Birth story - Carola and baby Arthur

For me, what I've learned during the online course and also during labour, is that a positive birth doesn't necessarily need to be a totally natural birth. As long as you feel in control of the situation, that you're being heard and making decisions based on the knowledge you have and the right questions you have asked - any birth can be a positive one!

I went into hospital at 08:00 in the morning on the 3rd of December. We were going in to break my waters and see if we could get labour going that way.

I'm group B strep positive and had a previous caesarean, which meant that I was going to be monitored constantly and would have antibiotics intravenously every 8 hrs.

I had my mind set on a waterbirth, and there was a pool reserved for me, where they could still monitor me and the baby.

Soon after they broke my waters - at 4:30 in the afternoon, my surges came on and I was doing great breathing with every surge. Within a couple of hrs, I had three strong surges every 10 minutes and I was happy without any pain relief. I was relaxed - had music on and yoga spray in the room. My husband was with me, falling in and out of sleep as everything was totally calm. When they checked me, I was 3 cm, which was less than I thought it would be, but all good I thought - I just keep going the way it's going 😊.

But soon I had a storm of surges and no breaks in between anymore- the surges would build up back to back and I couldn't catch my breath anymore. They were super powerful and I asked to be checked again. Within 2 hrs, I had gone from 3cm to 8 cm and it seemed like the baby had turned a bit and was now back to back, which is probably why I felt so much pressure on my bum.

At that moment I asked for an epidural, because I wanted to be calm and in control, which I thought at that point would be better. My husband did ask and mentioned to me that he didn't want me to be disappointed afterwards for opting for pain relief, but I really felt it was a decision made to be able to stay in control and to keep the labour being a positive experience.

As soon as the epidural was in, everything was immediately calmer and almost as if time was standing still. My midwife was also amazing and stayed with me all through the labour...she gave me so much confidence and trust as well.

My husband fell asleep on the yoga mat for about 2 hrs. It's possible that the epidural slowed down the labour a bit - but everything was so calm and peaceful 😊.

When it was time to push/ breath the baby out, we woke my husband 😊 up and also this was very controlled and calm.

After 1 hr of 'pushing', the registrar wanted to help me out with forceps, because of the pressure on my old scar from the previous caesarean, and to turn baby so that he wasn’t back to back and would come out more easily.

In the end baby Arthur was born at 05.00 in the morning with the help of forceps.

But it was an amazingly positive experience for me and my partner. The baby's heartbeat was good all through the 13hrs it took us in the end. I feel great mentally and physically!

The course has helped me greatly to keep positive and make the right decisions all through labour.