Birth story

Dot writes:
I’m not sure where to start with this. The beginning, obviously; but I don’t think I can convey what it was like just by saying what happened. It was such a straightforward birth and it all went pretty much to plan, even though (as last time) it took me at least half the labour [...]

Francis Victor

And here he is, named at last.

New Arrival

New baby boy (as yet unnamed)
born 18 September 2009, 9:28am, at home, weighing 3.18kg (7lbs).

Jitters

Dot writes: 38 weeks 1 day. I’ve been feeling pretty crampy. Lots of Braxton Hicks (not painful, but tight all round the belly and lower back, coming on promptly with any sort of exercise). Yesterday I had – not exactly a bleed, but some staining that wasn’t how the books describe a ’show’. I rang [...]

Sprout update

Dot writes: we now get weekly visits from the midwives, and they came this morning. Happily Hugh was in good form. He engaged the midwives (Niamh, the senior midwife, and Aoife, a trainee) in conversation as best he could while I nipped upstairs to the bathroom; which is to say that he pointed at the [...]

36 weeks 5 days

Fizz plop / more birth plan

Dot writes: Ken and I both stayed at home today and we had a fun-packed morning of birth preparation, interspersed with reading about the Old English Exodus (me) and some sort of awe-inspiring philosophy cleverness (Ken). Ken inflated the birth pool and filled it. This took half an hour using cold water only; presumably it [...]

Birth plan

Dot writes: earlier today I typed up my birth plan, ready to discuss it with the midwife when she visits tomorrow.

1. I wish to give birth at home, attended by the Community Midwives.
2. I would like to be supported by my husband, [Ken], and also by my mother, [Katimum], if she is able to be [...]

Midwifery, homebirth and the Oireachtas

Dot writes: by a rather complex process I came upon this transcript of a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children which included a presentation from the Midwifery Birth Alliance. It’s quite a long transcript but extremely interesting as an example of how a great tangle of factors contribute to the state of [...]

Planning a homebirth – the big list

Dot writes: OK, I was going to write a brief witty post about something utterly unconnected with toddlers, babies or birth, in the hope maybe somebody in the ether would want to read it and boost our stats. But then I thought – who cares? This is what’s on my mind. Maybe my mum and [...]