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Paula Hoskin managed to have her second baby at home despite battling with her consultant and head of midwifery. Having been told that she was expecting a 'huge baby' her son only weighed a whopping 6lb 15 ounces!
This
story begins after the birth of my first son. After being induced and
bullied into pain relief my first son was born weighing 7lb 14oz. I was
definitely not in control, I went in with a birth plan, but it was ignored.
When the community midwife visited us at home she read my notes and suggested
I should have a home birth next time.
21 months later I was pregnant with my second child. I spoke to my GP when I was 5 weeks pregnant about having a home birth he said he thought that shouldn't be a problem after my first child's birth. I then saw a very young midwife at 8 weeks for my booking in appointment. She informed me that I shouldn't have got pregnant because I am overweight. Very tactful. I informed her that I was the same size as I had been in my first pregnancy.
I then saw a consultant at the hospital, she informed me I would get gestational diabetes and she wasn't very happy when I said that I wanted a home birth. This is when I realised I had a battle on my hands. By the way I didn't get diabetes.
I spoke to my husband at length about having a home birth, we read a lot of articles on the web, my husband came to a midwife appointment with me and she put his mind at rest. My next midwife appointment was with Terry an older midwife with lots of experience. She was completely on my side and could not see why a home birth would be a problem. She was fantastic.
At 32 weeks I had a scan and the baby was breech, I could see the consultant was pleased as she now had another reason to dismiss home birth. I had another scan at 36 weeks, the baby had turned and I was told it was average size. I then saw the consultant, despite the scan, she told me I was having a huge baby even though I was measuring small for dates. She informed me that my baby would get stuck (shoulder dystocia) and she wrote in my notes that I was having a home birth against medical advice.
The next week I was 37 weeks pregnant, I was really excited as I would be getting my home birth box, or so I thought. I went to my midwife appointment and unfortunately it was the same midwife I saw at 8 weeks. She saw what I had written in my notes.
When I got home after my appointment the phone rang. It was the head midwife from the midwifery hospital she informed me that I couldn't have a home birth because of my BMI and apparently I hadn't thought it through. The next day a different midwife came to the house with the home birth box (which I was not suppose to have). She took my blood pressure and it was up slightly, just what I needed another excuse.
The next day Terry came to the house, she was very sympathetic. She was not surprised my blood pressure was up after everything that was being said. Terry took my case to the head midwife and they reluctantly agreed to let me have a home birth.
At 41 weeks and 2 days I woke at 3.55am and the contractions started. They came every 3 minutes and lasted for over a minute. I woke my husband at 5am and he ran me a bath, I struggled to the bathroom. While I was in the bath my husband phoned the hospital and informed them that I was in labour this was at 5.25am. I got out of the bath and went back to the bedroom.
My husband was inflating the birthing ball. By now I was having contractions that lasted 90 seconds and I only had 30 seconds to talk to my husband about plans for our son. At this point he was fast asleep. I was feeling like things were progressing fast but there was no sign of any midwives.
At
6.38am the two midwives arrived, one of the midwives was the head who
had not wanted me to have a home birth. They checked my progress and informed
me I was already at 8cm. I said I felt like I needed to push. I was told
to listen to my body. I then felt the baby drop into the birth canal,
I informed the midwives they checked and I was spot on.
They told me to push with the next contraction, I did and my second son was born. They joked how they would have to put down that the second stage was one minute even though it was seconds. Third stage was just as quick. The baby was born at 6.56am only 18 minutes after the midwives had arrived.
They both admitted it was the easiest home birth that they had attended. Just for the record he was a whopping 6lb 15oz. Our eldest son woke up at 7.30am and was introduced to his baby brother. The next day Terry came round she was so thrilled that I had, had a perfect home birth that she danced around our lounge. We thanked her because without Terry we would not have had the most perfect birth.
Our children have a fantastic relationship and I am sure that having a home birth helped as I never left my eldest child and he accepted his brother immediately. My conclusion is that you have to listen to your body and trust experienced community midwives as the consultants don't always know best.
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