Birth story - Ayesha and baby Elana

I’ve always been squeamish and terrified of birth but when Louise Pentland shared her experience I was so excited to learn about hypnobirthing through the positive birth company. I watched all your videos and felt ready and excited for my baby to arrive.

On 8th April around 8pm I started getting waves every 20 minutes and I just went into my zone and breathed deeply through them, getting so excited. The waves kept coming throughout the night but they were irregular, some coming a minute apart and then others every half an hour. They started getting more intense around 2am so we went to the hospital where triage did an internal examination and said I was only 3cm dilated, and to come back in a couple of hours or if I couldn’t handle the pain any longer. They gave me some codeine so I could sleep and I managed about an hour’s sleep.

After my nap the waves started getting more intense and around 8am we went back to hospital where they said i was 5cm dilated and I could be admitted!

I really wanted a water birth but I had to be monitored due to being high risk (gestational diabetes) so I was hooked up to a fetal heart monitor so being able to move around was tricky. After about 4 hours of bouncing on a birthing ball I was so dismayed to have found out I was still only 5cm dilated! I tried to stay positive, using the affirmations I’d learned and listening to my calm birthing playlist but a couple of hours later I was still only 5cm so the doctor had to put me on an oxytocin drip. At this point I wasn’t using my gas and air and my husband kept massaging my back every time I had a wave which really helped but once the oxytocin kicked back in I needed the gas and air. Again, I tried to stay calm and kept breathing through it, the midwives kept saying how calm I was!

Finally after 13.5 hours of labouring I was fully dilated and ready to push around 11.30pm. It was the last stretch and I was so excited to meet my baby but after 45 mins of pushing, the midwives said there wasn’t much progress so she called the doctor in. The doctor told me I may need to have a forceps delivery and failing that, a caesarean, because my baby was quite high up in the birth canal and wasn’t moving.

This was a true test of how good the PBC is because I had no intention of having a caesarean, and my mum delivered me via forceps so I was terrified of the idea! However my midwife and the doctors were so calm and my husband so supportive that I just went along with it and to be honest, it was so nice to feel nothing for an hour!

During the actual caesarean I felt my most relaxed and even though there were about 12 doctors in the room, plus 2 midwives and my husband, everyone was so lovely, being very lighthearted and joking around.

My baby girl Elana was born at 1.30am on the 9th April and it turned out she had the cord wrapped around her twice but she was ok! I was so relieved she was out and felt so empowered from the birth, that I got to 10cm and had a go at pushing even if things didn’t work out quite like I planned. I only have the PBC to thank because what would have been quite traumatic for me at one time was a very positive and lovely experience and I’m truly grateful for it!