Birth story - Caylee and baby Birdy

Short but sweet and positive.

Gosh, what an amazing experience we had. I purchased the digital pack but only completed 52% of the course, yet it completely set me up for a happy and positive experience.

I went shopping the day before my labour started so I walked a lot. I think it helped bring on my labour. My surges were really strong and it took over 24 hours for me to dilate to 4 cm. Once my waters broke I only pushed for a short time (under 2 hours). I was on all fours and the gas and air really helped. The midwives kept commenting on how good my breathing was. My body was pushing involuntarily and the midwife was so fantastic and monitored the baby’s heartbeat so often. Everything was perfect with my baby, she was happy and strong.

I wanted a water birth but my active phase was so quick, we didn’t have time to move to an empty room with a pool. The Birth Place was so busy, 4 baby’s were delivered that night so that’s why I was put in a room without a pool in the beginning when I was 3cm dilated (although it did have a big bath in which I did use but felt it wasn’t really helping with pain relief). The big ball also didn’t help but I found standing and leaning forward with my head in my arms helped a lot. I did ask for an epidural as I was getting very tired (my husband and mum kept falling asleep as we had all been awake for so long) and the pain seemed unbearable and I kept hearing screaming and felt overwhelmed but soon after that my waters broke and things sped up. This might have been my transition phase.

It was amazing how my body just knew what to do, I felt safe and unafraid. My husband sat by my face through it all, coaching me on and patting my forehead with a wet cloth. I was sweating and out of breath. They don’t call it labour for nothing 😅 I was also making strange grunting noises. It really was special and I still feel like superwoman.

Thank you Siobhan for creating the digital pack and educating me on the science of birth and breathing techniques. Money well spent.