Emily - Mila’s Birth Story
Our beautiful daughter, Mila Gwen Gibson, was born at home on Wednesday 5th February 2025 at 7.19am. Labour itself and the birth went so smoothly.
It was nearly all a pipe dream though, you should know that what I learned during the Choices in Childbirth Workshop was what made the difference.
My waters broke Monday lunchtime and by Tuesday morning when labour hadn't started, I had to go into the hospital to monitor the baby. While there the obstetrician recommended I was induced that day as my chance of infection doubled after 24 hours. I'd already read some information online that morning about how long I could safely wait after waters breaking for labour to start, and the number I personally settled on as an acceptable risk was 48 hours.
I asked them to tell me what my chance of infection rose from and to as doubled meant nothing (thank you Shannon!). They also said I'd need an antibiotics IV drip when labour started in case I got an infection, regardless of whether I was induced or went into spontaneous labour - so a hospital birth was a given.
Luke and I considered the recommendations and decided to go home to wait until the following day. They told me after 24 hours my chance of spontaneous labour was only 10% so booked me in for induction at 6am on Wednesday morning.
I went home and did everything in the book to bring on labour safely, including walking up and down back beach stairs 3 times! By 10pm Tuesday night labour hadn't started and I'd made peace with the fact I wouldn't have my homebirth (or water birth in hospital as the doctor had said I couldn't due to infection risk) and went to bed with my bags packed. The last attempt was to bring up my oxytocin levels so lots of cuddling and loving words with Luke. I was remembering that animated video we were shown in the Choices in Childbirth Class with the hormones pumping round the body, and I began to visualise the oxytocin as a purple glow moving from my head down to my uterus and firing her up.
At 10.30pm my contractions started, I was in total disbelief. We got my affirmations, birth combs and tens machine out of my bag, filled the pool and buckled in for the ride. We decided we didn't want the antibiotics so stayed at home for the duration of labour. 9 hours later beautiful Mila was born naturally in a calm environment (despite one of the cats bringing a bird into the house at 4am!).
I wanted you to know the impact the Choices in Childbirth Class had on my birthing story, I was so empowered by what I learnt that I was confident enough to trust in myself and advocate for what I thought was in our best interests. The outcome is one chilled out healthy baby who has only known her home environment.
Emily with her beautiful baby girl Mila, born at home