Euphoric and absolutely amazed at what my body had achieved!

14/10/2025 Amy Watson

After my older son Leo’s physiological hospital water birth almost three years ago, I went into this labour feeling confident but curious how this birth would unfold. We had revisited some Calmbirth concepts and discussed our birth preferences again in preparation. This time we planned a homebirth through the Mercy hospital. We kept an open and flexible mind. If a transfer to hospital felt more comfortable or was deemed necessary we were fine with that. We had a beautiful experience there with Leo’s birth and a repeat of that could never be considered a failure.

Contractions started at 1am when I was 38w5d. Jayden was co sleeping with Leo, who was recovering from Influenza A. I ignored my contractions for as long as possible and tried to stay in bed and rest. By 3am they had intensified enough that I needed movement. I did the Myles circuit while I lay in bed to encourage baby into position. Then I went downstairs to make some toast and start setting up the birth space.

By 4am, I needed my TENS on, so it was time to wake up Jayden. He was rather shocked to hear I’d been labouring for 3 hours already! We sat in the dark, listened to my playlist and I managed contractions using my TENS and birth comb. In between contractions, I expressed colostrum.

By 6am, contractions were coming thick and fast, 3 in 10 mins lasting 30-45 seconds. It was time to call in our support team (my sister and our midwives). We organised for Leo and our dog to get picked up. Jayden did a great job preserving the birth space from the comings and goings. When my sister arrived, she took over as my primary support while Jayden set up the birth pool. My midwife arrived, did a Doppler check and encouraged me to keep going while she set up.

By 7am, it was time to go downstairs, as I was getting worried about how I’d navigate the stairs if I had a contraction. The pool was almost ready to go, and both my familiar MGP midwives were present plus a third midwife for extra support. I can now recognise I was in transition, saying I didn’t want to do this anymore! I remained on my birth ball, leaning over the pool, boosting my TENS and squeezing my birth comb during contractions, with Jayden applying counter pressure to my hips. The contractions were intense. My beautiful team cheered me on and held the space calmly, the only interference being intermittent auscultation. My midwives soon suggested I get into the pool and that I was close to meeting my baby. I was too scared to take off my TENS!

By 7.45am, I relented and got in the pool. Jayden came in and kept applying counter pressure. As I stood up to get in the pool, I felt baby drop down. The water felt amazing. Almost immediately, I recognised that my body was pushing involuntarily with each contraction. I quickly started to feel the familiar stretch and burn. My midwives encouraged me to have a feel if my membranes were bulging, since I hadn’t felt them break, but all I felt was baby’s head…. Less than a few centimetres away!

My waters must have broken at some point when I was in the pool without me realising. A mirror was placed on the bottom of the bath so I could watch as I birthed baby’s head and I guided him out with my hand. Within a few contractions, baby’s head was born. I instantly calmed, knowing the hardest work was done. I panted slowly through the next contraction as baby turned and his body was born, and I guided him out and lifted him up to my chest. It was absolutely magical! I was euphoric and absolutely amazed and what my body had achieved. I delivered the placenta within 15 minutes, just a couple of minutes after getting out of the pool.

I was helped onto the couch and Noah and I were covered with warm towels. The after birth pains, and the fundal massage, were painful and frankly the worst part of the labour! Once that was out of the way, we lay on the couch, Noah on my chest learning to feed, for hours. It was blissful. My sister fed me mum’s homemade Brodo soup while Jayden and the midwives whirred around, cleaning up. Within the hour, two of the three midwives went home. The remaining midwife stayed for four hours, we shared some toast and coffee and basked in the euphoria together. The vibes were so high, it was amazing. When my final midwife left, there we were in our clean home, ready to start life as a family of four.