Birth story - Anna and baby Giovanni

I am extremely grateful as you gave me the tools to face the birth of my second child with confidence and to kick away all the negative feelings that tried to interfere with this wonderful experience. 

The birth of my first child, three years ago, was quite traumatic: he was born at 36 weeks, the labour was very long, painful and scary, and I ended up receiving epidural and gas & air without having thought about them before. I needed to know that this time was going to be different, as I could not think of repeating my first birthing experience! 

I started to watch the Digital Pack’s videos when I was 32 weeks pregnant; Listening to the scientific explanation of all the reasons why my first child’s birth had been so traumatic was so reassuring! I re-gained confidence in myself, my body and Nature. 

When the COVID crisis exploded, I was feeling so anxious given all the changes in guidelines, uncertainty and risks! Reading the stories of success, strength, love and empowerment shared by the wonderful women who gave birth in these difficult times before me truly gave me hope and encouraged me to face my own experience, feeling that I was not alone. THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU, MUMS! 

My due date passed, so many messages asking for “news" arrived increasing my stress levels and the date for induction was fixed… I was worried that my husband wouldn’t be allowed to stay with me because of Covid restrictions if medical procedures were going to be used on me, but I tried to be confident that “my baby knows when and how to be born", relax, enjoy the time with my eldest son.

Our baby arrived one week after the due date. I started to feel the surges at 6pm of a sunny Saturday evening, while I was at the park (during the daily one-hour-exercise-time!) watching my son and husband playing together. I guess this got me started with good levels of oxytocin :-) ! I was so excited and I knew what to do. I had play- and cuddle-time with my son until 9pm, when he went for a sleepover at some friends’ place. And then I breathed, listened to the familiar MP3s and enjoyed the scent I was using for relaxation during pregnancy and some of the sweets my husband got for this special occasion. 

By 10.30 the surges where powerful, regular and frequent. But it was nothing like the awful contractions I remembered from my first birthing experience - I was just welcoming the surges, breathing through them, and hoping they would get stronger so that I could meet my baby! With my first child I waited hours while I was only 2-cm dilated and in so much pain, and this time I did not want to go to the birth centre and be sent home because labour was not established! I called the birth centre then and also one hour later, to know if they wanted me to come in… But as I could talk during the surges and I was still “bearing" them, the midwives suggested me to stay home for as long as possible.

At around midnight, my waters broke and the midwives told my husband to get me to the birth centre. We had the longest, most uncomfortable 10-minutes trip by cab to the hospital, listening to the Freya app counting for the up-breathing. 

When I set my foot into the birth centre, I realised my body was pushing. I felt so reassured by the fact that I was already dilated and ready to push my baby out! I was offered gas & air but I refused as the previous time it made me sick and also I wanted to be able to fully appreciate my birthing experience. At first the midwives suggested me to lie with my back on a large pillow and push. For a while there was no progress, they were telling me baby was almost there but I knew it wasn’t true. I felt disheartened and tired, like I couldn’t do it. And then I remembered the affirmations “my job is simply to relax and allow my body to birth my baby”, “my body knows what to do and it’s doing it right now”, “I am a strong and capable woman".

I just had to listen to my body and do what it told me to do:

1) I was hungry, so I asked my husband for one of the white chocolate sweets he bought for me;

2) I was uncomfortable, I needed to be in a UFO position.

Giovanni was born at 2.30 am of Sunday the 26th of April, one hour after I entered the birth centre, with a spontaneous and natural birth. I had never felt so happy, proud of myself and empowered! 

Thank you so much for all you have done to support me in my journey to the birth of my second baby! I am now really enjoying the Postpartum digital pack, which I find really useful even if I am a second-time mum.