Hello, my name is Emma Daniels and I gave birth to my son Caiden Daniels on 10th June 2007.
I have 2 other children:- a daughter named Shaye who is 5 and was born in hospital courtesy of a ventouse delivery after I had every kind of pain relief offered including an epidural, and a son, Ethan, who was also born in hospital in November 2004 with just gas and air after a troublesome pregnancy where I developed SPD and Ethan stopped growing at 36 weeks. However, a few months after Ethan's birth we noticed he wasn't reaching any milestones and we became concerned. He was referred to a paediatrician after a bad bout of sickness that left him hospitalised for days. We discovered after many tests that he had gastroesophageal reflux, microcephaly (his head and brain were much smaller than average) and he also had cataracts in both eyes. Over the past two years or so he's endured many other tests to determine why he has so many problems. He's also undergone two cataract removal operations and last year a hole was found in his heart but is not thought to be dangerous.
My husband Steven and I eventually decided that we would like to try for a third child, despite knowing that another child might be born with the same problems. By now we were seeing a geneticist to see whether Ethan's problems were genetic. By the time I fell pregnant we still had no answers. My pregnancy went easily and apart from one scare that the baby had stopped growing I can say that I wasn't too worried about the baby having medical problems. I asked my midwife for a homebirth from the start and she was ok with it because Ethan's birth had been very easy and his problems didn't present until weeks later. My consultant needed some gentle persuasion but even he knew I would press ahead without him.
At 39 + 4 weeks my midwife, Julie, visited to perform a sweep. I'd already had a show that morning and was keen to get things started. Julie would be on leave from the following Monday and she really wanted to deliver the baby for me. I had my sweep but Julie deemed it unsuccessful as my cervix was still quite tight and high up. She didn't hold much hope for a weekend delivery. As it was a Saturday and Steven was off work we decided to go for a walk with the children around the town centre to buy some new cushions for our new leather sofas. We stopped first for dinner and as we were waiting I had what felt like a mild contraction. Convinced it was just an after-effect of Julie's sweep that morning I paid it no attention. A few more passed at 10 minute intervals but I still chose to ignore them. By now it was 3.30pm and only four hours since my sweep. We went to pick out some cushions and I was getting increasingly uncomfortable so we quickly chose four cushions and made our way home. Hoping that my pains were real contactions I got Steven to run me a bath and cut me up some fresh pineapple in the hope that it would keep the contractions coming.
By about 7pm I was getting fed up of the bath and so we decided to get the children ready for bed. The contractions were annoyingly still 10 minutes apart and, convinced it would be hours before anything remotely interesting would happen, we decided to not call our families or the midwife for fear of exciting them needlessly. We settled down in front of the TV at 10pm to watch the X Files movie and when it started my contractions began increasing to the point where I wasn't really following the film any longer. I called my mother and told her I was having some contractions and that if I needed her i'd call her back. I decided to go to bed to get some rest before the fun began and we went upstairs.
I was lying in bed attempting to play a game on Steven's mobile phone to take my mind off things but I had to keep putting the phone down to breathe through a contraction. Steven began timing them and they were 2 minutes and 45 seconds apart. We called Julie, who had just gone to bed herself, and she said she'd come around. For some reason I kept apologising profusely for getting her out of bed while she insisted that it was her job. Next, I phoned my mum who insisted on coming round despite my protestations that she wasn't needed but she convinced me that it was for the best in case my other two children awoke during my labour.
My mother arrived at 12.30am, followed shortly by Julie who examined me and informed me that I was almost 7cm dilated and she congratulated me on getting that far before calling her. We prepped the bed with a shower curtain covering our mattress and some old sheets on top of it. I had my stand-up fan blowing on the bed as I was very warm. Julie went downstairs where she was joined by another midwife who brought along some extra supplies of gas and air canisters which I was now gratefully sucking on in my bedroom.
I'd bought scented candles and wanted music during the labour but I completely forgot about them when the time came and I just wanted peace and quiet. My mum stayed downstairs with the midwives and made them endless cups of tea and coffee. My contractions were coming thick and fast and I was occasionally going to the loo for a wee, with Steven carrying the gas and air behind me. I told him that I might break wind courtesy of the copious amounts of pineapple i'd eaten and the fact that I no longer felt in control of my nether regions. Needless to say I trumped rather loudly and embarrassingly but we laughed it off. I painfully made my way back to the bedroom where I was monitored by the midwife briefly. They monitored me roughly every 20-30 minutes but I was so spaced out with the pain and gas that I hardly registered them being there.
Julie came upstairs at around 5am to say that she would examine me at 6am unless I felt the urge to push. My groans were getting louder and longer and she thought I was almost ready. I sent Steven back downstairs to get her shortly afterwards as I felt as though the baby was coming. Julie came back up with the assisting midwife and examined me. I was fully dilated but the baby's head was quite high up which she hadn't expected. I had a huge contraction and told her to get her hand out of me to which she replied that she couldn't because I'd trapped it by closing my legs! She manged to free her hand by prising my knees apart and then pressed down on my pelvic floor to make me push. As she did that, I gave an almighty push which brought the baby's head down. Later Julie would tell me that the baby had his hands pressed against his face and that's why he hadn't dropped down. With the next push my waters exploded and the top of the baby's head appeared. On my third push I completely delivered my screaming son. He looked very big and had a huge amount of dark hair. My mum was crying by the bedroom door as she didn't know what sex he was until then. I had a slight tear which Julie decided would heal better if left alone. Caiden Dylan Pyrs Daniels was born at 5.45am precisely and weighed 8lb 5oz - my heaviest baby.
The midwives cleaned me up, changed my nightie and stripped my bed before making me up a fresh one and putting us in it. They left pretty quickly and so did my mum. Throughout the whole labour my beautiful children hadn't woken up and they were brought in at 7am to meet their new baby brother. My homebirth was perfect. Peaceful and wonderful. Steven felt relaxed and the midwives were our guests rather than the other way around. He climbed all over the bed with me rubbing my back and didn't feel the self-consciousness he would have felt during a hospital labour and birth. I'd recommend it to anyone who is able to have one.
As far as anyone can tell, Caiden is free of any health problems and so now we are still waiting to see what has caused Ethan's problems. He is currently being tested for metabolic disorders because he's still the same size as a 9 month old baby and about the same weight as a five month old.
Emma and Steven Daniels.
Siblings at a home birth - what to do with your older children? Should they be present?
Fathers and home birth - fathers' feelings about the birth, and how they can help.
**********************************