16/07/2025
Anna's birth story 🩷
Throughout most of my pregnancy I thought I’d go to hospital to give birth, I had the mindset “what if something goes wrong” and assumed it was safest to be there just in case. At our antenatal classes we talked about other options and how the new birthing unit might be ready in time- it planted a seed. The birthing unit opened a few weeks before our due date, and after a little tour, I felt optimistic about birthing there. My partner Nico and midwife Emma were on board, and both baby and I were healthy- it felt like a good choice.
On our baby’s due date I woke up at 4am with back ache. It continued all day but I carried on as normal until around 4/5pm when the cramping and aches were getting more intense. I used a swiss ball, tens machine plus breathing techniques to labour at home to begin with. At about 7:30pm I think Nico called Emma’s number, and the on call midwife suggested we come in around 8:30pm. So glad it was only 5 minute drive!
We were happy to see Emily, the student midwife, was there too. We set up the birthing room to be as relaxing as possible and I put my playlist on. The contractions kept coming regularly and I just kept breathing, swaying , leaning over the swiss ball and squeezing Nico’s hand. I think around midnight I felt the urge to push and at 1:23am our little baby girl arrived. I held her on my chest straight away, we moved to the bed, and half an hour later she latched for her first feed. After birthing the placenta, getting stitches and having a shower (while baby girl had skin to skin with Nico) it was time to move into our postnatal room.
Baby girl was on the small side so she needed to have her blood sugars checked every 3 hours. I was glad I had expressed some colostrum beforehand, as we could give this to her as well as breastfeeding for the first couple of days.
The next couple of days were a warm hazy bliss. The heat pump was on, it rained outside, and we had midwives available at the press of a button. I’m so glad we were able to spend those first 2 nights being looked after and getting help with feeding, thank you all so much!
