Birth story - Abbie and baby Enzo

BACKGROUND

My first birth started off green pathway and I thought I might be able to have a water birth, however after an incredibly long labour and meconium stained waters, I was transferred down into labour ward where I was put on the syntocinon drip and finally delivered on my back, in a brightly lit room, full of people. I remember at the time feeling like I had no control and no real understanding of what had happened and as a result struggled in my first few weeks as a new mum.

Second time around, after a 9 year age gap, I decided I never wanted to feel like that again and started to look into hypnobirthing courses but they were way out of our price range. I stumbled on to the Positive Birthing Company via another Facebook group at 20 weeks pregnant and decided to give the digital course a try. The first thing that struck home with me was how similar Siobhan’s first birth story was to mine and it gave me better understanding of what had gone wrong and gave me closure as well as hope that I could have the birth I wanted this time around!

I watched the videos on my own at first, and it all made so much sense to me, especially the science bit. My partner watched the videos with me once I got to 34 weeks and he too felt well equipped as a birth partner and I think it made him feel included from the word go!

I started having gentle surges every night for a few hours from around 39 weeks and became convinced I would go early (my last baby was born on his due date so it never occurred to me that I’d go late!) but every morning I’d wake up only to find that they had come to nothing. I tried to stay positive, placing affirmations around the house, taking a bath and listening to the Freya app/my birthing playlist and getting out for lots of walks but as 40 weeks came and went, I started to get antsy.

My midwife offered me a sweep at 40 + 5 which I accepted out of curiosity as I wanted to see if the surges I was experiencing were doing anything. The sweep was successful and I went home, armed with a blend of aromatherapy oils that the midwife made for me, convinced I’d go into labour in the next day or two.

Needless to say, nothing happened, so knowing I’d be looking at induction at the end of the week if nothing happened, meaning I wouldn’t be allowed my water birth and that I’d have to be in labour ward for continuous monitoring, I opted to have another sweep at 41 + 1 and tried to remember the affirmation, “my baby will come when my baby is ready” which wasn’t always easy when I was fielding 15 calls/texts a day asking if I’d had the baby yet.

Finally, at 41 + 4 I started to look at positive induction stories on here and accepted that, as long as the baby was healthy and happy, it really didn’t matter how he got here. I went for some acupuncture, got my partner to give me a massage using the oils, had sex and tried to enjoy what would be our last few days as a three. I really think this helped to get the oxytocin flowing as after a few days with no surges at all, they started gently again that night.

MY BIRTH STORY

I tried not to get too excited when my surges started again and didn’t mention anything to my partner as I didn’t want us to have another false start. We went to bed around 11pm and I woke up feeling too uncomfortable to sleep as surges were around every 10-15 minutes at around 12am. I got up and had a shower, (which felt amazing on my back!) and took myself to the living room and set up our tea lights and sprayed the room spray and listened to the Freya app. At around 2am, my surges were still 8-10 minutes apart but starting to become uncomfortable in my back so I woke my partner and he put on my TENS machine and made me some toast. I laboured like this in the living room, and it was such a nice, peaceful environment, in the dark, listening to Siobhan’s voice until the app told us labour was established. We called the MLU at this point to tell them I was in labour but as I was managing quite well we agreed I’d stay at home for a while.

I went for a bath and this seemed to slow my surges back down to every 10-15 minutes so I decided to sleep as I’d now been up all night and was exhausted. I managed to sleep off and on for a couple of hours but during this time each surge was becoming more and more powerful although they were still 10 minutes apart.

We called the MLU again at around 3pm who advised we came in to be assessed and so off we went, me fully expecting to be sent home again. The midwife left us in an assessment room to bounce on a birthing ball for a while and time surges before offering a VE. I agreed as I was tiring and wanted to know what was happening. I was 5cms with waters bulging but the baby was in an awkward position, meaning my surges were sporadic. She suggested we go to the pool room to get settled in and offered more acupuncture to encourage baby to turn. I was so excited as I knew at that point I wasn’t going to need the induction which was booked for the following day and that my water birth was now back on!

The midwife was amazing and her and my partner got to work dimming the lights, dotting the tea lights around the room, putting a diffuser on and massaging my bump with a clary sage and lavender blend. I laboured using the tens machine and up breathing and listening to smooth radio until 10pm when my midwife suggested another VE to see if things had progressed and I could get in the pool. I agreed and after saying not much had changed she suggested breaking my waters as she felt like they were stopping things progressing. I felt a massive relief as soon as they were broken and my surges ramped up immediately to every 2-3 minutes apart.

I got in the pool and the relief was immediate. I’d found the only way I could be comfortable was on all fours and the water helped to support my weight. At this point there was a shift change and our new midwife ran through our birth plan and asked me whether I wanted to try the gas and air as I was struggling to maintain my up breathing with the surges coming so close together. This gave me something to concentrate on and very soon I started to feel the “pushy” feeling.

I started to panic a little at this point as I knew I’d only been 5cm a few hours before and thought I couldn’t be possibly ready to push but my partner kept me calm, reminding me of my breathing and that I was strong and my midwife told me to just go with my body.

I had a little wobble (I think I was transitioning) where I said I couldn’t do it and my midwife said you ARE doing it while my partner kept reminding me how close we were to meeting our baby. Suddenly, my body started to take over and push involuntary and I could feel, exactly as Siobhan described, my baby coming down and bobbing back up. I actually really enjoyed this part as it gave me something to focus on and I became obsessed with pushing him further down with each surge. Then I was crowning and the ring of fire was there! The midwife told me to reach down and feel my baby’s head and it was the most incredible feeling ever. With my next surge, his head was born and I felt it pop out followed by his shoulders soon after. The midwife passed him through my legs and I lifted him up to my chest. He just looked at me with his big eyes and was so, so calm and so different from my first birth where my little one had been scooped away immediately. The midwife helped me out of the pool and onto the bed where we had a wonderful 2 hours of skin to skin and were left just the three of us before he was weighed and dressed. I opted for a managed third stage as I was tired and wanted it over and done with then and was checked to see if I would need stitches. I only had a tiny superficial tear which I couldn’t believe having previously had an episiotomy! We had some tea and toast and then were transferred to the ward at 4.30am.

After all our checks were done and breastfeeding was established we were let home at 6pm and he has been such a chilled out, calm baby ever since! I honestly believe that’s due to his calm birth. I feel so empowered and positive and so incredibly close to my partner (who was amazing!) and can’t thank Siobhan enough!