Birth story - Amy and baby Kit

I had my first baby in May 2018 - induced at 38 weeks with suspected Gestational Diabetes, an epidural, the drip and an episiotomy before baby arrived less than 24 hours after the induction began. So not terrible! However, this time round I purchased the PBC digital pack really early on in the pregnancy.

I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes at 13 weeks and then the Covid situation started to develop. I follow the maternity unit on Facebook and dreaded every time they posted an update. At 34 weeks I decided that I needed to stop waiting for updates from the hospital and to take control of my birth and make sure that it was the birth I wanted.

As soon as I started watching the videos, I instantly knew that I’d made the right decision. The science part made so much sense and it was like something just clicked - of course my body knew what it was going to do. I practised the breathing a few times and it helped with some of the anxiety I’d been feeling about going into hospital with everything going on.

The decision was made to induce me at 37+5 because of the uncontrolled diabetes and the fact that baby’s growth had slowed right down (we’d been having regular growth scans). When I arrived at hospital to be induced at 3pm, they were incredibly busy and didn’t get round to even putting me on the monitor until almost 10pm. I was a little disappointed as I had thought I’d be in labour by then so I tried to get some sleep and before I knew it it was morning and I’d had about an hours sleep in total. At 9am I was examined and they said I was actually already 2cm despite not having had anything done, so they decided that as soon as there was space on labour ward, they’d take me there and break my waters.

By the evening I was feeling upset about now spending another night away from my toddler. At midnight I ended up crying to the midwife that it felt as though I was never going to be induced and that I was never going to make it to labour ward and that everyone else was going to have babies before me - I blame hormones and lack of sleep! At this point I’d had two mild period pains 40 mins apart and had timed them on the Freya app so I knew how to use it, but that was it. The midwife told me to try get some sleep, so I got into bed at 12:23 and as I turned round to switch the light off, I felt a big gush of water and knew straight away that my waters had broken.

I had another period type pain at 12:36 (with more waters - I had no idea there was so much!) followed by another at 12:50. After this I started getting contractions every 2-3 minutes and the Freya app quickly informed me that I was in established labour. At this point I text my husband and told him to make his way to the hospital.

As I was still on the antenatal ward at this point, I was on my own and thought I’d be panicking about the fact my husband wasn’t there. But the Freya app kept me calm and gave me something to focus on. At 1:30am I was given 2 paracetamol to help manage the pain but I can honestly say that the up breathing helped me more than I could possibly have imagined. At 3am, after I’d been having contractions for about 2 hours, the midwife on the antenatal ward agreed to examine me. She told me that even though the app said I was in established labour, I couldn’t move to labour ward until I was 4cm. She examined me, looked surprised and announced “you’re 5cm, phone your husband and tell him to come in, we’re moving to labour ward now” - I was so thankful I’d already text him and he was waiting in the car park!

At 3:30 we got to labour ward and my husband arrived. I don’t think I managed to say anything to him - I just squeezed his hand and focused on my breathing. Shortly after arriving on labour ward I was examined and was 7cm. Within 10 minutes of this, I really felt the need to push. Even though I’d only been 7cm just minutes before, I trusted my body (thanks to the PBC videos) and the midwife was happy for me to push. She had pulled the gas and air out and encouraged me to use it whilst pushing, but it was at this point that I managed to say the first (and only!) words to my husband during labour - I told him to “get it away!” as it had made me so sick when I’d used it in my last labour.

Focusing on my breathing helped me to feel in control and I’m not sure at what point I switched to down breathing. My husband told me afterwards that they had been struggling to monitor baby’s heartbeat effectively and that the room had been filled with people at one point but I have no recollection of this. They managed to get a cannula into my hand which I didn’t even notice until after! The breathing kept me in my own little bubble. When baby’s head was crowning, I swore for the first time and asked for an epidural, which the midwife subtly ignored as it was clearly far too late for that! At 5:13am, less than 5 hours after my waters broke, our beautiful baby son Kit was born weighing 7lb 1oz. The pain from contractions disappeared instantly and I just remember saying “I can’t believe I’ve just done that” over and over again.

If you’d have told me I’d be giving birth with just 2 paracetamol for pain relief I’d have laughed beforehand. But because of the Freya app and the breathing techniques I’d learnt from the digital pack, that’s exactly what happened. I am so incredibly thankful to the PBC for making my birth the most amazing experience and the proudest moment of my life - I still can’t believe I did that!