Birth centre - Karen and baby Sidney

I am posting this a little late but the other stories on here have helped me so much in the lead up to Sidney’s birth. I am still enjoying reading them and celebrating how amazing our bodies are! I am so pleased and proud to be able to add my own positive birth story...it’s a long one!

My first labour was very long, back to back baby, with multiple visits to and from hospital ending in an epidural, forceps and an episiotomy in theatre. I was the epitome of ‘failure to progress’. Also due to a previous head injury I was only allowed to ‘push’ for 1 hour before being taken to theatre for intervention. Both I and my son had a difficult start to his life and motherhood and I’m sure some of this stems from what was such a traumatic and disappointing labour experience.

I had heard of hypo birthing and was keen to look into it more for the second time round. I came across the positive birthing company and downloaded the pack at about 30 weeks. My husband is a chef and with a toddler in tow it was never going to be possible to attend a face to face course so this was perfect. I also really appreciated being able to revisit sections and to encourage my husband to watch specific sections. The first huge difference it made to me was to help me understand what had happened in my first labour and move on from my anxieties about going through a similar experience. I was so naive first time round despite attending nct and having close friends with babies. I felt out of control the entire time. For my husband the science section was invaluable, for him to understand how oxytocin worked and how important it was to create and maintain a calm and relaxed atmosphere was great. We also loved the practical suggestions for things we could prepare for and do during labour. I was now really looking forward to the birth as well as meeting the baby.

Having got to 41 weeks I had started to return to some of the ‘be informed’ sections and was feeling calm about an induction if it came to that. It also helped to deal with the texts and questions from friends and families now that the baby was ‘late’...maybe we should’ve made up a due date 2 weeks later than the actual due date just for public knowledge! 😂 I had decided against a sweep until just before induction if it got to that stage.

I had been gradually losing my mucus plug for a few days. Saturday was spent looking after my son, meeting my husband from work then I had a bath and we watched some episodes of green wing for some laughs! Early Sunday morning (roughly 3am) I woke with mild surges. I timed them using the Freya app but they were quite irregular, between 7 and 12 minutes apart so I practiced my up breathing, my husband was awake so I told him I thought labour had started but we tried to go back to sleep knowing that if we were in for the long haul we needed as much sleep as possible. I managed to doze during these early surges and we got up with my son as we would any Sunday morning. I sent a message to my parents to pre warn them that we would probably be needing them for childcare later that day.

The weather was lovely so we spent the morning the three of us in our garden. The surges were gradually getting stronger but along with up breathing and enjoying my families company they were easy to cope with. My parents picked up my son around lunch time and we set about getting things moving. I can’t remember exactly the order we did things already but at some point I went back to bed and dozed listening to Harry Potter (thanks for the tip!) whilst my husband did the light touch massage, tried the tv but this seemed to slow down the surges, had a shower and snacked. I stayed UFO as much as possible. We went for a walk in the afternoon and after that the surges intensified and became closer together.

Thinking we’d need to go in to hospital in the next few hours my husband prepared some dinner. During this time i was sick and I progressed to three surges in ten, so whilst I called the hospital my husband quickly ate and packed the final bits.

The Freya app was great and helped me get through the car journey and I managed to walk into the hospital. Due to the amount of blood I lost during my last birth I had to be consultant led so went straight up to the labour ward, as I got to the reception my waters broke, we met our midwife and were monitored whilst waiting for the consultant. I requested to use the pool which they agreed, providing I got out to actually give birth. I was assessed and was at 6cm. I think I was starting to transition as for some reason I was disappointed I wasn’t more dilated! I think things were actually moving very quickly and the midwife was worried I wouldn’t have a chance to get in the pool! I was definitely at the stage where I couldn’t talk through surges but the up breathing was really helping. We walked to the room with the pool, on the way I definitely felt like I needed a poo and was getting the pushing feeling.

We didn’t have long to set anything up but the lights were dimmed and the main thing was I felt in control. The relief from getting in the pool was immense. After about half an hour I was helped out. My midwife suggested giving birth on all fours on the bed but my surges were so close together I couldn’t get there so stayed just out the pool and gave birth on my knees leaning over the bed. The mooing really kicked in...sounds came out of me that I will never be able to recreate, I was really pleased about this though as I knew I was doing it and things were happening! My husband was sitting on the bed and was great at getting me to sip water when I could, encouraging me and had the gas and air to hand although I I’d gone so far without it I didn’t want or need it.

I tried to use down breathing when I could and the midwives were great at letting me go with the surges. The second midwife noticed I was trying to push without a surge and really encouraged me to wait for the surge as my body was doing what it needed to do. A couple of really intense surges later and Sidney was here! We had delayed cord clamping and my husband cut the cord. This was an amazing feat for him as he is petrified of needles and blood...again I think the atmosphere and positive experience gave him the courage.

I had a managed third stage and the placenta came out quickly whilst I enjoyed skin to skin and fed...also whilst we finally agreed on a name. I had one tear, for which there was a possibility it had gone through my perineal muscle and I would need to have a general anaesthetic to be stitched up...I had to be examined by four different people before the doctor agreed it hadn’t gone through and finally stitched me up. The gas and air really came into its own for the examinations and meant my husband finally got to cuddle the baby.

We arrived at hospital at 8.30pm and Sidney was born at 10.22pm so all this happened pretty quickly. Due to my previous blood loss I had to go on the drip for four hours whilst my husband went home for a few hours sleep. I enjoyed being able to have time with our new son before going home first thing in the morning.

I can not recommend hypnobirthing and the positive birthing company enough, I really enjoyed giving birth and felt I was in control. My midwife said it was one of her favourite deliveries thanks to how calm and focussed I was, it didn’t even feel like she said this to everyone! This was all down to hypnobirthing and the positive birthing company.