Nina Conacher tells her birth story: 'I gave birth to my daughter Isobel on August 3rd 2007. It was a planned home birth.
It all started at 3am on Friday, I woke to find that my waters were breaking and rushed (well hobbled) to the bathroom. On my return I woke my partner, Matt and he asked if I was sure my waters had broken and I hadn't just wet myself!
After convincing him this was the real deal and not a nasty accident, we phoned the hospital and they asked me to come in to check everything was OK as I wasn't having any contractions.
I was allowed to leave hospital and sent home with a list of things not to do and told to return the next morning if I still hadn't had any contractions. On returning home at 6am we stopped off for a 'nutritious' take-out at McDonalds and were greeted by one of our pupils (we are both teachers) who was a little confused by what 'waters breaking' actually meant!
On returning to the house, we both agreed that we should go back to bed as it could be a long day(s). I couldn't sleep though as I was too excited and I was also having strange feelings in my stomach! I started timing this strange feelings and realised they were coming every 6 minutes.
Labour progressed fairly steadily and the contractions early on were fine and I was able to make a necessary phone call to my friend to tell her we were not going to be able to make her wedding the next day.
By 12 my contractions were getting stronger so we called the midwife and she checked; I was 3-4cm dilated. She said that she would return about 5.30 ish. By 5pm I was getting uncomfortable and asked Matt to phone the midwife to ask if she could bring around the gas and air.
When she arrived I was glad to start slurping on the gas and felt pleasantly light-headed. The pain got stronger but manageable as both the midwife and Matt were fantastic and helped me focus on my breathing, getting me in and out the bath. By this point the second midwife had arrived although I was just focusing on what Matt was relaying to me.
This seemed to go on a long time but eventually I was fully dilated! I tried various birth positions that I had learnt from magazines, books and NCT classes but ended up on my back in bed with Matt behind me (the position you're told will not encourage birth), however this was the most comfortable.
I felt like I was pushing for ages and when I was told I could feel the head I was disappointed to feel about a 10p-sized amount of hair, when I thought the whole head must be out.
After an hour I was getting really tired and was asking for an epidural etc but 20 minutes later baby Isobel finally arrived. She wasn't in a particularly good position for delivery and had the cord wrapped around her but after a couple of seconds she was fine.
I'd like to say that my first thought was thinking how beautiful she was, but instead said 'she's got a cone head!' Anyhow the cone head went down by the next morning then we could see that she truly is the most beautiful girl in the world!
While I delivered the placenta and got cleaned up, Isobel was weighed (7lb 4oz) and Matt was able to go to the toilet as he hadn't been all day and was in a lot of pain (I doubt it measured up to actual childbirth!).
I would recommend a home birth, the midwives were fantastic and it was lovely to stay in our own house and go to bed in our own room. I couldn't have done it without Matt and am trying to get him to change jobs and become a doula!
If we have another baby I hope we will be able to have another home birth.'
