Gestational Diabetes Diagnosis and Water Birth in the Midlands

I had my first baby in December 2021 and although it was a positive birth experience, due to a GDM diagnosis it was also quite an anxiety-inducing experience. I had her at 39 weeks +1 day and I was already facing pressure for an induction at 40 weeks. Luckily I never got there!

Anyway, due to this, the fact a lot of my friends had bad birth experiences, and the fact that inbetween pregnancies my family lost a lot of faith in the NHS (I won't go into the reasons!) - I looked into going private as soon as I found out about my second pregnancy, and came across Private Midwives.

Eirene was appointed my midwife and we had regular appointments at home. She has been absolutely fantastic! Although I did technically get another GDM diagnosis, I was on the cusp and was able to easily control my blood sugar levels through diet. Eirene also gave me lots of information, reading and recommended podcasts on the subject so I felt confident and informed. She also helped to keep the diabetes team at the hospital at bay!

Due to my first baby being born at 39 weeks +1, I was pretty surprised when I went over my due date with this pregnancy.

When I went over 41 weeks, I got a couple of extra scans booked in to make sure blood flow & placenta were all good. They were fine so I decided to keep going.

41+4 at 6.30pm, my waters broke. My mum came to collect my toddler & my partner and I had pizza, watched some feel good TV and I bounced on my ball. My partner got the room sorted with candles and fairy lights etc, it looked brilliant. I was having contractions but they were only around every 12 minutes and not painful, but more like intense tightenings. Things continued like this for quite a while.

At around 11pm we decided to go to bed to try to get some rest. But after only about 15 minutes, my contractions ramped up and were coming every few minutes and I really had to breathe and groan through them. I asked my partner to fill the pool and text Eirene to come over.

Between then and Eirene arriving at about 12.20am, contractions ramped up to pretty much back to back and difficult to breathe through...but I was coping!

The pool was full and ready by about 1am and there was a bit of respite between contractions after I got in the water.

Not long after being in the pool, I felt the urge to push and was pushing with every contraction. I could feel him coming down the birth canal and then bobbing back up when the contraction subsided. After a few pushes, I could feel his head push right down and I held the push down to get his head to push out. His shoulders and body followed soon after. There was an amazing moment where I had a second to sit back before lifting him out of the water. He looked around and let out a lovely cry. Jack was born at 1.25am 14/04/2024, 8lb1oz.

After an initial cuddle in the water, I asked Eirene for the injection to help the placenta out - I wanted everything out at that point!

I then got out and lay on the sofa with baby. Eirene asked Me to gently push down and the placenta came out easily and cleanly...it was massive! She took the time to talk us through the placenta and how it all worked etc, which was really interesting. It was nice to take a minute to appreciate all the work it had done and how amazing it was that I had grown a whole organ!

My partner got to work clearing everything up and Eirene gave Jack has vitamin K shot and then went about her birth notes whilst I had cuddles with Jack on the sofa. It was so amazing being at home.

We were tucked up in bed by 3am, after Eirene was happy that I'd had a wee and I was ok on my feet. She went off into the night like the hero she is and we marvelled at what we'd just done and tried to get some rest.

Thanks so much to Private Midwives, my experience has been so brilliant.