Birth story - Chelsea and baby boy

It’s taken a while to write this.

It has taken me a while to realise that although my birth didn’t go to plan at all and resulted in having an epidural it was still a positive birth and that’s because of this course and how it changed my mindset. I didn’t want an epidural but I made the informed choice as it was the best thing for me at that time. I’m usually a very anxious and nervous person but leading up to the birth - I was very calm and actually excited!

So here goes..

I had my second sweep on Monday 30th July at 40+4 weeks. I had extremely mild surges (didn’t know they were surges at the time) straight away and throughout the day. I continued with my usual day.

At 11pm on Monday night I knew I was having surges, they started coming every 3 minutes and lasting 30-40 seconds.

This went on all evening but my surges were very sporadic and all over the place, varying from coming every 3 minutes and lasting 30-60 seconds to coming everyone 10 minutes lasting sometimes 2 minutes. I used my up breathing through every surge and felt very much in control - I did however go into hospital early hours Tuesday morning as I wanted to be examined. I spent 4 hours in the pool before I was examined. I was sent home at 7am with a painkiller as I was only 2cm! My surges continued throughout Tuesday day time and got increasingly more intense throughout. I tried every position possible & just couldn’t get comfy, this we now know is probably because he was back to back. I was extremely tired and after much deliberation I asked if I could go back into hospital for diamorphine and to use the tens machine as my back was also in a lot of discomfort.

We headed back to the hospital at around 10pm Tuesday evening. I had the diamorphine and tens machine and was able to get 4 hours rest as it eased the surges slightly. Around 4am Wednesday morning I got back into the pool and tried gas and air although I found my up breathing was more pain relief than the gas and air and decided to use the technique this course taught me instead of the gas.

Around 6am my surges were extremely intense and were also in my back. I also had intense pain in my leg as baby was on a nerve. I began to loose control at this point - I stayed in the pool until around 10am on Wednesday morning. It took me around an hour or so to come to the decision to have an epidural as I really needed some relief. I was exhausted and really loosing it and needed to pull myself back together.

We went up for an epidural & instantly I felt relieved! I managed to have some rest which was much needed as I hadn’t slept since Sunday evening! I was told what time I would start to push so I stopped using the epidural so I could feel my body - I pushed for 1hr 42 minutes and my little boy was born at 17.42 on 1st August 2018 weighing 9lb10!!!

This course made me feel confident and calm in the lead up to birth & I felt in control throughout my labour! I knew what to ask & when - the up breathing was a massive benefit for me and don’t know how I would have got as far as I did with it. I didn’t want an epidural or diamorphine but in no way do I feel I let myself down as it was the right thing for me and I birthed my baby boy calmly and naturally with no intervention.