“This definitely gave me closure on my first birth and made me realise if I can do birth this way, I can do anything.” - Rachel

Birth Story Series – Rachel's positive home birth in Welwyn with her 2nd daughter

Past client Rachel found the benefit of classes again with her second child and shares her 2023 birth story below. Rachel attended Pregnancy Yoga and the Antenatal Course in 2020 ahead of her Kiwi* assisted birth with her daughter at the Lister Hospital midwife led unit.

She decided to return to our Refresher Antenatal Course whilst pregnant with her second daughter, to help her recap and remember the techniques from the first time, but also to consolidate and make sense of what happened the first time round.

Rachel decided to plan a home birth at her home in Welwyn Garden City for this pregnancy, as a chance to take control of her birth.

* A Kiwi delivery is a method or instrumental delivery where a midwife of doctor used an instrument to help your body deliver baby a bit quicker. Forceps is another type of instrument that can also be used, but a Kiwi device is a type of vacuum instrument (can also be called ventouse).

Instrumental deliveries occur in approximately 10% of births, with more first time parents experiencing it than those birthing a 2nd or more.

Rachel's Welwyn Garden City home birth story - birth decisions

Rachel says, "Second baby
Surprise baby girl Anna
Due date 25 Sep 2023
Arrived 28 Sep 2023 at 1.47am
Planned and actual home birth on dry land
Hypnobirthing, comb, positive affirmations.

After a protracted labour with my first baby in a midwife led unit that was relaxing but ended in a Kiwi* delivery, I had a birth afterthoughts debrief where the midwife didn’t rule out a homebirth for my second baby. So, I was really keen to use hypnobirthing again and be more in control for my second birth. I did Jilly’s hypnobirthing and active birth classes with both of my pregnancies."

Waters gone and speedy progress!

"My waters went as a gradual trickle at 7.15pm while putting my first daughter to bed, a delightful feeling that I was weeing myself that lasted about 2 hours on and off.

A few minor contractions started around 8.30pm. My husband called triage at Lister Hospital and they offered me to go in and have some observations to check it was my waters but I declined as I was happy with movement and wanted to stay home.

I needed to breathe and sit down for the contractions about 10pm. My parents came and picked up my daughter and we decided to set up the lounge with plastic sheeting for the home birth.

We went to bed about 11.30pm and when I laid down the contractions got stronger and about 6 mins apart. I started tracking them at 11.50pm on the Freya app and they just kept getting more intense.

I had to get up about 12.40am because breathing through them was getting really hard and I thought a change in position may help them to ease off a little.

I moved to all fours leaning over the end of the bed and they stayed just as strong but started coming faster to about 3 in 10.

So, we called at 1.10am to say the midwife needed to come to us. The midwife left Lister Maternity Unit straight away. I started squeezing the comb, which gave me something else to focus on. I also started thinking about how I could do anything for 60 seconds, this really helped.

I wanted to get downstairs and when I had a very strong contraction on the stairs I realised the contractions changed to the urge to push. I told my husband that the baby was coming quickly. I kept telling myself that each surge brought me closer to meeting my baby and how the contractions couldn’t be stronger than me as they were me."

Trusting the urge to use the loo...!

"He called Lister hospital maternity triage again at 1.24am to let them know. I was down breathing now as it seemed the right thing to do. I wasn’t pushing, just relaxing and allowing my body to move the baby down, it felt amazing and powerful.

I was in the lounge and my husband got some frozen peas for my lower back (which helped a little) and tried to turn on the relaxation music.

About 1.40am, I really could have done with some gas and air at this point, I felt the need to get to the downstairs toilet, (no idea why the toilet, I knew it was the baby and not a poo).

A few strong contractions on the toilet that were pushing the baby out when I shouted to my husband that the baby was really coming. There was no time to light the candles or get the relaxation music on.

I got scared because the midwife wasn’t there and then I realised I didn’t want to have the baby literally into the toilet. So I hovered and my husband squeezed into our tiny loo to be with me.

The baby started crowning and out came head just as the midwife called at 1.45am to say she was at our door.

We shouted her through just as my husband caught our baby at 1.47am, as slippery as she was!!

We stayed in the toilet so I could sit and rest for a few minutes. I held our new baby girl in a tiny towel amazed at how I had just birthed her completely in control and with barely any pain.

I then went back to the lounge to deliver the placenta and have a few stitches. I was in utter disbelief that it had all gone just as I hoped for and was so fast after how long and how stuck I felt in pushing in my first birth."

Looking back on the birth

"I was worried at how bad the ring of fire would hurt, as I was numbed locally the first time, but actually whilst it was very stingy, it was fine, the stitches were worse.

My husband was incredibly calm, supported me and listened to my requests and instructions, allowing me to just stay in the zone. He assured me he wouldn’t let the baby go in the toilet. And seemed fine that it was all happening before the midwife arrived.

We opted not to get paramedics when it all got very fast as we figured the midwife would arrive before they would anyway. The second midwife arrived 15 minutes after the birth. They stayed with us until about 5am and then we went up to our own bed.

I am so thankful that the Lister home birth midwife team were available for me to have a home birth, and were there to reassure us after the birth and check me and my little girl over. I know I made the right decision to stay home.

I would have a home birth again and recommend it for a subsequent birth to someone else, as the awareness and confidence I had from my first birth allowed me to know what stage we were at and not panic.

The hypnobirthing techniques are so powerful if you can use them and trust in them to work for you. The power of BRAIN and making informed decisions that feel right really helped me be in control this time."

Words from Jilly - what's the "ring of fire" in birth?

Rachel mentioned the "ring of fire", commonly associated with when baby's head is born. It is an intense stinging sensation that happens for some people whilst the skin is super stretched, and should disappear quickly as baby is born.

The term ring of fire is very emotive and creates a sense of fear about vaginal birth. This fear creates tension in the body, and when the pelvic floor is tense and the baby has to fight against that restriction, that's why things may become painful.

The less you focus on how painful that ring of fire might be, the less you'll notice any sensations. The more you can breathe, relax and allow yourself to open with ease, the easier labour and birth will be.

Perineal trauma is normal, the area will be stretched and can be grazed or torn as baby is born. Around 9 in 10 people will experience some degree of trauma to the area, with everybody likely feeling a bit sore and bruised afterwards. Luckily our body is designed to heal the area quickly, with an abundance of blood flow to the area to promote healing. There are also lots of things you can do.

Ways to ease the ring of fire - and potentially prevent perineal trauma

• Practicing pelvic floor releases in pregnancy - learn how to train your brain to fully release the pelvic floor in conjunction with your breath during birth. Holding tension you don't even realise can contribute to pain and trauma (we teach this fully and pelvic floor tone exercises in our antenatal course both in person and online)

• Move your body during pregnancy, labour and birth - learn how your body works, what move and positions it needs to work efficiently and do them regularly. Then they'll become instinctive and you'll do what your body needs more easily in labour.

• Keep hydrated, and keep oxygen pumping - fuelling your body, your muscles and tissues with the energy they need to do their job. Hydrated tissue is flexible tissue.

• Follow your body's urge to push, but listening to your midwife as they can guide you to reduce effort if they sense that baby might be coming quite quickly - as this can cause tearing instead of stretching.

• Avoid giving birth on your back. Research shows that this increases perineal trauma. There are so many options for alternative positions - educate yourself and practice different positions so they don't feel alien on the day! Rachel listened to her body and sat on the toilet - the perfect place for a natural release of her pelvic floor - helping baby come down quicker, and reducing trauma. (Again, we teach this fully and pelvic floor tone exercises in our antenatal course both in person and online)

• Have a supportive team around you - at least one birth partner fully up to speed and understanding birth, ideally two birth partners if you can. In the second stage of labour there should be two midwives with you supporting you, and. research has found that this can reduce perineal injury by up to 31%. This is a great advert for students to be there supporting you as well!

Final words from Jilly about second and subsequent births.

Stories like Rachel's happen so often, where a first birth didn't go to plan and it leaves a difficult feeling when approaching a second or subsequent birth. Frequently, people are so fearful of things playing out the same way that they decide a more medicalised approach is "safest" for them. But if there is a niggling feeling that birth should be different, then with the right approach and the right support, anything is possible.

But our bodies are SO capable. With the trust, the knowledge and the education you CAN have an amazing birth experience.

That's why we have our Refresher Antenatal Course (both in person and online), and our Birth Partner course so that everybody can get knowledgeable and confident for birth.

Refresher Antenatal Course in person

Refresher Antenatal Course online

Birth Partner course (included in our Antenatal course)

Antenatal Course in person

Antenatal Course online

Thank you so much for your birth story Rachel, and for opening up a conversation about home birth and second, healing birth experiences!