Our baby boy arrived on Sunday 23rd Jan at 3.24am, at home in the pool.
 Weighing in at 7.5 lbs He is perfect and three weeks on, we are all doing really well.

Gideon also shares his birthday with his big sister. Thank goodness we had her party on the Friday! 

I had mild back ache on that Friday night and went to bed as normal, with the Rainbow Relaxation and a hot water bottle for my back. I woke up several times during the night with the backache but I found I was able to get back to sleep again pretty quickly with a combination of Sleep Breathing, Rainbow Relaxation and the Affirmations.

 I woke up on Saturday morning feeling like I had had a good 7 hours sleep and then began to realise that the lower backache was cyclic and that maybe things were beginning to start!

 I had breakfast as normal, taking a breaks to go into the living room and work with my breath (Surge Breathing) and exercises with the Swiss ball every time I felt a surge. At this stage, they were still very calm.

 After breakfast Dom set to work on getting the bedroom and pool ready as well as organising overnight childcare for our daughter, Méabh. I did an hour yoga with a pregnancy yoga DVD, had a shower, spoke to a few people on the phone and generally kept the day as normal as possible.



By mid afternoon my surges had increased in intensity and were 5 minutes apart…we called the midwife and continued to pootle about the house, watching DVDs, having lunch, digging out some old vinyl and generally have a lovely time together alone at home, a rare occurrence for us! 

Between 5-7pm my surges calmed right down so we called the midwife and told her not to come just yet. I felt really tired so used the time to relax and conserve my energy. I lay on the sofa, with a hot water bottle resting on my lower back, listening to records and gently snoozing, again using Surge Breathing as and when I needed. Dom helped by gently reminding me of my breathing and talking me through surges, playing great music and keeping everything nice and chilled.

Around 7pm my energy suddenly started to come back. At the same time, my surges began to intensify again. I still felt able to eat, so we ordered in a curry… Not to bring on the labour but because that was the only thing I felt I could stomach and we felt that, as we could be in for a long night, getting something substantial inside us would be a good idea. It didn’t quite work out as we planned as the large plate of biryani triggered a surge which unfortunately brought curry back rather suddenly. However that also meant things were continuing to pick up and, with renewed energy I practised the up/down stair exercise – which really works ! It helped strengthen the surges and by the end of Top Gear my surges were back to 5 minutes apart and nice and strong.

I got in the pool about 9pm, and the midwife was now on her way as my surges were 3-5 minutes apart and intensifying. The pool was AMAZING. Just like a lovely hot bath. I could stretch right out and try out lots of different positions during my surges. Throughout this time Dom’s main roles were keeping me hydrated (thanks for the straw idea & the frozen grapes were excellent), also the maintaining the temperature of the pool, keeping the tunes going and generally keeping the atmosphere really chilled. We were both so calm and actually really enjoying this quiet special time, alone together.



The midwife arrived at 10pm. She asked if she could examine me. At this point I wanted to know how far dilated I was. Because I had been in the pool and I had been really calm, I was only 4cm so she advised me to get out of the pool and do more swiss ball/stair exercises to get gravity to move things forward. About half an hour later with some strong surges she said I could get back in. She didn’t ask to examine me and was monitoring my progress the surges and my reaction. As it became clear that this was the approach in home-birth I really felt able to relax.

 A few hours passed. The midwives were great and really kept out of the way. They periodically checked the baby’s heart rate during a surge and my blood pressure but other than that they left Dom and me alone in the room for the majority of the time. This helped us to relax and as the surges came Dom prompted me to try different positions, remind me of my breathing and softly saying some of the birth partner affirmations.

 At 2am the midwife needed to examine me again and suggested breaking the membrane. My waters hadn’t broken, my surges were really strong and the mucus plug had just released. She explained that the membrane was very strong in my case and the only thing stopping the head descending down the birth path. She also explained that my cervix was thin and open so everything was in place for the birth. We agreed, I got back in the pool and the surges definitely took on a more intense power. The midwife did lots of helpful exercises with me… the best was leg raises (frog like) in the pool. She explained afterwards that these kind of exercises help the baby into the optimal position for birth.



I definitely went through Transition. About 45 mins before he was born I felt the need to get out of the pool, bedroom and away from the midwives. I lost faith in myself and was saying the classic things like ‘I can’t do this any more… I’m so tired’. Dom was amazing: he had total confidence in me and kept giving me positive affirmations during this time. 

The midwife again left us to it… little did I know that she was sitting on the top stair…listening to my comments and surges! I then had a massive, nearly uncontrollable surge and feeling of my body forcing downwards… the midwife appeared and said ‘let’s get you back in the pool’.

 The next 30 minutes before he was born are a real blur. One minute the head wasn’t there, the next surge the baby’s head was born… two more big surges and he was here! 

All I can say about those last 30 minutes is the overriding feeling that I wasn’t pushing. My body and the baby had completely taken over and were doing all the hard work. Dom was doing the Birth Breathing with me and I was making lots of strange, primal noises! Dom reminding me to conserve my energy for the breath.



We stayed in the water for about 40 minutes, until he had latched on and the cord had stopped pulsing. Dom cut the cord and I delivered the placenta naturally within an hour after Gideon was born. During this time, after a brief examination from the midwife, he was skin to skin with Dom.

 The midwife was brilliant and while I was delivering the placenta in the bathroom she gave me what I can only describe as a biology lesson as she checked the extraordinary placenta, explained it’s anatomy and then showed me the sack & membrane – it was indeed very thick! The midwives then did their final checks of Gideon and myself and completed their records while Dom dealt with the birthing pool and put the bedroom back together.


He was born at 3.24am and we were all in bed by 6am, me with a cup of tea in my Wonder Woman mug!

It was truly an amazing experience and, as each day passes and we see how Gideon is calmly but rapidly growing before our very eyes, I feel so empowered by what we achieved.



And a massive thanks to Kat for your help in preparing us for such a magical experience.



Karen & Dominic x