Sophie’s positive home birth story

Sophie reached out to me over Instagram thanking me for the content I share on social media, and wanting to share her positive birth story. I love hearing all about your wonderful births, so here’s Sophie’s story.

Sophie says:

Thanks to all the invaluable information from your podcast, the birth stories and experts I was filled with confidence to book in with our local home birth team at 36 weeks pregnant (they were absolutely incredible and such strong advocates for physiological birth so I was really really lucky to have such amazing support!!)

On Wednesday 18th June 2025 I began going into spontaneous labor (unaware at the time) I was having some mild period type pains throughout the day, but so mild I kept not even noticing them. I carried on with my day, even going to do our weights training session at the gym as normal for a Wednesday night, about an hour in I felt a strong sense that I just wanted to go home and felt a bit off, no extra pain or cramps just didn't feel like myself. After getting home and doing all our evening jobs I went to lay with my husband on the sofa at about 11pm and had a much stronger surge.

Being a first time birther I wasn't 100% sure this was actually IT so tried to get comfy on the sofa but I kept getting these more intense surges every 5 minutes or so, I called the midwife team to inform them that I was in labor. Our lovely midwife said to try and get some rest and call back when they were every 3 minutes and I couldn't speak though then.

I couldn't sleep as soon as I lay in bed the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, I moved downstairs and set up all my candles etc. And the only place I could be somewhat comfortable was on the exercise ball. I woke my husband up after about 1.5hrs of dealing with contractions in my own space. I was timing them initially but that felt annoying so when my husband joined me I let the oxytocin take over and let the waves keep coming just listening to my intuition. We called the HBT again at 02:10am and they joined us at around 3:10am I continued to labor sat on the ball whilst the pool got set up in our front room, the intensity kept increasing but as I had been on the ball for several hours one of the midwives suggested to get on the 'dilation station' a.k.a. sat backwards on the toilet.

I knew as soon as I sat down the pain was going to ramp up now that my pelvis felt totally open but I also knew this pain was going to be productive, I couldn't hold any tension during surges sat this way on the toilet and my vocalisation started to ramp up as the intensity kept creeping up. I remember hearing one of the midwives say to my husband 'you'll know when she's in transition because she will probably say she wants to give up' and my husband said 'there is no way she is going to say that, I know her too well' 😂 I didn't have a single VE throughout my labour, the midwives were brilliant in just observing me and my noises to gauge how I was progressing. 

I hit transition after about an hour and a half sat in the toilet, I remember thinking 'why did I not just have a C-section?!' which was the only thing I was scared about going into birth which made me think 'oh maybe this is transition!' 

Finally the pool was filled and I got in ready to push at around 07:30am. The water was instant relief, I got on my knees and let my contractions take over my body and could feel baby moving down. After a while I felt the need to change position, I found myself wanting to lay on my left side but again could feel the intensity ramp up but knew that would mean we could meet our baby sooner. My waters broke whilst I kept surrending to each wave and let myself be as vocal as I needed. I could feel my body pushing baby down and down, I didn't once need to consciously push I just focused on pushing my energy down and trying to keep open and relaxed to help my baby move down even though it was the most intense experience of my life. The pressure felt enormous and like I just wanted to get him out but knew also that I had to follow my body's rhythm. There was a small time where my contractions were only about 1 minute apart but had slowed down to around 10-20 seconds in length one of the midwives suggested using some clary sage which I had in a spray bottle, my husband spayed it on the towel he was using for under my face and wow that got things ramping back up to contractions lasting 40-60seconds. We finally crowned (the most painful part I found, just WOW) and within 3 more contractions his head (and one of his hands next to his face) popped out - instant relief!!! One of the midwives said 'baby is looking right at us and they've got loads of hair!' I waited for another surge and let my body push and his body came out right after with one contraction at 08:49am. I spun around and picked him out of the water, we had kept the gender a surprise and was hoping for a little the boy and our dreams came true. He's was perfectly plump, eyes wide open and started crying right away as I pulled him out the water. 

We had magical skin to skin, he latched on pretty much instantly and stayed in the pool for around 40 minutes soaking it all in, we checked the cord and it was completely white and I said can we cut it so baby can go to Dad and I can try and get the placenta out. I was having some contractions during our skin to skin but nothing strong enough as I could feel my mind all over so I took myself into the bathroom backwards on the toilet again and started to concentrate on moving the placenta down and out. The more I focused the stronger the surges became and within around 30 minutes of my time alone I had a physiological third stage and the placenta slid out in one surge. I had to really concentrate to get through this third stage as the last thing I wanted was a hospital transfer after all the hard work I'd just put in.

How incredible is our mind body connection, especially under the right environment if we believe we can then our body follows suit. I was checked over and only had a couple of grazes, after my husband went to fetch us all some breakfast we finally weighed baby who was 7lbs 5oz. The midwives were amazing, I felt so supported by them and they trusted me entirely. It was incredible, sacred, empowering and has given me the best start to motherhood and our baby boy the best start to life and I don't think there is a greater gift than that.

Initially choosing a home birth as a first time mum felt quite scary, especially as we live around 35-40 minutes from a hospital but the more I learnt the more confident I became in my decisions and what my body was capable of. During labour there was not one moment I didn't believe I could do it and not one moment I felt scared, it was the most natural thing in the world. So a huge huge thank you for all the incredible knowledge which gave me so much confidence, knowledge is power!! 

@soph.wydra