Katie’s Birth Story

I woke up about midnight with some cramping which then became more like contractions every 10-15 minutes, so around 3.30am I called the Horton and we were told all community midwives were unavailable!

So until shift change at 7.30am we wouldn’t be able to have a home birth OR go into the midwife unit, but would have to go to JR.

I was determined to hold on till 7.30am!

By 4.30am I was struggling to ignore contractions every 3 minutes. I still felt the pain was manageable but we tried calling the Horton again and there was no answer.

At about 5.00am I realised I felt the urge to push so quickly went to get changed and began panicking about a 45 minute drive to JR.

While I got changed, my partner tried the Horton one more time and was told another midwife would be able to get there for 5.30am so we bundled us all in the car did the 5 minute drive down the road to the Horton.

We went straight into the birth room which was lovely and dark and calming where a midwife was already filling up the pool for us.

At 5.30am the other midwife arrived and did a quick check of heartbeat, I went to get off the bed and had to go straight into leaning forward on the bed.

Our son Alfie was amazing and held my hand and demonstrated deep breaths with me through contractions and by 5.39am she was born!

Sadly we didn’t get the home birth in the pool we had hoped for but having the pool at home and the plan definitely helped my positive mindset in the build up to her arriving.

We still got a lovely birth experience together as a family of 4 although she wasn’t far off being born in the car!

I’m really grateful for your pregnancy yoga which was a huge part of contributing to a positive birth – thank you!