Birth story - Abi and baby Norah

In 2017 I gave birth to my first daughter in hospital with every kind of intervention and pain relief, epidural, episiotomy, forceps and then PPH. I was very poorly for a couple of weeks afterwards which tainted the longed for first couple of weeks of becoming parents. Luckily this didn’t put me off having another! This time round was oh so different.

I was a week over my due date but this didn’t bother me as I learnt that baby will come when she is ready. I went into spontaneous labour at around 12:30am after some strong contractions the previous day which I logged on the Freya app. They died off before I went to bed at about 9:30 and then I was woken with strong and long contractions a few hours later. I used the app to control my breathing and stay in tune with what was going on. After about 2 hours of breathing at home with candles, fairly lights lots of essential oils and a bubble bath the app told me I was in established labour and that I needed to go to hospital. My first labour was a long 27 hours with contractions very close together so I kind of shrugged off what the app told me and wanted to stay home longer as I was relatively calm and I thought this was going to be a long night. (How wrong was I)

My mum arrived to support me and my fiancé and to take care of my daughter whilst we went to hospital. At around 2:30 I then started to feel pressure in my back and bottom (with having an epidural the first time this was all new to me). My mum advised that I ring the midwife to ask for a plan as she was convinced it was going to happen very soon. The midwife said she was happy that they were very close together and that they were fairly strong as I wasn’t able to talk and focus on what she was saying. So I got myself together to get to the hospital. It took about half an hour to get from my living room to the car because they were so strong and close together so I had to stop to breathe each time. I started to panic slightly and thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it, but with some positive affirmations and encouragement from both my partner and my mum I got into the car and arrived at hospital in 5 minutes at around 4:00am luckily we live close! My partner wasn’t allowed in until I was examined to see how far I was so he waited outside.

I went to a room where I met a lovely midwife and she examined me. She said “oh my word, you are amazing, you’re at 7cm” I couldn’t believe it. She got me a wheelchair and took me straight to labour ward. I was taken into a room and my partner was already there waiting for me! I began with some gas and air as they became stronger with each contraction. I was able to control my breathing with the wonderful breathing techniques and the Freya app. I found the counting was something to focus on. I then asked to go in to the bath. I love my baths so thought this may help me relax. The bath was the perfect temperature and with the gas and air I felt in control and calm. After about an hour, I started to feel myself pushing with the contractions (again completely new to me) I told the midwife and she observed to see for any signs of baby’s head. She asked for me to get out the bath as I had haemorrhaged the first time round with my daughter so they would need to keep an eye on blood loss. So I got out and went onto all fours on the bed as I wanted gravity to help me.

After around 20 minutes out of the bath and with some great encouragement from my partner, I pushed out my daughter at 6:43am weighing a whopping 9lb10.5oz! I couldn’t believe I had done it with little pain relief and so quick!

We were home that afternoon which was just amazing! I truly believe after doing the positive birth company’s hypnobirthing online course it had changed how I looked at birth and I how I was able to stay in control using up breathing, meditation and the knowledge that my body can do this. I felt on top of the world and so happy that I was able to have a positive experience this time round. I can’t praise it enough and recommend it to all my pregnant friends!