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The birth of my second son was a wild ride, as they all are!

After a very quick and ‘text book’ birth with my first son, we had decided that we wanted to be in the comfort of our own home for the birth or our second son.

I had a water birth with my first and wanted to eliminate the car ride to hospital as well as lower the risk of intervention.

I’d ordered a birth pool and tens machine from Birth Mother, set up the Christmas tree and made sure I had a beautiful candle that I could light when I went into labour.

Mirjana at Birth Mother, was so amazing to deal with. In the beginning I had so many questions about birth pool sizing and weight and she was extremely knowledgeable and really quick to respond! The pick up of everything included a detailed conversation about how to use everything and returning it.

At 34 weeks we discovered that my baby was breech and decided to attempt an ECV if he hadn’t turned by then, to ensure a home birth!

By 37 weeks, he hadn’t turned so in we went for the routine ECV. During the procedure, the baby’s heart rate dropped and wasn’t picking back up as quickly as the doctor wanted and we were informed we may have to have an emergency c section immediately to get baby out. Luckily, after turning onto my side, his heart rate picked back up, so as quickly as the room filled with people in scrubs, they left.

We kept checking each week if the baby had turned and eventually accepted that our beautiful home birth probably wouldn’t happen. I was determined to have a natural breech birth and baby was in perfect position and a great size for it!

At 39 + 1, at 1am, my waters broke. I laboured at home with the TENS machine (which was easy for my partner to read the instructions and hook up to me) for around 4 hours. When my contractions were basically back to back, we rushed down to the hospital and discovered I was 8cm!

During that check, the midwife discovered that the baby had dropped his feet and was now in the footling position.

A doctor came in to double check and confirmed this, which meant an emergency c section.

I cried for a moment and then said to the doctor that I had some preferences if this was how my birth was going to go.

She sat at the end of my bed and listened to everything and instilled so much confidence in me.

Reluctantly, I took off the TENS machine and was prepped for the c section. They gave me an injection to slow down contractions and wheeled me into theatre.

Our beautiful boy was then born at 7:08am on 16th December.

Although his birth didn’t ’go to plan’ and we had a few complications following, everyone I dealt with along the way, made the experience so much less scary and so much calmer than I thought an emergency c section could be!

We were so incredibly lucky to have dealt with everyone we did along the way.