Baby Choice Birth - Unintentional Homebirth
I had left groin pain that started on and off on Monday the 20th of July. It was really low in my groin, I thought I had pulled a muscle or something or your head was just sitting low. On Tuesday the 21st of July I still had groin pain, but nothing regular. I took some Panadol and had a rest and the pain went away. On the morning of Wednesday 22 nd of July, I still had groin pain when I woke up. I got myself out of bed at about 8am – and found I had passed my mucous plug; I texted your dad to tell him that we might be having a baby soon! I went off to my obstetrician appointment with Dr Megan DiQuinzio at 10:45am, I told her about my ‘show’ (mucous plug) and about the groin pain – she sent me upstairs to have some CTG monitoring and told me she thinks I will go into labour the next day (Thursday) or the following day (Friday). On my way up to the monitoring, I made another appointment to see her for the following week – just in case I hadn’t gone into labour. The CTG monitoring showed you had a strong heartbeat, but I wasn’t having any real strong contractions, so it looked like you weren’t ready to come out yet! I got home around 1pm and the pain in my groin had gone away, I decided I would do some more Lego while your sister, Poppy slept. (I bought the Lego to do on my maternity leave before you arrived!)
At about 3pm I took some Panadol and went to have a lie down as the pain in my groin had come back. I managed to get about 10 minutes sleep as the pain was worse than before. At about 4:30pm the pain got worse, I timed how long each pain went for (about 8 seconds) and there was no regular time between them, I thought they must be Braxton Hicks contractions and still didn’t think I was actually in labour. Somewhere between 4pm and 5pm I started to feel nauseous as I paced around our bedroom and threw up in the rubbish bin. At 5pm, something changed, and the pain shot up into my back for one contraction. I tried to kneel on the floor, but that was uncomfortable too. Again, I checked how long the pain was lasting, it was about 40seconds and that’s all I counted – I didn’t check if the pains were regular or how far apart they were. I still did not believe this was labour as the pain was mostly in my lower groin. I also wanted to make sure your sister got to bed without having to see how much pain I was in.
By 6:15pm – bath time for Poppy, I could no longer sit down. I messaged your dad at 6:34pm ‘I think I want to go. I can’t’ (I had forgotten this is a classic sign that your baby will be born soon). He wrote back to me at 6:35pm ‘okay. So what do we do’. To that message I simply wrote back ‘I can’t’. He came into the room and I asked him to call the hospital. He tried the hospital multiple times, but the phone line was engaged, so I grabbed his phone and called the hospital switchboard asking to be put through to the birth suite. I told them I felt like pushing and the midwife on the phone told me I had better come in then.
I walked into our bathroom to try and calm myself down and tell myself that I didn’t want to push…also felt like I needed to use the toilet, I reminded myself not to go because I thought I don’t want to have a baby on the toilet! At the same time your dad called your Pop to come over and look after Poppy. He quickly put Poppy in the bath. I put my hand down to feel if I could feel a head – it felt like a bulge, like your head was coming. I couldn’t walk too well and ended up half on the bed, half on the floor. I was trying to call out to your dad but wasn’t able to get the words out very loud and the door was shut – ‘Dean, call an ambulance’. I then heard him run upstairs to get his phone. He came running into the bedroom trying to connect to 000. He got through to 000 and took a few seconds to connect to the ambulance service. The lady on the other end of the phone asked if I was conscious and breathing, dad said yes.I kept saying to your dad ‘It’s coming, its coming!’. The lady on the phone told dad to take off my pants and see if he could see a head, I still had my hand there. He looked and said ‘No’ she also told him to place his hand where mine was to apply a bit of pressure. He tried to lay me on the floor – but I thought I already was laying down. Turns out I was half on the floor, half on the bed (I had a lovely bruise from the corner of the bed a day later!).
I remember seeing your sister standing at the door with her nappy only half done up crying and asking for mum cuddles and then dad cuddles – she was so scared. The poor thing was crying and so upset at watching what was happening. Dad said he better open the door for the ambulance and the lady on the phone told him ‘No, get some towels and something warm.’ He ran off again (I think he opened the door? And grabbed all the towels we owned!). The lady on the phone asked again if there was a head and dad said no, but I said YES!! Dad looked again and said yes. Dad asked how long until the ambulance arrives and said ‘I can’t do this!’. The lady on the phone told dad he was going to deliver the baby and that he must catch you because you are going to be slippery. Then you were out and crying! I never really felt like I pushed at all – and never felt my waters break! Time of birth – 19:00 – according to the 000 lady!
She told dad to wrap you up in towels and keep you warm on my chest. She then asked if you were a boy or a girl – dad looked and proudly said boy! I didn’t believe him and asked him again. Your pop walked in about 2 minutes after you were born to look after Poppy and the ambulance arrived 5 minutes after that (19:07). The ambulance officer James checked us both over and got a little beanie for you to keep your head warm. We had to keep the placenta and umbilical cord attached until we got to the hospital. Mum had to keep reminding people to go slow when getting up onto the stretcher that we were still attached via the umbilical cord!
We went via ambulance to St Vincent’s Private Hospital – I got to keep you in my arms the whole time! You were great in the ambulance, wide eyed and taking it all in and your oxygen saturations were 98%. We arrived at the hospital at 20:00 – an hour after you were born. The midwives admitted us and clamped the cord and mum delivered the placenta and was lucky enough to cut the cord. Megan, the obstetrician walked in about 9pm – shocked that you had arrived at home and only hours after she had seen mum!
You are a perfectly healthy beautiful baby boy! xx
