Birth story - Basia and baby Tymek

*Trigger warning* - Mention of broken elbow, medical procedures and depression during pregnancy.

I still cannot believe how well my birth went and how powerful hypnobirthing is. Knowledge is power and I’m so glad we prepared for birth, it’s too hard to do it without preparation.

We had such a positive birth that when we were leaving hospital all of the midwife’s that took care of us came to say bye and it felt like leaving a good party. They said we should come back soon and were congratulating us on how well prepared we were and how happy they were for being a part of the experience. It made me realize that our birth was very different from what they usually see.

Thanks to hypnobirthing and PBC I left the hospital empowered, confident and feeling like a super woman.

Giving birth is probably the most physically demanding thing a human body can go through and at the same time it can also be like reaching the top of the highest mountain in the world.

Once I discovered Siobhan’s book and digital pack that was my main interest for the rest of pregnancy. My partner did the course with me and I shared with him everything I listened in the podcasts etc. so he knew a lot, was well prepared and was able to make decisions if needed. He was a real birth partner.

❤️ Pregnancy

I was nauseous and very tired for the first two months but once I got through this I was happy, had lots of energy and my skin was smoother than ever. I was very active, did yoga, swimming, hiking and was still doing rehabilitation for ACL I teared back in January.

At 29 weeks I lost my balance and broke my right elbow in 3 places. It required surgery, screws, plates and 3 months rehabilitation afterwards. All was good with the baby but I was traumatized after surgery as I only got nerve block because of being pregnant. After surgery I was prescribed strong painkillers which I decided to do not take. I went through the pain in the elbow with hypnobirthing breathing techniques which reassured me how powerful they are. I couldn’t imagine going back to the same hospital to give birth, I felt extremely guilty and got depressed. It was a second injury in a year and second surgery. That was tough.

3 weeks before giving birth I developed so severe PGP that it was impossible to walk. I was crying every evening as I was in so much pain. Physiotherapy and chiropractor didn’t help, they told me it’ll maybe get better after I give birth. I couldn’t imagine having a positive birth experience while being in so much pain from PGP. I did some research looking for help and I found it. My PGP was almost gone after a week I talked with dr. Sinead Dufour who I had a virtual appointment with and at the time I was giving birth the pain from my PGP was almost gone.

❤️ Birth

I really wanted a home birth but we live in Norway and it’s not very popular here. There is no birth center anywhere near us either. So the only option was hospital. I wasn’t happy about going to the hospital as I imagined that the journey there and the hospital itself would destroy my oxytocin flow but I accepted it and was even happy about it after I talked with my midwife and it seemed like my birth preferences were the same as the birth preferences of midwife’s working in hospital. So thanks to that and hypnobirthing I changed my mindset about hospital.

I had some mild contractions on Thursday, they lasted for around 5 hours and stopped completely, on Friday we had an appointment with our midwife, she checked me and I was 1-2cm dilated. She asked if I want a sweep but, knowing what I knew from the course, it didn’t make much sense for me to do it a day before due date. Especially that I felt my body was preparing for labour. I also had lots of energy that day, I didn’t have that much energy for months, so I figured out that might be also a sign of labour. But I made a mistake there and instead of chilling and saving the energy for later, went for a walk etc. it would’ve been better if I’ve done nothing but relax that day.

On Saturday, which was my due date day, at 4am a contraction woke me up, I had three contractions in bed but they were strong and close together so I figured out it must be it. I woke up my partner, we took a shower, got dressed and called hospital. They told us it’s up to us to come at this stage or not. I struggled to time contractions, my dog was running around not knowing what’s happening and I was getting cold since we don’t use heating at night. So I thought it was best to drive to hospital.

It’s 20 mins drive from our house to the hospital and I had my eyes closed for the entire time. We got to the hospital and as we walked through the same corridors I walked when I broke my elbow I imagined everything being covered in a golden light of strength and was thinking to myself that I’m an unapologetic goddess. 👌🏻😁

There was a super nice midwife waiting for us and she was Polish (we are as well). It made me feel good, she asked if I want her to check me and told me it was completely okay if I didn’t want to. I wanted and I was 4cm. It was 7:30. Surges were strong but still manageable at this point. Midwife read our birth preferences and kind of left us to ourselves. She started filling the pool and brought us food but let us do whatever we wanted. My partner set up the light, I got rid of my clothes as I felt uncomfortable in them and was on my knees leaning over sofa. It was a great relief when I got to the pool and, soon after, I started moaning. I closed my eyes and kept them close for the entire birth. I also almost didn’t say a word.

Midwife’s changed and I heard my partner saying to the midwife that we met already and I was so happy to hear that it was the same midwife that did the ultrasound at 19 weeks (they do just one ultrasound in Norway). Not much was really happening, surges were really strong and intense but I was coping with them really well, my partner was very supportive, midwife’s weren’t really there. I was able to completely relax between surges, even fall asleep, I was never on red, always coming back to green between surges. Then, I had a transition which I think was really short but who knows as I completely lost sense of time 😁 I had a thought that this is too much and if surges get stronger I won’t do it and immediately thought, aha it must be transition. And soon after I had completely different type of surges, I reached to check and I felt my baby’s head. Said to my partner to call the midwife’s and they came, checked me and I was 10cm. This stage felt long and more intense, my waters didn’t break and there was lots of pressure. Midwife suggested she’ll break them to speed things up but my partner didn’t agree.

She told me to push as it was taking too long and then she said I need to get out of the pool as baby’s heart rate was dropping. But I didn’t want to go out so I used all my power and pushed his head out, the rest of the body also took long so I kept pushing even after the surge. I made it and he was born in water 🥳. He was born at 9:55 and almost 4kg, a big baby that we had no idea was big which was great. Still in the pool midwife massaged me and placenta was born which I didn’t even feel. We moved to the bed, baby was on my chest and my partner cut the cord maybe 15 mins later. Soon after my baby latched and I was stitched which I didn’t feel either. I only had a small tear, a few stitches and lost only 200ml of blood. I couldn’t believe I gave birth and everything went so well.