✨ A Magical 5-Hour Home Birth. The birth her heart needed 🧡

Following the birth of our daughter at the end of December 2022 which took place at Salisbury District Hospital, I was adamant that any subsequent pregnancies I would like to have in the comfort of my own home.

My first daughters birth was long & exhausting. Something I didn't realise could be avoided with the right guidance and support.

When i found out I was pregnant with our second, I spent alot of time looking into how to make her birth the most magical experience and one not to be feared of..

Positive home birth story :

Waters went at 21:19, called labour ward for advice, they said monitor , contractions started around 15 mins later and were constant from when they started (3-5 mins apart lasting a minute), called labour ward back at 22:30, they said a community midwife would call, got a call at 23:00 and she came to ours (not my midwife but one i knew so thrilled!!), i accepted a VE around 00:00 and was 4-5cm, they ramped up around 1am and i started using a comb & pressure point (Ollie on my back) until i got into the pool at 2am and we managed to get the pool filled (30 mins before baby came), started gas and air and 30 mins later baby was here at 2:44am🧡 small tear on my episiotomy scar and that was IT!!!! Oh and baby is ✨️just✨️ smaller than Elsie... 9lb 6oz. Elsie woke up at 4am and was introduced to her new sister before being picked up by Nanny & Grandad at 6:30am as we were told it we should head to hospital for some observations following a positive GBS swab..

Negative postnatal story:

We arrived around 7am on postnatal ward for what we were told were the remainder of observations (we had 3 at home) and we would be done by 3pm. We thought this would be fine as Elsie finished nursery around then so we could continue to soak in time as a family of 4.

We were under the impression that this was the case until around 1pm when we were told we 'had' to stay in for 12 hours on their clock so this meant not leaving until at least 8pm (after last set of obs and discharge). We explained that 3 sets were done at home and we needed to get back for our first born. We had a very positive home birth and the first obs were fine with no concerns. The hospital said they'd contact the community team and update us shortly. No one returned until gone 5:30pm. Not only had they missed a set of 'very important' & 'you must stay for these' obs, but there was no checking in atall. We had to ask if there was any food we could have as we had been there since 7am and were starving. 7pm arrives and we are still in. Being told that the last set would be at 7:30pm along with anti'd & discharge. 8:30pm arrives and still nothing.. i call the buzzer and speak to the MCA to advise we are leaving. With that, a new midwife comes, does the checks & antid & discharge and we are 'free' to leave. We had missed out on a whole day as we were pressured into staying for observations which weren't even completed properly.

It doesn't take away from the most amazing home birth imaginable, but it was a massive failure by the postnatal system x