Birth stories - Faye and baby Luna

My birth story is below, I am sharing even though my birth didn't go as originally planned to show how much the course still helped me get through a challenging labour.

My birth preference was to have a natural water birth with use of hypnobirthing techniques.

Labour started on Thursday 31st following a sweep which I accepted the day before (was too excited about the possibility of meeting my baby). To begin with the surges were manageable by use of TENS machine but by the evening they had really ramped up, I used the positive affirmations mp3s and prepared to go to the birth centre. After initially being sent home at 10pm as I was not dilated enough, which I found quite stressful, I was then brought back in about 2am on the Thursday when I was 4cms. The pool was running and I had a lovely aromatherapy massage whilst my husband sprayed liquid yoga spray and arranged the tea lights around the pool.

Unfortunately after about 5 hours of surges in the pool I had only dilated to 6 cm and was becoming exhausted/losing control so I was taken to the hospital for pain relief (epidural) so it was goodbye to the pool and the feeling in my lower body! It turns out that baby had pooed in my waters and was getting distressed with irregular heart rate so the intervention may have always happened. Either way I can say that for the first half of my labour I was in the best place and I was able to navigate around the twists and turns and the outcome was amazing I got to meet my beautiful baby Luna.