Hello all,
Well, I think another homebirth thread has been started but then it died and no one really posted on it - so I am going to post my birth story here - mainly as that will mean all three of mine had their birth announcement and stories on here and that feels just right.
So, in case anyone is still interested, Kit Samuel Reed arrived on Monday 5th March, just a couple of weeks before his eldest sister's 3rd birthday. We did have our homebirth and it happened in Nairobi, Kenya, of all places! It went something like this:
Juliet (the UK midwife I mentioned in my post above, and who agreed to fly out to deliver the baby) arrived on Tuesday morning a few days before my due date, and we had a packed itinerary from the first day. She wanted to see ?real Kenyan midwifery? so I had arranged some shadowing at the Nairobi Women?s Hospital through a contact of mine. It was quiet on the ward but we did meet some post natal ladies and a special care baby in the NICU. A lovely midwife called Eunice showed us around and we saw the delivery suites and so on (but no babies being born, unfortunately). It was the 29th of February however, and I think perhaps no ladies wanted babies with a birthday every 4 years, so sensibly kept their legs crossed on the afternoon we visited.
The next day we went up to Lake Nakuru (just Juliet and I, as my husband Edward had to work) which is about 2.5 hours from Nairobi, planning to come back the next day on my due date after seeing some wildlife in a national park. Juliet had never been on safari and we got to see lions, giraffes, antelopes, baboons, flamingos, rhinos... (the list goes on) which was all wonderful and a really nice little break for me (although quite a lot of driving which wasn?t that comfortable with a 40 week bump!). We got home at about lunch time on D-Day. We then relaxed with my girls and went out for dinner, and then I asked her to do a sweep when we got back. I made Ed do the deed (he is a good sport, as I can?t imagine it was that amorous) and in the morning I woke up with niggly cramps. Did I say I love it when a plan comes together? Off we went to a tea farm up in the hills for a bit of a day in the sun and our last bit of touristy stuff done before the impending birth, and then by the time we had got home (after doing the weekly shop on the way back, I know - ridiculous) I was having very mild contractions every 10 minutes or so. So far so good. They ramped up to about every 6 or 7 minutes and were getting to the point where I had to breathe through them, but nothing major until about 10pm at which point I was howling a bit. The girls were in bed, Ed had lit a magnificent fire and the birthing room looked amazing in the candle light and with the pool starting to be filled. Then, it all started to go a bit quiet and the contractions died off, but not really enough to sleep properly. It got to 7am and the girls were up for the day and I was back to contractions every 10 minutes. Fuck. So it was not destined to be that night and all quick and easy like my second born, Connie, after all.
So the contractions continue through the day, Ed is helping watch the girls and I am sort of pottering along whilst Juliet does various checks and says ?oh, it?s going the right way, definitely, but still only 2-3cm). Pah. Rubbish I think. A re-run of Penelope?s labour, that is all I need! (4 days of which 3 were latent). Then Juliet and Ed and the girls all go swimming and I stay at home and by the time they are back, the bloody things have stopped all together! I go to bed in a huff at 8pm thinking I might as well sleep whilst I can, and Ed is starting to worry Juliet will be gone before things really get going...
Cue waking up at midnight in agony with massive contraction, which continue to ramp up in intensity until I am literally shouting as loud as I can and climbing the walls trying not to wake Ed and the girls up at the same time. They stay every 10 minutes though, so am not really thinking this is it yet, but worried that they are so strong, that I will be exhausted when they are 3 in 10. At this point I am swearing I am never having another baby again...
I get Juliet and Ed up at about 5am, Juliet examines me and I am 5cm ? woop woop! Ed fills the pool and by the time the girls get up at 7am, I am sucking on that gas like my life depends on it. But the gas immediately enables me to cope, and although they are getting more frequent, the contractions are now copable-with and the girls jump in the pool for a quick dip before school.
Off Pen goes, Teresa (our nanny) entertains Connie (as it?s Monday now and she?s back at work) and I am left to labour in the pool with my gas. Marvelous. The second midwife (Lucy, the Kenyan one, not Anna, the German one I had originally intended to use) turns up with all the kit. I go like this for another 4 hours or so and then start to think I must need to push soon, but I just don?t, so Juliet examines me and discovers a small cervical lip which she manages to push behind Kit?s head during a contraction (AGONY) and then with the next contraction his head emerges (this is all in the pool). I am blown away by the sensation (had managed to forget what it felt like) and then I start pushing with all my might to get his body out (it was all one big push from start to finish ? must go and see what ?second stage? is recorded as in my notes). Out he plopped into the water, Ed fished him out and put him on to my chest. He was bright purple and covered in vernix. It was 1:10pm. Thank the lord that is over I think.
And that was that. No tear, no bleeding. I get out of pool, deliver placenta and then go for a shower whilst Ed cuddles him. Am tucked up in bed as Connie wakes from her nap and as Pen comes home from school and they both bundle in to meet him. Perfect.
The rest of the day was just relaxing with Kit and having a bit roast dinner with Juliet (which was lovely as I couldn?t eat a thing through the whole labour so hadn?t eaten for 2 days!) and then the day after we went to Karen (a leafy part of Nairobi) to see elephants and enjoy a long lunch in the sunshine followed by swimming (not me obviously, I just lazed) at the pool and dinner out again before plopping Juliet on a plane last Wednesday morning (about 40 hours post birth). She is an amazing woman ? I can?t believe she came out and did this for me. The other midwife, Lucy, said that if I had been in hospital here, I would have ended up with a c-section because my labour started and then stopped at 3cm, and they would have put me on pitocin to speed up the contractions, and if that hadn?t have worked, I would have been sliced and diced by Sunday night. Thank the lord I pushed for a home birth, even in Nairobi.
Kit is amazing. So peaceful and such a good feeder already. A perfect addition to the Reed family. We are in love.
In case anyone wants to see, here is a pic of Kit on Day 2:
Kit
And here is a rather natty little video my husband put together using timelapse photography (let it buffer first all the way to the end before hitting play so you get the full effect).
Video
(Hope the links work)
Over and out for now.