RIA OLIVER
BIRTH STORY
O
n Sunday 13th September I spent the day with my boys and we went on a lovely walk to see if autumn was coming and the trees were changing colours - little did I know how poignant this autumnal walk would be. At 8pm that evening I had a bloody show. I’ve never had one of these before so I was excited to see if this meant baby would arrive imminently. I told my husband that I thought we would be having a baby that night and put my birth photographer and mum on standby. I wasn’t experiencing any surges or twinges, but felt what I can only describe as a stretching feeling down below, which was the beginning of dilation and effacement. That night I was restless in bed, expecting labour to start at any moment like it had done with both of my previous babies.
I woke up the next morning on Monday 14th September feeling fine, but each time I went to the toilet there was more and more of my show so I knew my body was readying itself. My husband left for work as usual and I got my
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boys ready for school and had conversations with them about the fact that the baby might be coming. As it grew closer to school run time I started to feel worried that labour would start while i was in the queue in the playground. While I could handle surges starting in a public place, I wasn’t so keen on the idea of my waters going in front of a crowd. But I soldiered on and took the boys to school as normal, wanting to provide them with normality in what I was expecting to be an otherwise somewhat different day. After the school run I went home and tidied the house at super speed and set my birth space ready for my home birth. My instincts were telling me today was the day, even if my body wasn’t yet showing me the same. By 10:30am I had spoken to my husband and asked him to return home from work. I still had no signs of labour at this point, just a very strong feeling that baby would be with us that day and I felt worried about being at home alone. Once my husband was home I felt a great sense of relief and my body was able to relax. I put on series one of “Friends” and relaxed on my birthing ball while my husband flittered around the house preparing our pool and last minute bits and pieces that we needed. By 2pm I was starting to feel surges and my body started to show me that labour was coming, just in a more gentle way that I was used to. Around 2.30pm once both the boys were home I
