Birth story - Beatrice and baby boy

I'd already tried hypnobirthing with my first so was already aware of the principles and loved the logic and psychology behind it. I had also read several other natural birthing books. The birth ended up quite medicalised but still positive.

For my second pregnancy I downloaded the digital pack at around 30 weeks and blitzed the videos in a few evenings, I watched positive hypnobirthing videos, read all the positive birth stories (which I found so informative as to how variable birth could be, giving me confidence that we could question and collaborate with health providers, plus seeing pictures of new born babies helped remind me what we were working towards)

Early on I started gentle pregnancy yoga, I found the time taken to focus on myself and baby, practice breathing, and prepare my body for birth invaluable. I also tried to get at least 10 minutes of relaxation practice every night.

I fully expected to go into labour as I had done last time, slightly before my due date with waters going. I didn't feel like I had really experienced labour and birth last time so was a bit doubtful of my ability to do it naturally. The positive birth stories helped a lot as I could imagine my birth how I wanted it to be like and remind myself that there were so many people having positive births that so could I ! A key thing for me was being open minded about what could happen and being accepting and remaining positive if things didn't go to plan.

Emphasis on being informed and asking questions was clearer for me this time round and I had so much more confidence to question things midwives/ doctors had told me. But also just more confident in my abilities. Again I read a few more books which also really helped keep me informed and realistic about the birth. My goal was to remain in control and to avoid medicalisation and I feel I achieved that.

I was surprised when I reached my due date, but had a pretty negative experience at my due date appointment (41 weeks in France) luckily the course and my additional reading had given me the confidence to not take what the gyno said to heart, if anything it spurred me on to achieve what I had set out to. 2 days later I had another standard 'post term' check (for waters, cord circulation etc) and another gyno and midwife really put my mind at ease.

I woke up at around 4 or 5am the next day, 3 days past my due date with a new sensation unlike braxton hicks that I could tell was coming and going. I told myself that it was important to rest despite having had a pretty much full nights sleep (thanks baby !) and stayed in bed until 6am when I figured I'd see how regularly the surge-like things were coming. About 1 every 10 minutes. I got up and came downstairs not wanting to get excited as I'd been having a few days of cramping so kept telling myself 'they'll probably stop...' And although it did slow down initially, the 1 in 10 pattern continued. I went to sit on my ball and put a playlist of some of my favourite songs on and chatted to my mum who had come to stay to be with my 2 year old. I had been using my up breathing as soon as I recognised they were regular just to practice as they were very manageable. My husband and eldest got up a few hours later and I told them (tearily) that I thought this was it and we had a family hug ! My husband sat with me writing down the times of the surges which seemed to be no more than 1 in 10 occasionally 2 in 10.

At 12.45 I called the maternity unit to let them know what was going on as I felt the surges getting a bit stronger, but still holding out for the magic 3 in 10. A midwife told me to come in once surges were much closer together and much more "painful." I wondered when they would get closer together and up until now surges had been stronger but not what I would describe as painful, especially if I was on top of my breathing and in a good position. A nice strong one was good I was telling myself. I found leaning against a wall peddling my legs out really helped. That and my husband rubbing my lower back. About half an hour after I called the midwife I had a very powerful surge and my waters went, the relief was amazing ! However they were not clear. Surges definitely ramped up after this and felt a bit different from before although some still didn't feel as strong as before my waters had gone. Still pretty calm about it all I asked my husband to check my 'bottom line' a purple line that appears up your bum crack which can be used to tell how dilated you are. I knew it was definitely time to go not least because of my waters but when he touched where the line ended it was right at the top of my tailbone 😳. The car journey to hospital was 30 mins. This definitely threw me off my stride and I was struggling to keep on top of things. Strangely though surges weren't always consistently powerful, I would have a very strong one then the next one would be less so. On the short walk to the maternity unit I had quite a few surges very close together, the midwives could see baby was not hanging around and got us into a room. I was examined and told I was at 9/10cm, I couldn't believe how easily I had reached nearly full dilation at home ! Trying to get undressed and on the bed was challenging - I didn't really want to be on the bed and surges were making it difficult to do anything apart from focus on them and find a comfortable position. I was squatting on the floor next to the bed relieved I could start to "breathe" baby out. The midwives wanted me on the bed to push as they couldn't find babies heartbeat, although I could feel him moving and wasn't worried. Although I didn't want to be coached to push I found their directions encouraging because I admit I wasn't convinced I could do it at this point. The rest in between surges actually felt amazing but down breathing had pretty much gone out the window. I just told myself over and over 'he's coming.' An hour or so after getting to hospital baby was born ! We had skin to skin for an hour or two, my husband reckons they left the cord for a good few minutes but I didn't really notice (despite this being a big issue to me in the lead up to the birth thanks to an unexpected hospital policy).

After the initial shock of how quickly things had gone at the end I am so happy with how my birth went and can put it down to my positive mind frame and effort in training my mind to stay relaxed and focused. I think that the environment is SO important and the support from birth partners and health providers helps massively too.

Get your head in the right place, stay active and healthy, stay positive. Believe the affirmations, practice relaxation, buy your electric tea lights etc (you may never use them !) but if it helps you feel like you are taking steps to make your birth what you would like it to be, no matter how you get there, then it counts for something !

Thanks to all the mamas for your wonderful, inspiring birth stories. Thanks to the PBC for making hypnobirthing more accessible.