ABIGAIL'S BIRTH STORY

From the moment I found out I was pregnant I knew wanted to have a water birth in my own home.  I contacted Tamara and after meeting her I knew she would be the perfect person to deliver my baby.

I went into labour very suddenly at 4pm on 13th July 2008, I had expected a slow introduction as it was my first baby, but was immediately having strong contractions every 6 minutes.  I decided I wanted to have a bath so my husband, Brad, ran me a bath and we chilled in the bathroom together for about an hour when I thought I'd go and lie on the bed. 

By this time my contractions were about 4 minutes apart so Brad decided to start filling the birthing pool, unfortunately this took a lot longer than we anticipated - Tamara had warned me that I should fill the pool up before having the baby but I'd only pumped it up  - I didn't bother filling it with water.  The hose that came with the pool kit had a tap adaptor with it - unfortunately it didn't fit our tap!  By the time Brad had realised this my contractions were very close together and getting much stronger, we felt very ruffled at this stage and the calm feelings that we had when the labour started were evaporating very quickly - it was time to call Tamara.  Brad phoned Tamara at about 8pm explaining about the tap adaptor not fitting and the strong contractions and at 8:30pm Tamara arrived with a tap adaptor (that actually fitted our tap) and some gas and air!

Once Tamara arrived a sense of calm was restored and both Brad and I felt terrific relief.  From then on everything happened so quickly - the pool started to fill - all be it very slowly due to our feeble water pressure and hot water tank that empties very quickly.  Tamara was able to show me some positions to make me feel more comfortable until the pool was deep enough for me to get in.  Once I was able to get in the pool I felt a bit of relief from my contractions and soon I was beginning to push my baby into the world.

Tamara was amazing at this final stage and without her I would have wanted to give in - she reassured me and kept a calm atmosphere in the room as well as coaching me through the last of the pushing to ensure I didn't tear.

The baby was born eight hours after labour had started and Tamara had to pick the baby out of the water as both me and my husband were a bit taken aback at the presence of another little person in the room!  Baby Leo was born at 12:22am on 14th July - it was exactly the birth I had wanted and I will always be so grateful to Tamara for understanding the birth I wanted and making it happen, allowing me to have such positive memories of my son's entrance into the world.