Ellie Yusuf from Kings Lunn, Norfolk is Mum to Samiel (one month old). Samiel is Ellie’s second child, Ellie opted to go for a home birth, here’s her story.

I started to have regular tightening sensations on Thursday 10th September (my official due date) at about 9pm, the tightening sensations were eight minutes apart but not painful so off I went to bed thinking that it was nothing sinister

Midnight arrived and I hadn’t slept, I had just watched a film in bed, having a nice rest in-between tightening sensations whilst my Husband slept next to me like a log, typical! I suddenly had a painful tightening which I decided was a contraction rather than Braxton Hicks.  Shortly after following the third painful contraction I woke my Husband to tell him labour had started and that my contractions were five minutes apart.

We got up and made a cuppa, we timed the contractions for a while and they remained to stay at five minutes apart, lasting a minute each. I called my mother to let her know what was happening, I also contacted the in-laws to collect my son and finally I called the Midwife to let her know too.

Mum made her way over to the house as did the in-laws. My Midwife decided that she was going to come and examine me as she was only twenty minutes away.
My in laws arrived after about an hour to take my little boy for the night, we had had a cuddle beforehand and gave him some medicine and milk as he was very poorly at the time.

 
The midwife examined me and said that I was four to five centimetres dilated. She decided that she was going to stay with us then but she had to nip back to the hospital to get the Entonox (Gas and Air) for me. 
My Midwife returned twenty minutes later, by then my pains were roughly three minutes apart and getting more intense. 
Whilst she had gone we had set up a nice nest in the front room, water proofing pillows and quilts and we had placed lots of things for me to lean on around the room.

I used the tens machine for as long as I was able to. I also practiced pressing certain pressure points that I had read up on beforehand along with breathing techniques (which really do work!)

At about 4am I decided to start using the Gas and Air as the contractions had become intolerable, and I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t be able to manage much longer. 
My midwife decided it was time to call the second midwife as she was twenty minutes away, my midwife explained that “things were hotting up”…

It was  then that I realised that I was experiencing the transition stage as I suddenly started to feel quite weepy (this is always a good sign). However, I felt defeated and low.

My midwife was fantastic, she recognised my transition and performed some great acupressure on my lower back which helped relieve the pressure of my babies head.

My Midwife became the person whose hand I held onto during the more overwhelming contractions. My Midwife needed to nip to the toilet so my Mum switched to doing the pressure point massage for me and no sooner had my midwife shut the bathroom door than I felt the urge to push, suddenly my waters broke.

My contractions then became almost constant and the urge to push was overwhelming, luckily the Midwife heard me pushing from the bathroom and came running!

Just as my babies head was fully out and we were waiting for the shoulders, the second midwife walked through the door, I believe this to be the perfect greeting! Out came my beautiful baby boy after six minutes of pushing at 4:20am, four hours and twenty minutes after labour had started and only ten minutes before the time that my Mum had guessed that he would be born!

I gave birth whilst on my knees, leaning over my foot stool so that my baby came out behind me, as soon as he was born I asked my husband to take off my night dress and bra so that when my son was passed through my legs for me to hold we could have some well deserved skin to skin contact. This is something I did not have with my first son and was determined to do this second time around. I sat back on my heels and cried with joy at this little bundle that had appeared.

I opted for the placenta to be kept attached to my son until the cord stopped pulsating so I sat and had a lovely cuddle with my son and husband whilst we waited. 
After a while the midwife told me the cord had stopped so I clambered onto the sofa, got wrapped up in a blanket that I had saved for the occasion and cuddled my son whilst my husband cut the cord.

I had already discussed with my midwife my choice not to have the injection which speeds up the delivery of the placenta if we didn’t need it, so I gave my son to his Daddy and I tried pushing a little to see if we could get the placenta out without aid. Three small pushes later and it was out and intact. I was examined and found to have had no tears, no grazes and my son was declared fit and healthy.

At this point I went into a bit of shock due to the short labour and very short pushing stage, also I think the lack of pain relief was a shock to me too!

I laid on my sofa for a while nice and comfy and breastfed my new son a few times, he had three or four feeds which we were very happy about. We all settled down and had a nice cup of coffee and I had a kit-kat as I was suddenly quite hungry whilst Nanny had a cuddle with her newest Grandson. 

My son was weighed and found to be 7lbs 15oz which is the exact same weight as my first born! His head circumference was 35cm again, exactly the same as my first born (and oddly they were both born on a Friday after a four and a half hour labour!).

I then went off for a bath, it was wonderful to be in my own bathroom, whilst I was in the bath, one midwife cleaned up downstairs with the help of my Mother whilst my husband had a cuddle (or should that be the other way around I’m not sure!). Then the second midwife came to me and helped get some water proofing down on the bed and sorted out my outfit to get into bed in. She helped me to get out of the bath and get dried and into bed then my mum brought my son to me in bed…aww, bliss!

  I can’t believe I had such an amazing birth, it knocked the socks of my first by far and I can’t believe I didn’t have a homebirth for my first. I will never go into hospital for any subsequent babies. It took us until the evening of the next day to pick the perfect name ‘Samiel Lou Yusuf’ for our perfect second son.

Mums Baby Magazine would like to thank Ellie for sharing her birth story with us.