hospitals and Josh doesn't see birth as a medical event. This family are super chilled and Ellie has chosen to decline interventions that's she feels don't support her or her baby.

Thank you for letting me be with on these wonderful journeys! Continuity at its best!

Alfie had been deeply engaged for a couple of weeks and I was getting a lot of pelvic pressure. 

With my due date coming up on Tuesday, I woke up on Saturday morning to find that I had lost my plug. I knew that this could either mean labour was near or nothing at all, but I had a gut feeling that Alfie was coming. It was a full moon that night! I also felt very crampy and was getting the odd tightening. Josh blitzed the house and got everything clean! 

I didn’t sleep well on Saturday night as I felt apprehensive and excited, and was really uncomfortable. On Sunday I started getting some leaking of very pale yellow fluid and I wondered whether this was my waters. I decided not to report this yet as I didn’t want to be put on a timer to go into labour. We went out for lunch as a family. While we were out the tightening's got slightly more regular and intense. When I got home I went for a nap in case things were starting. 

After we put the kids to bed, I sat on my ball and the contractions then ramped up. I was getting one every 7/8 minutes. We put on The Hangover and my husband made me a steak sandwich! I kept going on the ball and doing some pacing around the house, and the contractions steadily ramped up to about 2 in 10 by midnight. 

We called the MLU to give them a heads up and they sent out a midwife due to the potential leaking of waters. She wanted to confirm whether it was my waters leaking and said if I agreed to this, I could either have a speculum or lie down for half an hour to see if the waters pooled. I opted for the second option which we did, but it was inconclusive. She said she would go back to the hospital and to call her when contractions were 3 in 10. (Kat says- Ellies contractions never got to 3 in 10, and weren't over regular but by watching Ellie and seeing her change in breathing, eye contact, requesting gas and air, and making different movements I felt the baby would be coming and we needed to call back, if we had of waited for the 3 in 10 Ellie would have had a BBA. Trust your self not the clock.)

After midnight things started to ramp up and I was very uncomfortable. We put on the TENS machine and my husband started setting up the birth pool. 

At about 2am we called Kat who came and coached me in changing positions to help Alfie move down. I was aware of my other children being upstairs and not wanting to wake them so we decided that it would be better if they were picked up and my mum came to collect them at about 2.45am. They came in to give me a cuddle and say bye. My 2 year old was a bit disorientated and upset and my 4 year old comforted him saying ‘it’s ok, baby Alfie is just coming now!’. 

Once they had left things got more intense and I started to feel like I wanted some gas and air. Josh phoned the midwives who came out fairly quickly. As they walked in the door I shouted ‘I need gas and air!’ And she went running out to her car for it.

I started on the gas which took the edge off the contractions. I started to feel like I needed the toilet so tried to head upstairs but realised I wasn’t going to make it up there. We headed back into the living room (on shaky legs due to the gas and air!) and I got a few very intense contractions and started to feel overwhelmed. 

I suddenly felt like I needed to push, my husband sat on the sofa and I leaned onto him on all fours. He whispered some positive words in my ear which gave me a final bit of strength. I felt a huge amount of pressure and my waters burst with a pop, they were stained with meconium and I could vaguely hear the midwives discussing this behind me. It was decided that the meconium was light, so no action needed. 

I had wanted to give birth in water but the pool wasn’t up to temperature, the midwives kept boiling the kettle to top it up but it wasn’t in time as my body started pushing! After a short time of pushing, Alfie’s head started rocking back and to ready to crown. His head was born and then I felt him do his rotation as his body was born at 3.46am. The sting was slightly more intense than with my previous pool births. 

He looked really healthy and cried straight away, the midwife passed him to me and I looked at him in pure amazement as we enjoyed our first skin to skin cuddle. 

After the cord had gone white, my husband cut the cord and we all snuggled up on the sofa. I was still getting contractions for the placenta which were fairly strong. I tried regularly to push the placenta out but it didn’t seem to be coming. After a while the midwife suggested we try on the toilet so I passed Alfie to Josh for skin to skin cuddles and went upstairs. 

Unfortunately the placenta still wasn’t coming, so we discussed options. I have a huge fear of needles but I was desperate to be back cuddling my baby so I opted for the oxytocin injection. Kat supported me amazingly through this, holding my hand so Josh could be with Alfie. Shortly after the injection the placenta came out with a little help from the midwife.

She checked my perineum and I had a minor graze, and blood loss was minimal at 300ml. Alfie was weighed (7 lb 3oz) and measured, given vitamin K and had his cord tie put on.

Me, Josh and Alfie then happily snuggled up in bed for the first time together which was the most magical feeling.

This is one of my favourite parts of my "job" leaving a happy family all tucked up in bed, thank you so much for picking me, thank you for sharing another amazing home birth story.

This birth was supported by the oak team at Leighton.