We found out we were expecting twins when I was 21 weeks pregnant, at the anomaly scan. I had declined the 12-week scan and had chosen not to book my pregnancy care with the NHS at that point. Twins were not on our radar so to say we were surprised is an understatement! I’d always known I would plan a home birth if I had a baby and decided I would stick with planning a home birth with my twins, if I was well, and they were well. Natasha was my midwife throughout my pregnancy, although I did a lot of self-midwifing too! I booked with the NHS at around 23 weeks as I wanted to be in their system in case the twins decided to come early.

My pregnancy was plain sailing up until about 40 weeks when I developed pre-eclampsia. I had high blood pressure and protein in my urine but otherwise felt well. I started on antihypertensive medicine which helped to bring the blood pressure down slightly. I declined induction of labour at this point as I felt confident that the babies were well and wanted to monitor the pre-eclampsia instead.

At 40+6 I went into labour after watching the Olympics on TV all afternoon (plenty of feel-good hormones going around!). My labour felt like it started thick and fast, I recall texting Natasha asking if I was being a wuss as I didn’t feel like I’d been contracting for very long, but they were very strong. I put the TENS on and was mobilising around as much as I could, although I’d developed pelvic pain in the final few weeks of pregnancy so moving was very painful. Pretty soon I asked Sam to fill the pool up – hoping the water would provide relief. I got into the pool and it did feel nice, although contractions continued to come one on top of the other. I asked Sam to call Natasha at this point.

Natasha arrived and I was relieved to see her. I declined any monitoring of myself or the babies. The babies were very wriggly, so I had no concerns about their well-being. Contractions continued to come back-to-back with very little respite, but I knew birth wasn’t close. I asked for a vaginal examination – I’d attempted a self-examination prior to this but my bump was so huge and the first baby’s head still high in my pelvis that I couldn’t feel a thing. I wanted to know what my cervix was up to and where the first baby was in my pelvis to try and make sense of the mega contractions I was having. My cervix was 2cm dilated and the baby’s head was at ‘spines’ in my pelvis. I got back in the pool and after a small lull in contractions, they came back in full force – long, strong and back-to-back. I was vomiting a lot and peeing became increasingly difficult – sitting on the toilet was excruciating and I would have a very long contraction every time I tried. 5 or so hours after my previous vaginal examination, I requested another – at this point I wanted to make a decision about whether to stay at home or transfer to hospital for pain relief and because a couple of things just felt ‘off’. Again, I didn’t feel like the birth was imminent…but my contractions were relentless, and I knew that the vomiting and being unable to pee were not the best signs! This time my cervix was 4cm dilated and the baby was in the same position. I decided to transfer to hospital for an epidural as I did not feel I was about to have the babies imminently and the hours of intense, long and very regular contractions was taking its toll on me. Natasha called the hospital to let them know we were coming in and then we drove in. As this wasn’t an emergency transfer, we chose to drive as an ambulance transfer was going to take 2 hours.

On arriving at the hospital, I was immediately put in a room on labour ward and assigned a midwife. After having a cannula sited, a scan to determine the positions of the babies and a CTG commenced…I had the epidural. I started feeling pain relief soon after this. The scan showed that the second twin, who had been head down all pregnancy, had flipped to being in the breech position – which was a surprise as I was amazed he had any space to do such a big move! I had a good chat with the consultant about my birth plan and what I did and didn’t want – it felt like a respectful discussion and at no point did I feel like I was being pushed into one thing or another. When I was comfortable, we sent Natasha home to get some rest as she had been up all night with us and I felt like I was in good hands with the team who were on shift at the hospital that day.

At my next examination, which I’d requested to be later than the routine 4 hours after my previous one, my cervix was 8cm dilated. Contractions were still coming regularly without any need for the hormone drip (this can often follow an epidural!), and the babies were happy. At the next examination my cervix was 9cm dilated and the first baby was still at ‘spines’. I asked for the waters of the first twin to be broken as I wanted an FSE clip put on to monitor their heartbeat. Prior to this, monitoring was only possible in one very specific position on my abdomen, which meant changing position was difficult as we kept losing contact. Upon breaking my waters, there was thick meconium – which didn’t faze me as I was 41 weeks and knew my babies were happy because of all the movements. After the FSE was applied I was able to lie on my side and use a peanut ball – I was trying to encourage the first twin to rotate and descend!

My epidural started to become ineffective at some point and I had a lot of breakthrough pain, which after having pain relief for several hours, was rather unpleasant. After breaking the waters I also started to feel lots of pressure in my bottom. This felt quite exciting (although I had sent Sam home to grab some bits…whoops!) as it was the first time I’d felt like the babies might be close. This sensation went on for an hour or so and I had another examination, which confirmed my cervix was fully dilated…but I knew immediately that the first twin was still in the same position in my pelvis. I remember saying to the midwife something along the lines of, ‘the baby’s not just sitting there, your fingers have gone too far!’. I think at this point my body was trying its best to turn the first baby into a more favourable position.

After this the epidural wore off completely and I had to have it re-sited, which was also unsuccessful, so the anaesthetist gave me a combined spinal-epidural (CSE) and that provided some relief. I met the nighttime consultant and discussed my birth plan with him – again, I felt respected in my decisions. I then started pushing and did so for an hour or so – the CSE was providing pain relief, but I was still fully mobile, so I was able to get into lots of different positions for pushing. Although the monitoring of the babies’ heartbeats kept losing contact, which was annoying probably more so for my midwives, but I never once worried about their well-being during labour. The CSE started to wear off and I was getting nasty breakthrough pain after an hour or so of pushing. At this point I was reviewed by the consultant again and he examined me. We discussed having an instrumental assisted birth, which I felt was what needed to happen at this point. The first twin was in exactly the same position he’d been in since the start of the labour. I was asked where I wanted the instrumental birth to happen, and I requested theatre (I think to the relief of the doctor…!) as I wanted proper pain relief given that mine had worn off. There was a short delay in getting there as the theatre was busy, during which time I was huffing on gas and air as the CSE faded away.

When we got to theatre, I had a spinal sited and felt true relief as I went completely numb from the waist down. The midwives kept me informed of what was happening at each stage – I requested this as despite being numb, I strongly believe that we should know what’s happening to our bodies in theatre! I also requested my head be raised so I could see the doctor more clearly – my midwife brain was very much engaged. A ventouse was attempted but after a few pulls, the consultant said it wasn’t going to work. He asked at that point if I wanted him to try forceps (which he was confident he could do) or if I wanted a caesarean section. I said I would rather attempt a vaginal birth than have a caesarean…even though I knew this would mean having an episiotomy – something I had reiterated that I really did not want unless absolutely necessary. I said that I accepted that I would need an episiotomy in this scenario and remember thinking what a bummer it would be if the second twin then needed to be born via caesarean section..!

So, the first twin, Finn, was born via forceps and placed onto my abdomen skin-to-skin, where me and my midwife provided some gentle stimulation as he was a little surprised to be born. His cord was quite short and after about 4 minutes, it was clamped and cut. Then, 22 minutes later, the second twin, River, was born also with the help of forceps. River had flipped himself head down following the birth of Finn – there had been no scanning or stabilising, he’d just done it himself. Pushing with a spinal is the weirdest feeling – you really don’t feel like you’re doing anything, but you get told that you are and, in my case, have a team of friendly theatre staff all rooting for you. River also was placed skin-to-skin and had about 3 minutes before his cord was clamped and cut. Then my two, good sized babies were on my chest! Wild.

I was bleeding from my episiotomy, and I recall looking over at the suction bottle, seeing it rather full of my blood, and calmly asking the anaesthetist if I was having a post-partum haemorrhage…to which he calmly replied, ‘yes, and we’re just going to give you some blood if that’s okay!’. After my episiotomy had been sutured and we left theatre, the midwives said they could weigh and check the babies later after more skin-to-skin. At this point I requested they quickly be weighed before returning for skin-to-skin as I was too curious to know their weights. Both were just over 4kg each – I knew they weren’t going to be small, but I was amazed (and so was everyone else I think) that I’d grown twins that size!

So, my birth did not go according to my plan A. I had pictured a home waterbirth and instead had a forceps birth in theatre, with an episiotomy and a PPH…oh and a dash of transient kidney damage in there too. I absolutely would have preferred them to have been born at home, in a slightly more straightforward manner, but that is not my birth story this time. What surprised me the most is how good I felt about my birth experience despite it being so off plan. It’s the type of birth that possibly looks ‘traumatic’ on paper, but that is not how I experienced it at all. I was very aware that the decisions I made could lead to more interventions (which they did) – but I felt very in control of making those decisions and crucially I felt supported and respected by the hospital staff. I never thought I would have an epidural, I never thought I would be requesting vaginal examinations…and I definitely never thought I would say I was happy with a hospital birth experience involving forceps and an episiotomy (okay episiotomies are still horrible, no two ways about that!) – but I made peace with the birth experience very quickly.

I’m so glad I declined induction (repeatedly..!) and waited for labour to start spontaneously and that I started my labour at home, with just Sam and Natasha. I think these things put me in good stead for having a vaginal birth – and having a vaginal birth was important to me. I would absolutely be planning a home birth again if I have another baby but I’m glad I was able to make the choice during this labour to transfer to hospital when I felt like I needed it.