Love reading positive birth stories? You’re in the right place! This positive birth story is with Sarah who hoped to have a waterbirth. However, her baby was breech and ECV was unsuccessful, so she opted for a planned cesarean and describes it as “the most amazing experience” .
Like many, my birth ‘plan’ was to have spontaneous labour, a water birth and to nail it using just breathing and gas/air.Mister man had different ideas though and was frank breech from 33 weeks. We researched anything that may help to turn him, and began with holistic methods – we did moxibustion most nights, along with any and all inversions! (see Spinning Babies website).
After being given our options by the hospital (C section no ECV, C section if needed after ECV, or risky vaginal birth) we used EBRAN (multiple times in every which way) to decide what was best for us.We opted to try the ECV as I was determined to try everything possible to turn baby.
I felt quite anxious ahead of the procedure and had been using my breathing techniques and relaxation audios to prepare and calm my overactive mind. This being said, I also felt positive and totally in control in that it was our choice, and it was a choice we had both fully considered and were informed about (I’m a research nerd who reads up excessively). The staff at the hospital were amazing and once I was there, I got fully in the zone with my breathing techniques and my husband remarked how unphased I was – down mainly to the controlled breathing.I had 2 doctors try to turn baby and I’ll be frank (no pun intended ), it was the most uncomfortable and painful experience I’ve had. I opted not to try gas and air when it was offered midway, but this was an option.
Controlled breathing was invaluable in remaining calm (along with crushing my husband’s hand) – the consultant felt she could try for 17 minutes as I was apparently tolerating it so well !Whilst it was unsuccessful, I felt really proud of myself and happy that we’d tried that avenue.
There was part of me that (ridiculously) felt like I was ‘failing’ if I couldn’t deliver my baby naturally and it took me some time to get my head round having a C section. Through the course, I’d been visualising so many different birth scenarios and imagining all the different outcomes… when it came to it, I was gutted I may not get my spontaneous, natural labour I’d hoped for. Having said this, after the failed ECV, we finalised our birth preferences and felt entirely in control of the situation and indescribably excited!! We saw all the positives in our new plan and after being given a date for the section, we had some fun with our families with them placing wagers on what day baby would be worn.
The actual cesarean was T H E most amazing experience. It felt like all the Christmas Days in one!Again, I used my breathing techniques (more the night before actually) to control my nerves of the unknown, but the staff were so amazing and reassuring from start to finish, it ended up feeling like I was in surgery with a bunch of friends! Huge thanks to GRH.
Despite it being a planned C section, we still wrote some birth preferences; one of which was to drop the drapes as soon as possible. I’ll never forget the moment I saw my little boy’s bum enter the world …Swiftly followed by his beautiful head which was momentarily stuck near my ribs! This immediately explained why the ECV was unsuccessful.
He was quite sleepy initially and needed waking to feed, and along with my flat nips, he was struggling to latch effectively. Despite desperately wanting to get home, I chose to stay in hospital an extra night for more support with breastfeeding, and this was the best decision I could have made. Once home and feeling more confident, he was latching like a trooper and still so far so good. Not a sore nip in sight amazingly.
Even if your birth ‘idea’ doesn’t go quite the way you envisaged, using hypnobirthing tools and having the right positive mindset means you can still feel so empowered and in control.
Click the link for more information about The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Know what you can do to stack the odds in your favour for the birth that you want. Videos, checklists, audios & a support group all created by a midwife to get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth.
This positive birth story is with Hannah’s first baby. Baby Ada arrived at 39 weeks and 2 days following a waterbirth on a Maternity Led Birth Unit.
I am so excited to be able to finally write my own birth story, I have been waiting so long and have been so curious to know how my birth would go! I joined this group when I was only 12 weeks pregnant and have loved and appreciated reading all of your stories. I genuinely believe reading them was the best thing I did to prepare for birth, it helped me understand that birth can happen in so many different ways and still have happy mummas and babies at the end of it. So I won’t apologise for how long my birth story is, because I loved reading the long ones!
On Tuesday 16th March I was officially on my second day of maternity leave, I had chilled out after a busy last week of work and was already getting impatient to meet our little one! I was worried it would be weeks more of waiting, but luckily it wasn’t! I had a fairly odd first sign of labour – lots of farting on Tuesday evening 😂 which was accompanied with some lower abdominal pain that I just assumed was wind related! By the time we went to bed it was getting a bit painful, but I still thought it was wind. At 11:30AM the pain was enough to wake me up/stop me sleeping and I realised it was coming in very regularly waves every 7 minutes or so. This, plus the bloody show and some diarrhoea, convinced me it was the real deal starting, but I thought it could all still take days!
I knew I should try and rest, but couldn’t get to sleep so I gave up at 5AM and a day of waiting and trying to distract myself from contractions began! Luckily, my husband Will took the day off work so he could help me with this, and contractions aside (which stayed regular throughout) we had a great day. We stayed very busy with ‘early labour activities’ including making Mary Berry’s hot cross buns, watching the cricket, attempting an ambitious Japanese garden puzzle and two separate trips to the local park for a walk!
At around 4pm we called MLBU to check we were doing the right things- at this point contractions were about 3 in 12/13 minutes and I could still speak through them (although I didn’t want too). The midwife, advised us to stay home till the famous ‘can’t talk through’ and 3 in 10 minute contractions arrived. All day I had been pretty worried about how long and drawn out the labour was going to be and how I would cope with birth if I couldn’t sleep through days of labour! Looking back I find it really hard to distinguish when the contractions ramped up/changed, but by the evening they were becoming quite hard work 😅 I had my TENS machine on (loved the boost button!) and I was really needing the breathing to help me stay calm. At some point my husband convinced me to have some plain pasta for dinner and we went for another (much slower) walk to Tesco to buy some bread as a distraction (random I know). We must have looked pretty odd as by this point, to cope with contractions, I had to literally hold onto my husband and have him help count me through my breathing. I had 4 contractions on the way to Tesco and one inside! We were laughing in between though, as it’s so odd to be coping with such a strong contraction one minute and then feeling fine and strolling along to Tesco the next!
I told my husband to try and get some sleep and even though I couldn’t sleep, that I would try and ‘rest’ between contractions downstairs. It didn’t really work, I was so tired by this point, but would jolt awake with every contraction. So at around 00:30AM I woke him up to help me with the contractions and we decided to call the MLBU again. The problem was that although my contractions were now definitely very intense and I could not talk through them, they were still 3 in 12 not the magic 3 in 10! So the midwife, Linda, advised us to try and wait it out a bit longer at home to really get in established labour and advised me to have a shower etc. I took the TENS machine off to have a shower and I’m not sure which of these changes did it, but suddenly my contractions were coming a lot more regularly and were even more intense, to the point I really needed to be hanging on to my husband to remotely cope with them. At 1:20am we called the MLBU and said we were coming in! Not really sure how we made it to be honest, my husband managed to get me dressed and get everything loaded into the car while coaching me through every, now very regular, contraction, he was a real hero! I think I went through the transition phase while still at home, as I remember being at the top of the stairs telling him the classic ‘I can’t do this’ and thinking if I get to MLBU and I’m 1cm I need a C-section! I remember mooing a bit to cope with contractions and definitely started to feel pushing/pressure, which I didn’t tell my husband.
I am super proud of myself for coping with the 20 minute car journey to the hospital, I managed to brace myself off the seat a little to deal with the ‘pushing’ feeling and did my up breathing the whole time, even between the contractions, with my eyes firmly shut and we managed to get there.
We made it to the MLBU at 2am and were greeted by Heather a lovely student midwife. Her and Linda watched one contraction, which I was now fully not coping with and then offered me gas and air. Wow, that stuff works, the first contraction with gas and air was so manageable, the contrast to the last one without it made it seem like an absolute breeze. Linda asked me if I wanted a pool birth, which I hadn’t been sure about before, but said I wanted to try for pain relief and luckily she managed to fill it up in time! I think from the state of me, Linda said she was happy not to examine me and let me go with my body, but after spending so long convincing myself I might only be 1cm dilated, I wanted to know. I was over the moon when she told me I was 10cm!! We had somehow managed it all at home, I was so relieved and so proud of us. After this we got straight in the pool, luckily my new best friend ‘gas and air’ could come with me for this, and combined with the water it really was comforting for the pain and pressure/pushing. Those pushing contractions really are amazing, I can’t explain how intense the feeling and pressure is. It felt like no time at all had passed while I was in the pool, pushing on all fours, before I could feel that her head was pretty near to coming out. I had used an aniball to try and prepare for birth, so although a baby’s head is obviously very different, I could tell that something was near to coming out of my vagina and remember feeling some hair!!
This part is all a bit of blur to me, but I my husband reckons I had 3 or 4 contractions with the head crowning. With lots of encouragement from Will, Heather and Linda I managed to push her head out, then had a little 2 second panic because that bit hurt, but managed to calm down enough to push her body out before the end of the contraction (felt like she flew out compared to her head ). And then it was just amazing, all of a sudden our little baby girl who we had been waiting so long to meet, was just there in the water all pink and healthy with big dark eyes and lots of dark hair. Truly amazing. She had her cord round her neck, but Linda sorted this out in seconds and then I was just holding her and she was crying (enough for us to know she was okay, but not enough to be stressful ). I had the injection for the placenta, Will cut her cord then we were out of the pool and sat on the bed cuddling her in no time. Honestly, amazing. I think there was nearly an issue with my placenta, as it took the midwives three attempts to get it out, but they managed it and remained very calm throughout!
During this time Linda said she thought there might be a clitoral tear and would get a doctor to come and look at it. Pre-birth I had been absolutely petrified of tearing, hence the aniball, but honestly I could not feel any pain from this tear, however painful the name sounds! Linda said she thought it had happened because Ada had her hand up by her head when she came out. I was pretty scared to have it repaired, I had to go to a different room and sit in one of those glamorous stirrup chairs, but Will and Ada were allowed to come with me and with gas and air and local anaesthetic injections, I honestly couldn’t feel a thing. Apparently, I only had 3 stitches in total. They have really been fine, I don’t like the idea of them, but I really can’t feel them and they don’t cause any pain when I go to the loo, so I feel pretty lucky really. I also had no perineal tears, not sure if this was luck or aniball or a bit of both.
We were hoping to be able to go home a few hours later, but as the midwives had seen only one successful breastfeeding session, they advised I should go to the postnatal ward for the day to get some sleep and more feeding help. This would mean that Will had to go home and leave me and Ada for a few hours because COVID rules meant partners were only allowed during visiting hours. To be honest I lost the plot at this and was hysterically crying, I was so emotional, overwhelmed and tired and I couldn’t believe that after going through something as intense as birth and needing Will’s help and support so much, that he was going to have to leave us. So I have big respect to you ladies who had to spend longer in hospital in a pandemic, can’t be easy! I didn’t manage to sleep on the ward as I arrived at around 10AM and it was pretty loud, but there were some lovely midwives who did help me with feeding and we were finally discharged at 7pm. As much as I didn’t want to go to the ward and was annoyed it added another 9 hours of no sleep to my lack of sleep in labour, we are now a week in and breastfeeding is going really well (Ada had only lost 40g from her birth when she was weighed at Day 5), so it was probably worth it!
We have been having the best time since we brought Ada home, can’t believe how much we love her already, we are both spending a lot of time just staring at her. It really is amazing what your body can do, I can’t get over that I pushed a small human out of me and then could go for a walk the next day. Amazing. I’m not sure what I thought labour would be like compared to what it was, it really is an intense thing, although maybe mine could have been a little less dramatic if I had got to the MLBU a bit earlier. It’s funny how the things I was worried about in labour really weren’t issues at all, I can’t express how little I cared (at the time and now) about things like the tear and pooing in the pool that I worried about pre-labour. It’s all just so worth it. I’m super proud of myself for surviving till 10cm at home and then for pushing a baby out. I will never forget how brilliant Linda and Heather were and all the other midwives who helped with feeding etc. And I’m so grateful and proud of my husband for being the best birth partner imaginable, he keeps telling me he didn’t do much, but I know I could not have given birth without him!
Want to feel confident, calm and prepared for all types of births? Check out The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Created by midwife Beth, covering how to stack the odds in your favour to get the birth that you want, and also how to feel calm and prepared for every birth journey! Videos, checklists, audios & a support group mto get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth. Knowledge is Power!!
Epidural anaesthesia is a local anaesthetic that’s injected between two vertebra in your back. It usually removes all pain and most feeling from the waist down.
The epidural anaesthetic numbs the nerves that carry the pain impulses from the birth canal to the brain. It shouldn’t make you sick or drowsy.
• For most women (around 90%), an epidural gives complete pain relief. For the other 10%, women may still feel patches on one side from their contractions. And out of these 10%, a further 10% of women will have their epidural resited for it to work effectively.
• An anaesthetist is the only person who can give an epidural, so it won’t be available at home or on a midwifery led unit. It’s only available on a consultant led unit.
• While you sit up in a curled position (think banana back or like an angry cat!), an anaesthetist will clean your back with antiseptic (this spray is COLD 🥶 !). The anaesthetist will then use a small needle to numb the area where the epidural will be inserted, with some local anaesthetic.
The anaesthetist will then site the epidural by putting a needle in your back, and the passing a small tube through the needle. The small tube will then stay in your back and the needle comes out. The small tube is then taped securely to your back.
The epidural drugs are then carried down this tube to the space in your back. This provides most women with total comfort.
A couple of things to note…
You may feel mild discomfort, pressure or tingling when the epidural needle is positioned.
Let your anaesthetist know if you’re having a contraction, and they’ll pause for it to finish.
It can take about 15-20 minutes to put in. Sometimes, it can take longer if the anaesthetist has trouble finding the correct space in your back. The angry cat position really helps speed up the process!
It can take a further 15-20 minutes for the drugs to start making a difference.
It’s advisable for baby’s heart rate to be continuously monitored for at least 30 minutes after. This means having a belt around your abdomen and possibly a clip attached to the baby’s head. This is because having an epidural can make your blood pressure drop.
You’ll be advised to have a cannula put in prior to your epidural for the same reason.
BENEFITS
It is the only drug for pain relief in labour that is an anaesthetic, which means that in 90% of epidurals, total relief from contractionsis achieved.
It doesn’t effect how you feel compared to the other drugs. You are fully “with it” with an epidural. Other pain relief can make you feel woozy 🥴
Side effects of epidurals in labour
You may find it difficult to empty your bladder with an epidural on board. If so, a small tube called a catheter may be put into your bladder to help you. This would be an “In/Out” catheter so won’t need to stay in.
Drop in blood pressure, this can make you feel nauseous.
Itchy skin
An epidural may make your legs feel heavy, depending on how strong the block is. This can mean that movement is limited. I would encourage you to use a peanut ball to help keep your pelvis open.
▪️ Epidurals can prolong labour, for an average of 2 hours.
▪️ If you can no longer feel your contractions, the midwife will tell you when to push.
There is an increased chance of having an instrumental birth with an epidural. Because of a contribution of the above 3 bullet points (lack of movement, prolonged pushing, unable to feel contractions)
TOP TIPS
When you have an epidural, your midwife will advise you to wait for 2 hours from the time you are fully dilated. This is to allow baby’s head to come down through the pelvis just from your contractions and not pushing. So that when you start pushing, your pushing baby from a lower point in your pelvis. This is done to reduces the higher chance of an instrumental delivery that having an epidural brings. I’d also really recommend a peanut ball to help open your pelvis in labour. You can also still change positions regularly with an epidural even if you can’t walk or stand on your legs. Think, lying on your side, sitting right up, or leaning over the back of the bed. This will help baby’s travels through your pelvis.
RISKS
1 in 100 women have a dural tap headache post natally from an epidural. It can be extremely painful, but it can be treated.
1 in 10,000 women can have nerve damage from an epidural.
All pain relief options are covered in The Birth Chapter online course. Covering all antenatal education birth topics & Hypnobirthing with midwife Beth, to help you prepare for a positive birth in all birth situations.
During my first labour, I was a rabbit in the head lights. It left me feeling I couldn’t do it again. However, after friends had positive experiences with Beth’s course, I felt I could if I used hypnobirthing. It was great to have the videos to watch over many evenings with my husband and to be able to talk them through. I knew a home birth (given pandemic and my first experience) made me feel best and I felt prepared to push for this if needed, as I was consultant led until the end.
On the Friday, I woke up to my ‘show’. I didn’t want to get too excited so baked, rested, went for a walk to keep baby in a good position. By tea time, we knew it was game on as the ‘show’ kept coming and pains grew, so we set up front room with the pool, lavender in diffuser, lay my birth plan out (a printable from Beth), stuck up my encouraging photos and mantras (Beth’s ‘you can do anything for 60secs’ was very useful). The contractions were every 10-12 minutes so we went to bed to try to rest in between. Through each one, I used the 4/7 breathing method and kept my hands open as Beth taught. I kept viewing the contraction pains as positive as they were getting me closer to meeting my daughter. My husband and I discussed what would happen if the night took a turn and I had to go to hospital, focusing on ‘control what you can and let go of what you can’t’ that we learnt on the course. As the pain increased, I took some paracetamol and moved to using my Tens machine which I found helped hugely. It also seemed to quicken the contractions (or coincided with this) so they became every 2-3 minutes, meaning at 1:30am we rang the hospital. By this point, contractions were best coped with stood up. I started on my isotonic drink as I didn’t feel like eating my energy snacks.
The first midwife arrived at 3am. Because I seemed so calm during contractions, she said she expected to send the second one home for a while. However, when she checked me at 3:30am, I was 7cm with waters ready to break, which she admitted she wasn’t expecting and I felt proud of how I was doing, following Beth’s tips. My husband got to filling the pool (with saucepans and a bucket after the hose wouldn’t connect, but I didn’t panic and kept with the breathing and swaying to my playlist). I asked when I’d be checked again, but the midwife said they’d go by how I progressed so I realised this would be about listening to and trusting my body – which is what I wanted. I started on the gas and air one of the midwives brought from the hospital, and using that with the Tens – and dancing of all things – really helped when waiting for my waters to break. I used my husband as a leaning post during a contraction, which helped a lot too. Beth’s story about wanting photos has resonated with me, so I asked my husband and the midwives to do the same for me.
My contractions built, and with one I felt the pressure grow and release as my waters burst. I knew my baby was almost here then so got into the pool, leaning over the side of it on my knees to stay UFO – trying to breathe and bear down as I felt her coming. I definitely got the sting and ring of fire, but kept using the gas and air and breathing, with my husband supporting me, because I didn’t want to push her head out until my body told me to. Her heart rate dropped so they said I needed to get her out on the next contraction, which I did by listening to my body and bearing down, pushing with all my might.
Faith came out in one go at 5:11am, weighing 6lb11oz. I enjoyed holding her in the water, loving talking to her, but then felt my placenta pushing so got out of the pool as I needed the placenta birthed ‘on land’ as I wanted it encapsulated. My husband treasured his skin-to-skin time whilst I was doing that.
Afterwards, a midwife checked to see if I needed stitches but no tears at all! I felt pleased about the use of the water, listening to my body and the perineum massage I’d been doing in the weeks leading up to the birth. I’d had an episiotomy with my first, and felt that was because I was labouring on my back, not knowing any different. As one of the midwives went to leave, she called me a warrior and that will stay with me forever, knowing I proved to myself that I could have a positive birth!
I just want to say though, to any expectant parents, that I pushed myself too hard during the next few days, and ended up with fatigue due to a pre-existing medical condition and in hospital for tests. Be kind to yourself. I should’ve taken more of the advice on Beth’s notes there about recovery time! The body has just got through a marathon!
Nevertheless, my husband said that this course helped him so much after the pandemic cut him off from appointments and being able to ask his own questions. This course enabled me to have the positive birth I wanted and to feel empowered to make decisions and use my voice. I’m forever grateful!
Want to feel confident, calm and prepared for all types of births? Check out The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Created by midwife Beth, covering how to stack the odds in your favour to get the birth that you want, and also how to feel calm and prepared for every birth journey! Videos, checklists, audios & a support group mto get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth. Knowledge is Power!!
Love reading positive birth stories? You’re in the right place! This positive birth story is with Jen’s first baby. Jen went into labour and upon arriving at the hospital they discovered her baby was breech, leading Jen using EBRAN to chose an unplanned cesarean section.
My due date was 1st March and this is my first baby. At my 36 week midwife appointment baby was described as “almost fully engaged 2/5” but then at my 38 week appointment her head was no longer in my pelvis it seemed to be higher up. Midwives we’re still happy that baby was in the correct position and that she would move down when ready. I had a 4D scan at 28 weeks and at that point baby was breech so at 38 weeks when they said she wasn’t in my pelvis I started saying to my boyfriend “I think it’s her bum they can feel and she’s still breech as I don’t think I’ve felt her fully turn…”
Over the weekend me and my boyfriend spent our time getting the house clean, repacking hospital bags, and making sure everything was ready as due date was Monday meaning I only had a maximum of 2 weeks to deliver. Monday morning (due date) at 4.30am I went to the toilet. Every single morning in pregnancy baby has woke at 4.30am and I kept saying wonder if that’s a sign somethings going to happen then. While I was sat on the toilet I felt a little pop on one side of my pelvis and a big gush of fluid. I wasn’t sure this was definitely my waters, I was wondering whether baby had moved position that had helped me wee easier but I woke my boyfriend up anyway to let him know and went back to the toilet. From this point onwards water was constantly leaking so I knew this was more than just a wee. No contractions at this point. We phoned the hospital who advised me to clean up, have something to eat and then head in so I did just that taking my time. My plan was to go and get checked over and then come home to cook a joint of beef for tea 🤣
Just as I left the house I felt a pain that I thought may have been a contraction but I was so calm about everything at this point. By the time we got to the hospital it was 6am and these “little pains” – contractions were very obvious and I started timing them to discover they were every 3 minutes. I used my breathing techniques at this point and was managing really well just dreading the thought of how long everything was going to take. When I was examined in triage my contractions had ramped up and I decided to have some paracetamol at this point.
On examination the midwife said I was 4-5cm and my cervix was very thin. I genuinely couldn’t believe it. She was concerned however that baby wasn’t facing the right way so decided to scan me in order to check. And of course the scan quickly shown that baby was breech. She was still in the same position she had been in all along bum first with her feet in front of her face under my ribs. My contractions were really progressing fast and apparently with breech labours they can go much quicker so the next minute I had multiple doctors in my room discussing my options, inserting a cannula, and giving me some gas and air to take that edge off. My options were to attempt a vaginal breech delivery or to be taken straight in for an emergency section. I had been so calm about everything but at this point I had a wobble. They gave me 3 minutes to make a decision and I had no idea what to do. My boyfriend was so supportive and reminded me of the things I had learnt on this course. He reminded me to control the things I can and let go of the things I can’t and how to weigh up our options using EBRAN. He also reminded me that I was getting tense and to relax my shoulders and jaw.
Together we made a very quick decision to go for a section (which I never wanted, always wanted a natural birth) but that was the safest option for baby at the time which is all that mattered to me. My boyfriend had to literally run to the carpark for my bags whilst I went straight in for a spinal as he wasn’t allowed in at that point anyway. Minutes later we were in theatre together chatting away behind a screen and he was massaging my shoulders while we both kept each other calm and relaxed (laughing at the fact I thought I was making a joint of beef for tea that day). Whilst in theatre I was quickly examined again to ensure that I had not progressed too quickly for the section…I was around 7cm by then.
Shortly after at 08.09am we heard a cry….our baby girl was here. Happy and healthy weighing a good 8lb 1oz with no obvious complications. She has completed our lives and I couldn’t be happier with the decisions we made. Yes I had a wobble which lasted a minute or two and no I didn’t get the birth I “wanted” but I was calm, I handled contractions very well, I felt well informed about things that could of happened in order to aid my decision making, and honestly I was just really proud of myself. Midwives said it was obvious I had done some sort of hypnobirthing with the way I handled everything.Currently awake early hours of the morning with my gorgeous bundle of joy and had to just say a big thank you to Beth Kitt for this amazing course and to all the people in here who have helped me.
Raeya Jo Madden born on 01.03.2021 (her due date) weighing 8lb 1oz by emergency section with every single thought of what birth I would of liked going out of the window and yet I still feel it was all such a positive experience 💖
Click the link for more information about The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Know what you can do to stack the odds in your favour for the birth that you want. Videos, checklists, audios & a support group all created by a midwife to get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth.
On Monday 1st March my waters broke at 2am while I was sleeping, I managed to get to the bathroom so no mess to clean up, called my husband to tell him to get my phone but that he could go back to bed. I rang the birthing suite to inform them and they explained I could come in to be examined or I could wait until the morning. After doing the bump to baby chapter antenatal and hypnobirthing classes I decided it was better for me to wait at home and get things progressing there. I went back to bed, mild contractions started 30mins later and I gave myself till 6am to get in the bath (husband still fast asleep). At 8am we went to the birthing suite where I was examined and confirmed I was 3cm and that my waters had broken, I was told to go home and come in when the contractions got stronger. Went home, bounced on my ball and concentrated on my breathing techniques in for 4 out for 7 at 1pm the contractions were a lot stronger so I decided it was time to go in. I had an amazing room in the birthing suite with great lighting. (I asked to move, as the first room was too bright with windows ). I was all about making the room my own so I took my own diffuser with light, music and essential oils.
The contractions were still coming so I was examined and was 3cm, I couldn’t get in the pool till I was 4cm. Fast forward to 6pm contractions thick and fast no gas and air as still 3cm so all I had was my breathing and it was my life line! I was examined again and still no movement. The midwife then suggested diamorphine, this was the only thing I had written on my birth plan that I didn’t want because of the feelings of sickness. She explained that it would allow me to sleep a little as I’d been going since 2am and that I needed to rest, i decided that it probably was best as I was exhausted. Diamorphine and anti sickness injection and I was out for the count, best two hours sleep I had all week. At 10am I woke feeling like a different person and ready to dance this baby out… it was explained to me I had till 2am (the 24hours mark) to get to 4cm otherwise I would have to be induced. So at 1am me and my husband had a dance party and I moved and moved and moved.
Since waking I had had no contractions most likely due to the diamorphine, I was examined and still 3cm. The midwifes kept checking to see if the contractions had kick started again but no luck. At 8am on Tuesday I was taken to be induced by the hormone drip, contractions were coming in thick and fast approx 1 min apart, so I just concentrated on my breathing (my husband would count, occasionally getting the order and counting wrong) at 1pm I was examined and yep 3cm but also there was some swelling on baby’s head. Baby’s heart rate kept dropping so they turned off the drip, at which point naturally I started contracting so then had to have an injection to slow my contractions. I was told I needed to have another internal examination by the consultant to check on the baby, at this point I refused (think this was probably my 5th internal examination and they were particularly stressful for me) she advised I could have an epidural to have the examination in which I gladly accepted, I had the most amazing anaesthetist and I didn’t event feel it happening. The examination took place and was absolutely fine all hail the epidural, Pretty handy that I’d had it as I was told I needed a c section straight away, I was 3cm, baby had now turned, I’d been having contractions for 37hours and there was absolutely no way that I was going to have this baby naturally even if I wanted to. I didn’t even need to use EBRAN in this scenario as I knew a c section was best for me and my baby. Commence the chaos of an emergency c section, there is running, a lot of people, a lot of questions and it is quick… I was calm, I concentrated on my breathing, When I was in surgery I accepted that this room would now be where I gave birth and that was my room, I focused on the music in the background and waited for my baby to be born. Rupert was born at 7.8lb at 16.53 on Tuesday 2nd March. 38 hours of labour, three different rooms and one hell of a positive experience.
I would not have been so calm with all of the changes to my birth plan if it hadn’t been for the hypnobirthing, a lot of people have said to me afterwards when they heard my story and knew I had been doing hypnobirthing “well that went out the window” absolutely not! I was in control of my labour even if circumstances would cause it to change and that was down to the hypnobirthibg course, I went into labour fully prepared with tools and techniques for any type of birth. I cannot thank Beth enough and even after all that, I class it as a positive birth story, it’s what brought my baby into the world.
My birth plan was a Waterbirth and no drugs, which turned out to be an emergency c section with all the drugs. Be prepared for change.
Want to feel confident, calm and prepared for all types of births? Check out The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Created by midwife Beth, covering how to stack the odds in your favour to get the birth that you want, and also how to feel calm and prepared for every birth journey! Videos, checklists, audios & a support group mto get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth. Knowledge is Power!!
