Birth story - Brodie and baby boy

I had been painting and cleaning my new house all day Tuesday and got back to my mums house around 8pm. Had some dinner and went to watch TV in bed. Around 11pm I started having surges in bed and felt uncomfortable lying down so had some paracetamol. I started using my Freya App to time the surges and relax which really helped, around 6-10 minutes between lasting about 1 minute. I called my partner to come to my mums around 1am, as he arrived the surges were getting closer together (between 4-6 minutes). I called the midwife assessment unit to double check when I should be going in as I felt a bit out of control as I had been sick a few times, they suggested a bath to relax. My partner ran me a lovely bath and helped me in. He sat next to me making me laugh all the while I used the Freya App to help with my breathing when a surge came.

By around 3am my surges were 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 minutes so we needed to get ready to go! My partner got me out of the bath and it was so cold! He dried me and wrapped me up in a towel and put me to bed with the heated blanket whilst he gathered all our bags and my mum helped me to dry my hair whilst I was in bed. The cold shock did stall things slightly so we were back to surges every 5 minutes. I got the Freya App back up and listened to some relaxation in between surges while my partner timed the surges.

I used BRAIN and talked through with my partner where we would like to go. Originally we had planned to go to a stand-alone MLU. The unit is quite far away from the hospital and I was struggling with surges so we decided to go to the MLU alongside our local hospital just incase I decided I would like an epidural. Once we were timing at surges every 3 minutes we were on our way!

We hopped in the car at 5.30am(ish) and put the radio on to have a sing along to (getting the oxytocin flowing!) and arrived around 6am. We were put into an assessment room where we spoke to a midwife about my surges etc. She was adamant that because I could talk between my surges and coped using my up breathing that I was probably not yet dilated so would be best going home. She offered an internal examination (approx. 7am) before I left, while trying to highlight that it’s likely my cervix is just softening but it’s all going in the right direction. I asked for some time to talk it over with my partner as I am not comfortable with internals usually, but after using BRAIN I thought it best to know exactly how far along we were. Best choice I made because to the midwives surprise I was 3cm (she said almost 4 but they have to say the lower) dilated and could stay in the assessment area until the midwife change over has been completed and see where we want to go from there.

After the changeover another midwife and midwifery student came to assess me. After speaking to the previous nights midwife and talking to me she was confident I could go into the delivery suite, with the pool!

Silly me hadn’t printed off my birth pan yet, but my partner was well aware of my preferences and informed the midwives.

We had some lovely toast made by the midwife as we entered the room and made ourselves comfortable. I used the aromatherapy infuser they had in the birthing room to put in one of the essential oil mixes I brought with me and then got into the pool with just my bikini top.

In the pool I was coached for my down breathing by my partner and felt so lovely and calm. The student midwife was also very comforting and attentive so I would definitely recommend accepting the assistance of one if you get the chance.

At around 11am the midwife asked if I would mind getting out of the pool for an internal examination to see where we were. I agreed. The midwife explained that she was expecting around 5cm dilated. After the check she was stunned that I was actually getting past 7cm! I put this all down to bring so calm and aware of my body being the perfect vessel to birth my baby.

Back in the pool, the midwife was concerned I hadn’t been for a wee and asked if I would accept a catheter being put in. I used my BRAIN and declined as I felt like I was so close and getting out of the pool into the cold would stall things.

My mum and partner’s mum were at the unit wanting to come in to the delivery suite, which I was not comfortable with and knew it would stop me from concentrating so my partner was fantastic in ‘protecting the cave’ and ensuring they didn’t come in until after our baby and the placenta was born.

My surges were getting more and more powerful and I was offered some Gas and Air. I took a few breaths during a surge and felt really sick so pushed it away.

After a little more time in the pool I felt the uncontrollable urge to push and everything became a bit of a blur as I got more and more into ‘the zone’. I hadn’t slept since the Tuesday night so I was extremely tired and fell asleep between each contraction with my partner holding my head above the water. I used my down breath during the contractions to slowly push and my up breath in the breaks as my boys head was crowning what felt like extremely slowly. A few more pushes and our boys head came out! A little twist, another push, and he was born officially at 3.15pm!

The midwife lay him on my chest and we had a couple of photos to remember the moment.

I chose to have the injection to get the placenta out ASAP and deliver it in the pool whilst having a cuddle, but after a little while the midwives became concerned that the placenta still hadn’t come. Freddie was taken off of me and had some skin to skin with his dad while I exited the pool and pushed the placenta out on the loo (luckily just before the time limit where I would have had to go down to the hospital!).

The midwife said that she hadn’t seen many FTM who handled birth so well and after I told her about my preparation using the hypnobirthing techniques she pointed out this is likely why I coped so well, especially without any painkillers.

We then had a bit more skin to skin and tried to establish breastfeeding. We did have a bit more excitement then when the fire alarm went off and we were partially evacuated from the unit (7th floor!!). Although luckily they found the fire (3rd floor research room) and it was put out before we had to walk down 7 flights of stairs!

We stayed the night to try and breastfeed in a lovely double room meaning my partner could stay with us which was lovely.

Thank you for giving me the tools to have the best possible birth 💕