I’ve just received a birth story from one of my lovely customers who had their baby on Christmas Day. It illustrates very well the confusion and disparate levels of staffing within the NHS where some hospitals have homebirth teams (such as the Surrey Hills Homebirth Team we covered last week), whilst others use hospital based midwives to facilitate, where possible, homebirths.
Whilst my customer, Prem, now has a gorgeous baby boy and her labour and delivery went smoothly apart from her choice of setting, I do feel that it’s a great pity that she was unable to have the homebirth she planned. Here’s her story:
“I decided on a home birth after comparing my friend’s birth stories. Everything else I kept flexible depending on what the mood would take me on the day, including my choice of birth partners. I also wanted an option of a water birth, so hired a pool. The baby was due 24th of December and by then we had everything ready.
On 24th I had a feeling that baby needed a couple of more days. We had a nice day out and planned to go for a walk the next day. However, on Christmas Day I was woken up by mild contractions and after seeing a show shortly after it was clear that the day we all were waiting for had come.
From 7am until about midday contractions were very mild but regular. I timed them at 5 mins apart. My husband was taking his time waking up so I even managed to have a nap for about an hour or so. At 2pm we called the labour ward asking them to inform the community midwife on duty that labour has started. It is the hospital policy to have two midwives available for home birth, but sadly as it was Christmas Day there was only one of them on duty. She came around at 4pm to examine me and said I was only 1cm dilated so probably it will be some time before baby arrives. I was told that from 8am the next day there will be two midwives available and I could have my baby at home. But just in case she booked me in the birthing centre at the hospital.
I was really confused by this as my intuition kept telling me it won’t be that long before the baby comes. However, I followed her advice and took two paracetamol tablets, had something to eat and went into the pool to relax. Having a chat with my doula on the phone I said that it feels really lovely to be in the water and contractions really slowed down, which is in my case was a good thing if I am to wait until next morning for home birth.
As I was soon to find out this baby had different plans! By 6pm I had spent about an hour in the pool and decided it’s time for a change, even though it was lovely being in the water. I felt a strong desire to move and contractions were getting stronger. As soon as I got out from the pool they became really intense. I was finding it difficult managing the pain. In my mind I had the confusion between being told there is still a long way to go and my intuition telling me the opposite. Not knowing what’s going to happen made it hard to focus on the present moment. I didn’t find my husband to be any help; he was obviously even more stressed by this uncertainty than myself. He called our doula and asked her to come.
Sheila arrived soon after. I felt better with her presence but the pain of contractions didn’t leave me even with the help of massage and acupuncture. In fact I remember myself saying “I can’t take it anymore and need an epidural”. Interestingly at the same time I had a parallel thought that said ‘Oh, that sounds like a transition!’ – that was a clear sign that the baby was near in retrospect.
Finally I made the decision to pack my bag and leave for hospital. The pool looked very inviting but lucky for me I made a sensible decision despite my resistance to leave the house. Leaving the house slowed down labour a bit. Still when I was examined at 9.30pm dilation was 8cm. We thought another two hours of labour at least but my baby was born at 10.17pm – no midwives in the room when the head crowned. Sheila had to press emergency buzzer to get them in time to catch the baby lol. When I was on the bed in the hospital I was missing the pool badly. There was nothing else in the room for me to hold onto since what I really wanted to do was to have my spine in the vertical position. The pool was just the right height for that! As an alternative I went on all fours on the bed moments before the head crowned.
Baby boy Zorawar was 3.3kg and within minutes was on the breast. Midwives told me next day that it would’ve been a perfect home birth. I had a small tear and I believe if I was freer in following the wisdom of my body I’d probably have avoided it.” PREM
I should add that staff shortages are more understandable at Christmas time, midwives are as entitled to spend time with their own families over the holiday as anyone else is. But this is not just an issue during the holidays, midwife shortages are a daily reality in maternity wards up and down the country and the Government must do something about it.
Today, Tues 21 Feb, the Royal College of Midwives has called once again for Cameron to honour his pre-election pledge for 3,000 more midwives, and are continuing to campaign for 5,000 extra fulltime midwives to meet the demand of a growing population, sign their e-petition here.
