Georgina felt empowered to speak up during her home birth.

I got in the birthing pool to have Benjamin. The relief from the water was instantaneous. It also had the added benefit of helping me to feel what was happening down there more than I remember with my first 2.

When it came to the birthing stage I was trying to concentrate on humming through the contractions, not forcibly pushing too much and only working with the contractions. Not having someone that has been on the course with me really showed here as I think the prompting would be a huge help. At one point the midwife said ‘that’s right Georgina, breathe that baby down’ and just that small prompt helped to focus me. The contractions were coming fast and I could feel that Benjamin was descending. Just before he crowned the midwife started saying that I needed to push. I remember this throwing me a little and I started to actively push even when I felt the contractions wearing off. The water was still very comforting at this stage and between that, the gas and air and having my Mum holding one hand and my husband holding the other, his head was born. This was when the tone changed a bit. The midwife was more vocal now and I could feel Benjamin ‘kicking’ or push off with his feet. The midwife then said ‘if he’s not born with the next push or two, I’m going to have to ask you to come out’. I did push with the next contraction or 2, I don’t remember how many but I could feel Benjamin pushing with his feet and knew that didn’t feel right. With his head born my mum, husband and the second midwife helped me get out of the pool and onto the bed. The midwife had started to pull Benjamin as he’d gotten stuck. That may have had something to do with his size or the fact that he didn’t turn when his head was born. Eventually he was born and placed on me.

He was a bit floppy and the pale. The next few minutes is a blur but they started to rub him vigorously to stimulate his breathing. That wasn’t really working, he was making slight shallow gasps. She told me she was going to have to cut the cord. Even through the slightly chaotic nature of the delivery I remember ‘Why?’. All I could manage to say to her was ‘Can we not?’ But in my head I was thinking, no, you can’t take him anywhere now and surely he’s better off attached and getting a level of support from the placenta still than not. He was laid down in the bed and the midwife instructed another to call 999. She then got her kit out to try and help him breathe. The midwife calling 999 came back and said they weren’t picking up so the lead midwife told her to hang up and call again. She then attempted to get an open airway into Benjamin’s mouth and give him a couple of breaths with the bag, valve and mask. He didn’t like the airway and spat it out. He then managed to take a half decent breath, then a better one and then proceeded to shout very loudly for the next hour to let us know he didn’t appreciate the rough welcome! The paramedics arrived and were very pleased to hear the shouting. I ended up having the injection as the placenta wasn’t forthcoming. I had lost all sense of time at this point and was so relieved to have a healthy baby I was happy to agree to the injection. Once he’d had a good shout Benjamin was quite tired and didn’t really seem keen to feed. The midwives tried to get me to express some colostrum but there wasn’t really a lot coming out. They said that they needed to see him feeding before they could leave. I had formula as a back up just in case and this was taken out of the cupboard, just in case. They were keen that I give him some but I had no intention of giving up just yet. He eventually made a bit of a halfhearted attempt at feeding, due to being shattered from the birth as far as I can tell. This was enough for them to sign him off. He’s been a champion feeder ever since. My husband said after the birth that he thinks the decision to delay the cord cutting was the right one as he looked at the oxygen stats monitor they had on Benjamin and it stayed high despite him looking rather purple at one stage.I am genuinely thankful for the confidence that the course gave me to challenge what I was hearing, even when the stakes were high. Even though this is baby number 3, without the course I’m not sure I would have spoken up. Thank you, thank you, thank you.