Lauren & Raffy’s Birth Story: Trusting My Body, Choosing My Home Birth

After my first pregnancy involved a whole lot of (in hindsight rather unnecessary) interference, I knew when I became pregnant with our second baby that I wanted the experience to be very different.

Our first baby was LGA, so I knew that this baby would be big too! I was confident in my bodies ability to grow and birth a healthy large baby, and turned down 3 referrals for growth scans, knowing that this would just cause me anxiety and a feeling of needing to people please the consultants!

We had planned for a home birth with our first baby too, but unfortunately due to complications, we felt it would be safer to birth in hospital. This time around i was adamant that a home birth would be the best option for me and my baby.

On my due date I took my toddler for a long walk in to town, we had a lovely lunch/coffee date together and when we got home my husband sent me to go and relax for a while - with Netflix, aromatherapy and a box of chocolates! ❤️

I did a YouTube yoga video whilst my husband was putting our toddler to bed and went to bed feeling slightly deflated that nothing was happening!

2 hours later (12:30am) I wake up with my toddler calling for me and realise I’m having contractions! We quickly realised this was happening and that we needed to get the pool ready. We called my mum to come and help (and to collect our toddler!), and phoned for the midwife.

The rest feels like a blur! I was faffing around getting my tens machine on, aromatherapy diffuser set up, and breathing through my contractions, and before I knew it, the midwives had arrived and my mum was leaving with my son. (Thank goodness, because I could tell things were happening fast!)

I declined an internal examination and hopped in to the pool, with my husband/the midwives rubbing my back during contractions. Using the hypnobirthing breathing techniques Elle taught me in my first pregnancy, I breathed my 9lb 5oz baby out?! I genuinely thought people who said they didn’t push were lying, like how can that be possible?! But it is, and it was incredible compared to my experience with my first. (Still hurt like hell but we know what we signed up for right 😂)

Baby Raffy was born exactly 4 hours after my first contraction, and I will never forget the feeling of sitting on my sofa, cuddling my minutes old newborn with a hot coffee, watching the snow fall out the window!

The midwives left very shortly after our blissful golden hour, and I incredibly only had a tiny graze so no stitches needed!

I am so proud of myself for advocating for myself and my baby during this pregnancy, and so grateful to Elle for giving me the confidence to do so, from all the positive vibes and advice from pregnancy yoga in my first pregnancy!