Birth story - Charlotte and baby Evie

Evie was due on 28th November 2020. At around 2.30am on my due date my waters broke. We phoned the hospital to let them know and decided to go in for a check. I was seen by a midwife, baby’s heart rate was checked and I was sent home. I hadn’t yet started having contractions.

Just before arriving home around 5am my surges started. Initially I tried to sleep through them but they were quite frequent. Using the Freya app I started timing them and found they were already 3 in 10 minutes. We timed them for around an hour using up breathing with my husband tapping my arm along with the Freya app counting my breaths.

After an hour we rang the hospital back and were told to run a bath which we did. The water helped a little with the pain and helped me to relax more and really focus on my up breathing. My surges were getting stronger and closer together but I continued with my breathing with my husband by my side counting with me.

Just before 8am I started getting downward pressure and realised this was the start of the transition phase, we got in the car and headed to the hospital, Freya app still going and me focusing on my up breathing. Around 5 minutes out from the hospital by body started pushing and I told my husband to pull over as I could feel she was coming. He phoned for an ambulance and I breathed through the surges and allowed my body to push.

Once the paramedics arrived I was given gas and air as the baby was crowning. After 3 or 4 pushes with a bit of gas and air and some down breathing Evie was born at 8.41am. I felt so empowered that I had kept so calm and my baby had arrived so calmly given the circumstances.

Without the hypnobirthing course I don’t think I would have remained so calm. Even the paramedics commented on how calm I had been. I remembered some of the affirmations I had been listening to and realised how accurate they were. My body knew how to birth my baby and I was stronger than I knew I could be. Despite everything going against what I had planned I would not change a thing. My husband was brilliant and kept my breathing on track and kept me in the green zone.