Anna's unplanned Christmas Day freebirth

Anna shares her story of an unplanned freebirth on Christmas day! Showing the importance of fully trusting our bodies & our intuition.

My first birth was a hospital birth. It ended in theatre with a spinal, forceps, and two nights in hospital. I was overall OK with this, but since I had very easily got to 10cm dilated I was unclear why it had ended in the way it had. 

Second time round, I did a bit of reading and decided I wanted a home birth. I liked the idea of having more freedom to move (first time I lay on my back the entire time), and felt I would just be much calmer at home which I hoped would speed up and allow for me to deliver without intervention.

My home birth was all planned, including hiring a birthing pool... On Christmas Day (at which point I was 38+1) at 8:30am, watching my 3 year old open her presents, I started to feel very uncomfortable, soon realising I was having contractions. My daughter went to her Granny’s, and I just rocked on my birthing ball, paced the house and practiced calm breathing. We rang triage and they said they would try to get someone to come out to us. About an hour later, the intensity ramped up and I realised I was in the transition phase. I had a TENs machine which got me through it, and I lent intensely on my daughter’s kitchen tower. My body knew what to do to push and breathe through the pain.

Triage couldn’t find anyone to come out, so told me to go in to hospital. There was no way I could get in the car, so mentally told myself we (me & hubby) were going alone. My body literally took over. I felt weirdly calm and collected. I listened intently to my body as it pushed my baby out. First the head, then a contraction later the body.  My husband caught him and, as he was born in his sac, removed it.

I massively think women need to do what they feel is best for them when it comes to birth. I also think that empowering women (including hypnobirthing) in the process of birth and being confident in their own bodies, would also make more women have a much more enjoyable birthing experience.