Lucy Homebith Story

Every mother has their own story of birth. Here is Lucy firth Homebirth Story

Just after midnight on April 14th, I began to feel some inconsistent mild cramping. Around 2am I woke Jack to tell him I thought labour was starting, I was so excited but stayed calm and went back to sleep. It was our last morning, just the two of us! The cramping eased with the daylight and Jack and I went up to Long reef and walked up the headland to distract ourselves so we could "ignore" the labour as long as possible. 

After arriving home, Jack ran out to get last minute birth pool supplies and things were gradually stepping up. We put on a rom-com but I didn't even get through the first 30mins because I was becoming more uncomfortable and feeling the need to move around. We tried out the Tens machine and I was not a fan at all. Over the next hour, things progressed and I was feeling really consumed by the intensity of the surges. I moved into the shower by candlelight which helped me to relax and definitely worked as pain relief for a time. 

Jack contacted Gail and she came over with Laura the student midwife. I stayed in the shower while the pool was being set up. During this time I was really focused on each surge and moving and "moaning" through each one. I was barely aware of my surroundings by this point, it was a deeply internal experience as I was consumed by the physical experience. At some point Nadia had arrived but I barely registered her presence in the space. I moved to the bath and after hours of this, I was feeling exhausted. I agreed to have Gail check how dilated I was because the contractions were very intense with no need to push yet. I was 10cm!! I still felt no urge to push so eventually Gail encouraged me to start pushing on my own so I could start moving the baby along. 

This was the hardest 3.5 hours of my life. I was putting absolutely everything I had into every single surge. My body was exhausted. I felt like I couldn't do it and nothing was moving forward. Jack was there offering support, love and a hand to squeeze the entire time and I couldn't have kept going without him. After some time, we all agreed I would need to transfer to hospital in the next 30 minutes if there was still no sign of baby. I had 30 minutes to give it everything I could and I truly did. Finally, baby's head appeared and I was SO relieved. Baby's head was moving down and back up for a while and was starting to feel very defeating, Jack finally said to stay in the position I was pushing in, in between the surges so the baby's head didn't move back up and it worked! It was SO hard to hold that position, I tensed every single muscle in my body to hold baby in that spot but on the next surge, baby's head was out! 

The cheers and support from the 4 lovely women in the room and Jack was what moved me through the final stages. With a final gentle push, my beautiful boy came into the world. This was the single most shocking, relieving and amazing moment of my life. I was simultaneously completely aware of his arrival and in total disbelief that I created this human and after hours and hours of hard work, mentally and physically, he was here in my arms. 

I was completely exhausted and needed Jack to help keep our little boy on my chest. He did the breast crawl and latched on and I couldn't have been prouder of myself, now his mumma or my little boy for what we had achieved together. After birthing the placenta with assistance from the midwives, I was showered and put to bed with my little boy right next to me. SURREAL, we were now mum, dad and Ziggy! 

We’ll make art from your life, together.

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