Rebecca is back to share her third birth, another planned home birth in Devon after two positive home births before this one. She prepared exactly as she had before: hypnobirthing, positive birth stories, a supportive home birth team. Everyone told her a third baby would come quickly.

It didn't. Labour lasted more than ten hours, far longer than either of her previous births, and nothing about it felt familiar. She needed her husband beside her in a way she never had before, had to change position to help her baby turn, and reconsidered pain relief she'd planned to avoid. When her son finally arrived, the reason for the long labour became clear.

In this episode we talk about:

• Discovering a ruptured ovarian cyst in early pregnancy, and mistaking it for something more serious
• Changing midwives after a dismissive response to her home birth plan
• A labour lasting far longer than her previous two, and changing position to help her baby rotate
• Delivering at home with the cord wrapped around her son's neck, stomach and leg
• The postpartum struggle with constipation that nobody warned her about

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebecca is a mum of three from Devon, and in this episode she shares the first two of her birth stories. She had planned a calm water birth at her local birth centre, complete with a hypnobirthing course and a positive mindset. Her waters broke at 39 weeks after an evening walk home from a prayer meeting, and what followed was a labour that moved far faster than anyone expected.

Examined at two to three centimetres, she was sent home from hospital with instructions to come back for an induction that night. Within hours she needed to push, could not reach the midwives on the phone, and gave birth on her lounge floor with two paramedics. Second time round, wanting a home birth on her own terms, she was told by a midwife that she needed to check with her senior what to do with a woman who was refusing medical care, simply for declining an early induction.

In this episode we talk about:

• Being sent home from hospital at 2 to 3cm dilated with no bed available on the ward
• Giving birth on the lounge floor with paramedics after the midwives could not be reached
• Being told she was refusing medical care for declining an early induction
• Standing her ground against a consultant's stillbirth statistics at 42 weeks
• A four hour home birth exactly on her own terms the second time round

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jess is a first time mum from Cardiff who planned a home birth from the moment she found out she was pregnant. She did hypnobirthing, joined antenatal classes, and built a relationship with the midwife who ended up attending her labour. Contractions started at 40 weeks and 5 days, and she laboured calmly at home through the night with a birth pool, gas and air, and a TENS machine.

After hours stuck at 5cm with a swollen cervix, she was transferred to hospital by blue light ambulance. Her waters broke naturally with thick meconium, and then her baby's heartbeat disappeared from the monitor. Within a minute the room filled with staff, and Jess was rushed for an emergency C-section.

In this episode we talk about:

• Getting the green light for an NHS home birth and what happens when no midwives are available
• Labouring calmly at home with a birth pool, gas and air, and a TENS machine
• What it is like to stall at 5cm for hours before deciding to transfer to hospital
• Losing your baby's heartbeat on the monitor and the category 1 C-section that followed
• Why the postnatal ward, not the surgery, ended up being the hardest part

This episode is for anyone who has planned every detail of their birth and needs to hear that it is okay when things go a completely different way.

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erin is a first time mum and veterinary nurse whose son's birth started with an induction at 37 weeks after two episodes of reduced movement, and ended up somewhere none of them expected. Days of gel pessaries barely moved things along, and once her waters were broken and a hormone drip started, her body reacted badly, bleeding heavily and sending her blood pressure spiking. Once that settled, her son turned out to be lying the wrong way, with staff losing his heartbeat on the monitor more than once, which led to a tense wait for a fetal blood sample before Erin went in for an emergency C section. Postpartum brought its own scare too, with her blood pressure climbing for days before anyone acted on it.

She talks about:

• Being induced at 37 weeks after reduced fetal movements
• A hormone drip reaction that led to heavy bleeding and dangerously high blood pressure
• Waiting on a fetal blood sample to check on her baby before an emergency C section
• Finding out her baby's sex in theatre
• Postpartum blood pressure spikes and birth notes that didn't match what happened

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 

Tash shares her second birth story, a precipitous NHS hospital birth that started with her waters breaking at midnight and ended just thirteen minutes after she walked through the doors.

Tash is a mum of two. Her first birth with her daughter Betty was a positive NHS hospital birth with an epidural, though panic during her first contraction sent her hypnobirthing prep out the window. With her son Leo, her waters broke unexpectedly at midnight, days before a planned induction, and contractions came three minutes apart with no gaps from the very start.

She talks about:

• A precipitous second labour that started with waters breaking at midnight, days before a planned induction
• Labouring through an hour long car journey with contractions three minutes apart and no pain relief
• Arriving at hospital already crowning, and a birth in a triage side room before the midwife even had her name
• Fetal ejection reflex, and what it felt like when her body pushed the baby out almost on its own
• A frightening first night at home when her fast birth meant her son hadn't drained the fluid from his lungs
• Why the epidural was completely right for her first birth, and completely unnecessary for her second

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabby is an American mum of three living near Cambridge who comes back to share her third birth, after an emergency C-section with her first and a successful VBAC with her second. Labour started fast, in the shower, and she nearly gave birth in the car on the way to the Rosie Hospital. Her daughter arrived within minutes of arriving, but minutes later Gabby began to haemorrhage, losing nearly two litres of blood and needing a manual removal of clots, fully unmedicated. She was discharged the same day, without iron tablets.

She talks about:

• A precipitous labour that went from the shower to nearly the car
• Giving birth again within minutes of arriving at hospital
• Postpartum haemorrhage, a manual removal of clots, and what that actually felt like
• Being sent home the same day without iron tablets after losing nearly two litres of blood
• How this birth compared to her first C-section and her VBAC

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabby is an American mum of three living near Cambridge. Her first daughter was born in Tampa, Florida after hours of pushing with no progress, ending in an unplanned C-section. After moving to the UK, she went through a miscarriage before falling pregnant again with her second daughter, throwing herself into hypnobirthing and Spinning Babies to prepare for a VBAC. When her waters broke in hospital, her daughter arrived in three pushes, completely unmedicated.

She talks about:

• The US maternity system, a big baby, and being told her body might not manage a vaginal birth
• Miscarrying at home and what that grief looked like while settling into a new country
• Preparing physically and mentally for a VBAC with hypnobirthing and Spinning Babies
• Being counselled on repeat C-section risk mid labour and how she handled it
• What an unmedicated VBAC actually felt like from first contraction to delivery

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebecca is a first time mum to Harry, and she chose a planned C section for her first birth. She had lived with health anxiety for years before she even got pregnant, and a family history of shoulder dystocia made the idea of a natural labour feel frightening rather than exciting. By her twenty week scan, doctors kept telling her the baby was measuring big, and that fear only grew from there. At twenty eight weeks she told her midwife what she wanted. The midwife questioned her.

Everything changed when Rebecca met a consultant midwife called Hannah. She gave Rebecca two hours of pure clinical honesty, no judgement, just facts and statistics. Hannah even wrote on her notes to stop mentioning the size of the baby. For the first time in her pregnancy, Rebecca felt calm, in control, and completely certain she was making the right choice for her.

In this episode we talk about:

• Choosing a planned C section by maternal request, and having to ask more than once before anyone properly listened
• Living with constant warnings about having a big baby, and what actually happened when he was born
• What it really feels like to be on the operating table for a C section, and why it was far less frightening than she expected
• Why her milk did not come in until day ten, and the emotional day it finally happened
• Discovering and treating a tongue tie privately after breastfeeding became painful and unsettled

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt like they had to justify wanting a planned C section, or worried that asking questions makes you difficult.

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She had wanted a water birth from the beginning. She had worked with families around birth for 13 years. She thought she knew what to expect. And then labour actually started, and she learned what it really feels like to be in it.

Jess is a mum of two boys from the Midlands who had two positive NHS hospital water births. Her first was a long one. She laboured through the night at home, got sent back from hospital at 1cm, returned a few hours later, and eventually got into the pool. She pushed for an hour before needing an episiotomy she had not seen coming. Her son shot out so fast the midwives had to catch him. Her second was calmer, faster, and she picked her baby up out of the water herself.

Before any of that though, there was a lot to get through. Two years of trying. Two miscarriages, one of them traumatic. Severe nausea in both pregnancies that she did not know she could get medication for the first time around. And second time, a stuck coil that took far longer to remove than it should have, polycystic ovaries, and a new job she had to tell her boss about at 6 weeks because the sickness had already taken over.

In this episode we talk about:

• What two miscarriages felt like and how pregnancy anxiety shaped her first birth experience from the very start
• The difference between knowing how to advocate for yourself and actually doing it, and how her first pregnancy taught her to show up differently second time around
• What it is really like to be sent home at 1cm after labouring through the night
• An episiotomy she did not see coming and a recovery she had not prepared herself for despite years of postnatal support work
• A stuck coil that delayed her second pregnancy for longer than expected and what it took to get there
• Severe nausea in both pregnancies and how medication made a real difference second time around
• A retained placenta, a second degree tear, and a recovery that was genuinely easier than the first
• Gender disappointment with her second son and why she believes making space for that feeling is the only way through it

This episode is for anyone heading into their first or second birth wanting to feel calmer, more prepared, and less alone in whatever they are feeling.

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jo had been trying to conceive for years. She was told she had unexplained infertility. She decided not to do IVF. She decided to adopt. And then, completely out of nowhere, she got pregnant.

Jo is a mum of two girls from the North of England who shares a story unlike any other on the podcast. Her family came to her in two completely different ways. Her eldest daughter was adopted at 11 months old. Her youngest arrived as a total shock pregnancy two years later, after years of being told pregnancy was unlikely. Because of her epilepsy and chronic kidney disease, Jo was in consultant-led care throughout. Her baby was breech and had to be turned by ECV at around 35 weeks. At 38 weeks, growth concerns meant an induction was booked. What followed was five days in hospital, two pessaries, a hormone drip, labour stopped twice due to infection markers and heart rate concerns, a spinal block, a rotation in theatre, and a forceps delivery. Her daughter was born blue. Jo was vomiting from the spinal while listening to the team work on her baby. It was 90 minutes before she could hold her for the first time.

In this episode we talk about:

• What the adoption process actually looks like from start to finish, including the stages, the home assessments, and what you are asked to consider
• Managing epilepsy and chronic kidney disease through pregnancy and why certain pain relief options were not available to Jo
• What a five-day NHS induction feels like from the inside, and what nobody tells you about pessary removal
• How the team stopped Jo's labour twice and what that experience was like in the moment
• Why the birth reflection service at her hospital helped her make sense of what happened and why she wishes it had been available to her husband too

This episode is for anyone who has had a birth that went nothing like they expected and is still trying to make sense of it.

The stories shared on British Birthing Stories are real, personal experiences from real women. I am not a medical professional and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice. Every pregnancy and birth is different, and I always encourage you to speak to your midwife or doctor about your own individual care.

British Birthing Stories shares real, unfiltered stories of childbirth in the UK, from pregnancy and labour to postpartum recovery.

These stories reflect personal experiences and should not be taken as or replace medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified healthcare professional.

Follow us on social: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube

Want to come on the podcast? Get in touch and share your story here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.