Hannah Home Water Birth with a 5.2kg Baby, Physiological Birth with Private Midwifery Care

There is a four-year gap between her boys, and Hannah is refreshingly honest about why. “We were moving house, buying a house — there were a few logistical things going on,” she explains. Once life settled, they began trying and conceived on the first cycle. Given her history of endometriosis and PCOS (now referred to as PMOS), Hannah had braced herself for a longer journey. “I’d gone into this season knowing we might have challenges and feel really lucky that with both times we didn’t.”

Gestational Diabetes — Again

Hannah was diagnosed with gestational diabetes in both pregnancies, something she was not surprised by. “I’ve had issues with insulin resistance outside of pregnancy. When you then are pregnant and have the placenta and have that increased insulin resistance — it didn’t surprise me at all.” She managed it through diet, as she had with Archie, but this time she also used a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) — a sensor worn on the arm that tracks blood sugar levels in real time. “Once we’d got it calibrated and were confident it was all tracking correctly, I didn’t need to finger prick anymore unless there was an abnormal reading.” At approximately £450–£500 for the weeks she wore it, Hannah acknowledges it is not cheap, and there is currently no subsidy available for gestational diabetes clients in Australia. She hopes this changes. “It would be amazing if in the future they were an option. Our gestational diabetes guideline in South Australia has just been updated to include a section on CGMs, which is good.”

Pelvic Girdle Pain from Eight Weeks

One of the most challenging aspects of this pregnancy was sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain, which began as early as eight weeks. “I don’t even have a belly yet,” Hannah recalls thinking. “This is just due to the hormones and the relaxin.” She tried physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, and swimming — the only activity that offered consistent relief. “Being in the water was really the only time I didn’t have pain.” She also wore a firm SIJ belt around her hips, which helped stabilise the pelvis. The pain peaked around 22–24 weeks and, thankfully, did not worsen significantly, though it did lead her to wind down work earlier than planned, seeing her last lactation client at 37 weeks.

Trusting a Known Midwifery Team

Hannah returned to Nikita and Cassie from Embrace Midwifery  the same team who supported her first birth. This continuity of care proved invaluable, particularly when conversations about baby size arose. “Even knowing everything that I know from working as a midwife, you’re still just a vulnerable mum at forty weeks.” She declined additional growth scans, having weighed up the evidence and discussed her options thoroughly with her midwives. “The only thing that would come from that is an induction for a big baby, and that’s not a path I wanted to go down.” Her fundal height was tracking within normal range, her diabetes was well managed, and she felt confident that her body was capable  as it had already proven once before.

The Long Wait 41+2 Weeks

Going past her dates was mentally challenging. Hannah describes the final weeks as “a real rollercoaster”  oscillating between trust and doubt, patience and frustration. “Each day was a real roller coaster of ‘this is fine, this is normal’ and other times just being like, come on.” She had two stretch and sweeps — the first at around 40+5, at which point she was 2–3cm dilated with a very stretchy, thin cervix. The second was the day before labour began. “I do feel like that for me did kick off a bit of something happening.”

Labour  From Nothing to Everything in Minutes

Labour began quietly on a Tuesday morning at around 6am, with mild tightenings every ten minutes that felt identical to the false starts she had experienced over the previous week and a half. Hannah baked a cake. She had a bath. She genuinely did not think she was in labour. It was only when she decided to use her electric breast pump  something she had discussed with her midwife as a way to boost oxytocin  that everything shifted. “Within about a minute or two I had a really big contraction. That’s a bit bitey. That’s very different to what has been happening.” Within minutes, contractions were intense, frequent and unmistakable. “It just felt like whiplash.”

She called Nikita, filled the birth pool, put the TENS machine on, and rang her mum  all at once. Her midwife brain flickered on briefly when she felt something drop and wondered about a cord prolapse. She did a quick self-examination and felt a bulging bag of membranes no cord, no cervix. “I feel like I’m probably fully dilated or pretty close.” Everyone  her mum, Archie, both midwives and the birth photographer — made it in time. “I want to think he was born about an hour and a half after the midwives got there.”

The Birth

Hannah laboured on all fours over an inflatable birth stool, listening to affirmations through one earbud while Alex managed the pool, the logistics and her. Once in the water, she felt the shift she had been waiting for. “Now I can push. Now I can just fully go with that urge.” The pushing phase felt harder than with Archie something she later understood when August’s head circumference measured 40cm, three centimetres larger than his brother’s. “I had a moment where I was like, I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” But she did. August was born in his membranes partially en caul which Hannah believes contributed to that brief sensation of him pausing mid-birth. “He was kind of born in the caul.” She lifted him from the water herself. “I was like, you look different. You’re you, and you’re here.”

August weighed 5.2kg  100 grams more than Archie — with a cord looped gently around his ankle and meconium on his skin. He was pink, responsive and perfect.

Postpartum Haemorrhage  Managed at Home

Shortly after the birth, Hannah had a significant bleed in the pool. Her midwives moved calmly and efficiently administering medications, placing an IV line, and applying uterine traction. “So respectful. It was a situation that maybe could have been quite traumatic. It didn’t feel like that.” Hannah’s observations remained stable throughout, and the bleeding settled without the need for transfer. “That’s when it all sort of landed  we’ve done this.”

Archie cut the cord. He had been in and out of the room throughout, watching with curiosity before losing interest, then reappearing just in time to see his brother born under the water. He came to bed with Hannah afterwards, clutching a new fire truck. August had his first feed. And the family of four settled in together.

Things Discussed in This Episode

• Gestational diabetes in a second pregnancy and using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)
• Sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain and pelvic girdle pain from the first trimester
• Declining growth scans and induction for a suspected large baby
• Stretch and sweeps at 40+5 and 41+1
• Using a breast pump to encourage labour onset
• Prolonged latent phase and the mental load of going past your due date
• Labouring with a TENS machine and birth pool at home
• En caul birth (baby born in the membranes)
• Postpartum haemorrhage managed at home by a private midwifery team
• The value of midwifery continuity of care
• Sibling presence at a home birth
• Returning to work after a second baby as a self-employed midwife

Resources Mentioned

• Held Midwifery  birth education and postpartum care, Adelaide
• Spinning Babies / Optimal Maternal Positioning (OMP)
• Rebozo techniques for pelvic alignment
• Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) for gestational diabetes