Monika: Two Births, First Hospital Birth, Birth Trauma and PTSD, Planned NHS Home Birth, Precipitous Labour, Born Before Arrival in the Shower, No Midwife or Doula Present, Husband Caught Baby
About this episode
Monika shares her contrasting birth experiences, highlighting the trauma of her first hospital birth and the empowering journey of her planned home birth.
Monika is a mum of two from Bedfordshire who shares two very different birth stories. Her first was a hospital birth that left her diagnosed with PTSD. A midwife from out of area who had never been to the unit before, waters broken accidentally during an internal examination, hours of pain with no support, and a postnatal period full of flashbacks. She knew before she left the hospital that she would need help to process it. So second time around she did things completely differently. She hired a doula at six weeks pregnant. She researched home birth until it stopped feeling scary. She joined a dedicated NHS home birth team who visited her at home, knew her history, and knew her daughter's name. She declined monitoring scans at 42 weeks because she trusted how she felt. And then at seven in the morning on a warm July day, standing in a narrow bathtub on all fours, she told her baby they were going to have to do this together. And they did. In this episode we talk about: What it is like to be left alone in a hospital corridor for over two hours in labour with no midwife available How a traumatic first birth led to a PTSD diagnosis and what getting that support…
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