• BLOG
    • ABOUT US
    • DISCLAIMER
    • CONTACT US
  • TMC
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
    • TMC MUM PALS
    • THAT MAMA MEET UPS
    • THAT MAMA BOOK CLUB
    • TMC WORKSHOPS
    • TMC EVENTS
    • THAT KIDS CLUB
  • MOTHERHOOD
    • TTC
    • PREGNANCY
    • BIRTH
    • BABY
    • TODDLER
    • KIDS
  • HEALTH + WELLBEING
    • SELF CARE
    • BODY POSITIVITY
    • MENTAL HEALTH
  • LIFESTYLE
    • TMC + Me
    • ENTERTAINMENT
    • DIYS
    • BOOKS
    • SEX & RELATIONSHIPS
    • SUSTAINABILITY
  • FASHION
    • BREASTFEEDING FRIENDLY
    • MATERNITY
  • ADVENTURES
    • DAYS OUT
    • UK
    • AWAY
  • FOOD
    • FAMILY RECIPES
    • BABY LED WEANING
    • VEGAN

That Mama Club

PANDEMIC HOME BIRTH STORY

Filed Under: BIRTH, GUEST POST, POSITIVE BIRTH STORIES, PREGNANCY // April 14, 2021

WRITTEN BY RACHEL BRADFORD (GUEST WRITER)

PANDEMIC HOME BIRTH

Hi, I’m Rachel, mother to three kids under five, and proud home birther to two out of three of my babies. We welcomed our last baby, Temperance, into the world on 28th September 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic in our home is Hampshire.

This was our second home birth, both of which were empowering and amazing experiences. So here’s my story of a pandemic home birth

My home birth experience (Southampton University Trusts)

The first moment I knew I was in labour was in the morning of the 28th around 7:30am when I started to feel strong backache and mild contractions that bordered on braxton hicks. Our four year old was due to go to school (his first full day) so my husband dropped him off, taking our two year old with him so I can pace around the living room, and bounce on my exercise/birthing ball. They came back and I put our two year old down for a nap around 9:30am.

I started to monitor the contractions and read a bit of my book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) to distract me as they started to get more intense. I phoned the midwives around 10am to have a chat. My contractions weren’t hugely regular, a mix of 4 minutes to 2 minutes apart, sometimes lasting 30 seconds, sometimes longer. I knew this was typical for my body from my previous births. I don’t fall into a particular pattern. I decided on the phone to give it a little longer before I requested the midwives to come.

Half an hour later, the contractions were getting increasingly more difficult to talk through so I called again. The labour line said they would contact the midwives and see if and who could come out to me. I received a call perhaps 10minutes later from the midwife saying she was coming from the hospital and how was I doing? I was starting to get the bearing down sensation from the contractions where the pressure started to build in my back, spread to the front and pushed downward. I said this to the midwife who asked if I thought it would be a good idea to request the second midwife which I said yes. They would be with us in half an hour.

In that time, Dann began filling our hired birthing pool. He had inflated it earlier that morning before the school drop off. The pool took about 30 minutes to fill being a mini birthing pool (the standard size can be upwards of 45 minutes but our water tank struggles to keep up with that size and maintain the water temperature at 36 degrees. We’ve learnt this from previous experience.) To fill up faster, Dann connected hoses to both our kitchen sink tap, and the hot tap in our downstairs toilet. The pool was filled when the midwives arrived at around 11:30am.

The lead midwife (who turned out to be the student who had attended both of my previous births which was pretty special) did my internal exam, as well as general wellbeing checks giving me some entonox to tide me over as the pain was getting more intense. We phoned my friend to come collect Dexter who had now woken from his nap, and I got into the birthing pool with the entonox by my side. The midwives were super helpful with hand holding and helping me get into the pool whilst my husband sorted Dexter who was good as gold throughout. 

As soon as I got in the pool the sensation to push increased and I let my body do its thing. The next part is a little  fuzzy from the pain and pain relief (entonox makes me very heady and spaced out though I know this isn’t the case for most). Not long later, I could feel baby girl’s head near crowning, and I was aware of the midwives monitoring more closely, using the mirror in the pool to monitor any crowning. 

To everyone’s surprise, my own included, she crowned on a contraction, with her body slipping out on the same push. My previous home birth, I pushed the head out, then had to wait a full contraction later before I could push his body out. The midwives caught her and said I could move back so they could pass her up to me. The surprise is written all over my face in some of the photos my husband took. Dexter was with me the entire time, blowing on the entonox canister by the pool as I breathed it in.

I was given the injection to pass the placenta, passed Temperance to my husband and the midwives and guided out of the pool to the sofa to pass the placenta and get checked over. Before I managed to get to the sofa, the placenta slipped out onto the floor. Fortunately we have wood flooring and understanding midwives who had a good laugh about it.

After another check for tears and grazes, I was deemed as a graze which didn’t need stitches (the midwives can do these at home so you don’t have to transfer) and Temperance was brought back for cuddles and her first feed whilst the midwives monitored me for a bit longer and fill in their paperwork whilst we all enjoyed a cup of tea. My friend arrived to collect Dexter for a playdate so we had a bit of time as a three with our baby girl. The most fascinating part of having a home birth is learning about the placenta checks the midwives do, particularly as our hospital trust is a teaching hospital so always has students. I had three midwives attending in the end for this birth.

It was an intense and quite quick birth, but I wouldn’t change a thing. 

How the pandemic affected our pregnancy and birth experience

As a low risk pregnancy, I was lucky to not have many difficulties. Due to the pandemic, my husband couldn’t attend a single scan which was hard, even as a third time mother. We had our first scan a week into the first lockdown. I was the one who told my husband we were having a girl when I got back in the car after my 20 week scan.

All my appointments with my midwife (the same community midwife I’ve had for each of my pregnancies and the most supportive woman ever, she was the one to suggest a home birth in the first instance.) were alone, in masks.

I had an additional growth scan at 37 weeks due to stagnant growth which was not a hugely fun experience, though bumping into Lucinda, my midwife at the hospital was nice.

During my actual birth, the pandemic fortunately didn’t make a big impact. The only real perceptible difference was the fact the midwives wore masks the entirely time, aside from when they had a drink. I am glad we chose a home birth as I think I would have ended up birthing alone in a hospital due to restrictions and childcare.

I think the pregnancy restrictions were far worse and harder than the labour restrictions, and I am very pleased to see that a lot of Covid restrictions have been lifted now for partners and pregnant people. 

The months since have been different to how we expected to spend our days with our baby girl when we conceived her in January 2020, but we have our healthy baby girl and a wonderful birth experience to remember, and that’s all that matters to me.

YOU CAN READ RACHEL’S FIRST GUEST POST BY CLICKING HERE : EVERYTHING YOU NEED WHEN PLANNING A HOME BIRTH

FOLLOW RACHEL ON:

INSTAGRAM: ILLUSTRATED TEACUP

 

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome to That Mama Club

An informative space for Mama’s & Mama’s to be to come together and connect.

Our focus is the Mama, you. Whilst you look after your babies and families we look after you. Online we are building a wealth of information from Motherhood and all it entails, to Fashion, Beauty, Culture and so much more!

We are a safe and positive space, re-building the villages our generation has lost – We are so glad you are here!

.

Archives

Instagram

We are having a break for the month of July! 

It’s been no secret that we have had a lot happening behind the TMC & TKC scenes the last month or so. From moving house and starting new jobs, to being poorly with covid and about to have a baby!!

We absolutely love the community we have here, 30 days wild was huge!! We love you guys so much and We want to give you the best!

With all that in mind, we have decided to take this opportunity to take July off and spend time with our families and come back Aug 1st with a bang! Bigger and better than ever before!

Please continue to use #thatmamaclubig as we will do a huge July round up of our favourites in the Aug newsletter!

We have freebies on our website for you to use over July too!

We will be back Aug 1st with a secret project we have been working on, as well as some amazing new content!

You can find us all over on our personal pages should you wish to keep up wIth us ❤️

We love you all! 
- Team TMC & TKC 🥰
And the winner is ….. Team 3 🙌🙌🙌 The And the winner is …..

Team 3 🙌🙌🙌

The overall scores are as follows:
Third place - team 1 with 11,075 points 
Second place - team 2 with 12,555 points 
First place - team 3 with an amazing 13,390 points 🙌

Congratulations though to everyone who took part in this months event. It’s been such a pleasure seeing all the tags and photos. 

Wish I could tag everyone who entered 😭 as you all did such a fantastic job. 

Can’t wait to do it all again next year 🥰🥰
It’s the last day of our 30 days wild challenge It’s the last day of our 30 days wild challenge and the teams have been absolutely incredible and so creative with how they have accumulated their points. 

It’s been lovely seeing so many families getting involved and pushing themselves to get out and enjoy the beautiful world that surrounds them. 

Thank you to everyone who has tagged us in their photos. We will announce the winning team later on that night after totting up the final scores 🙌🙌
We are heartbroken about the news of Dame Deborah We are heartbroken about the news of Dame Deborah James’ passing. 💔

“Deborah, who many of you will know as Bowelbabe, was an inspiration and we are incredibly proud of her and her work and commitment to charitable campaigning, fundraising and her endless efforts to raise awareness of cancer that touched so many lives.

Deborah shared her experience with the world to raise awareness, break down barriers, challenge taboos and change the conversation around cancer. Even in her most challenging moments, her determination to raise money and awareness was inspiring. 

We thank you for giving us time in private as a family, and we look forward to continuing Deborah’s legacy long into the future through the @bowelbabefund ” 
 - from Deborahs Instagram @bowelbabe 

What an absolutely incredible woman. Our hearts, love, thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends at such an awful time ❤️

We also send love to all those who may find this news triggering in any way - our inbox is always open ❤️

#checkyourpoo #damedeborahjames #bowelbabe #bowelbabefund #bowelcancer #cancerawareness #thatmamaclubig
🤍 how gorgeous is this capture from @beescircus 🤍 how gorgeous is this capture from @beescircuscrochet 🤍
Sunsets on the beach are where it’s at! We gen Sunsets on the beach are where it’s at! 

We generally put the kids to bed around the same time but sometimes we like to just forget the norms and throw the rules out the window. Living in the moment, and I was so grateful to capture this memory of my sweet girl just living her best life 🤍
Make the choice to schedule joy into your life 🙌

📸: @raising_wildsouls
Follow on Instagram

This Months Advertisers

We are having a break for the month of July! 

It’s been no secret that we have had a lot happening behind the TMC & TKC scenes the last month or so. From moving house and starting new jobs, to being poorly with covid and about to have a baby!!

We absolutely love the community we have here, 30 days wild was huge!! We love you guys so much and We want to give you the best!

With all that in mind, we have decided to take this opportunity to take July off and spend time with our families and come back Aug 1st with a bang! Bigger and better than ever before!

Please continue to use #thatmamaclubig as we will do a huge July round up of our favourites in the Aug newsletter!

We have freebies on our website for you to use over July too!

We will be back Aug 1st with a secret project we have been working on, as well as some amazing new content!

You can find us all over on our personal pages should you wish to keep up wIth us ❤️

We love you all! 
- Team TMC & TKC 🥰
And the winner is ….. Team 3 🙌🙌🙌 The And the winner is …..

Team 3 🙌🙌🙌

The overall scores are as follows:
Third place - team 1 with 11,075 points 
Second place - team 2 with 12,555 points 
First place - team 3 with an amazing 13,390 points 🙌

Congratulations though to everyone who took part in this months event. It’s been such a pleasure seeing all the tags and photos. 

Wish I could tag everyone who entered 😭 as you all did such a fantastic job. 

Can’t wait to do it all again next year 🥰🥰
It’s the last day of our 30 days wild challenge It’s the last day of our 30 days wild challenge and the teams have been absolutely incredible and so creative with how they have accumulated their points. 

It’s been lovely seeing so many families getting involved and pushing themselves to get out and enjoy the beautiful world that surrounds them. 

Thank you to everyone who has tagged us in their photos. We will announce the winning team later on that night after totting up the final scores 🙌🙌
We are heartbroken about the news of Dame Deborah We are heartbroken about the news of Dame Deborah James’ passing. 💔

“Deborah, who many of you will know as Bowelbabe, was an inspiration and we are incredibly proud of her and her work and commitment to charitable campaigning, fundraising and her endless efforts to raise awareness of cancer that touched so many lives.

Deborah shared her experience with the world to raise awareness, break down barriers, challenge taboos and change the conversation around cancer. Even in her most challenging moments, her determination to raise money and awareness was inspiring. 

We thank you for giving us time in private as a family, and we look forward to continuing Deborah’s legacy long into the future through the @bowelbabefund ” 
 - from Deborahs Instagram @bowelbabe 

What an absolutely incredible woman. Our hearts, love, thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends at such an awful time ❤️

We also send love to all those who may find this news triggering in any way - our inbox is always open ❤️

#checkyourpoo #damedeborahjames #bowelbabe #bowelbabefund #bowelcancer #cancerawareness #thatmamaclubig
Follow us on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 · Theme by Branding and About

Copyright © 2022 · Sarah Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in