Birth story - Chiara and baby Luca

I loved reading these positive birth stories and I’m so glad to contribute to this amazing community with my own. Before I start, a huge thanks to Siobhan and the Positive Birth Company for having allowed me to have the most wonderful birth experience I could ever wish for.

I purchased the Digital Pack very early on at 16 weeks and I finished it in few weeks while I was on holiday with my hubby. I immediately felt I was given lots of information I have never heard before and it made me feel so knowledgeable and in control of our choices and preferences. By the time I was 20ish weeks, my husband and I had discussed every single detail and made a birth preferences document based on the template provided - thanks for that it was really useful!

Now to our son’s Luca birth story.

I started having irregular surges on Friday Dec 7- one every 30 min or so. On the same day, at my 39 weeks appointment with our lovely midwife Stephanie, we joked about baby boy being on his way. I always reminded myself that “my baby will come when my baby is ready” so even though very excited I decided to remain calm and relaxed and let my body do its own thing.

Surges were on and off for the whole weekend and on Sunday I started noticing a I was having 1 surge every 10 minutes. Again, my husband and I, being very aware it could take days, focused on getting all the oxytocin possible – watching movies (About Time was my favourite), taking a bath and listening to positive affirmations and relaxing music.

On Monday December 10 at 1.10am my waters broke in a big gush in our bed (movie style), so I knew it was time to call the hospital. At that point I had surges every 5 minutes, but they were still totally manageable thanks to the breathing technique. The car journey was really challenging and uncomfortable, but thankfully it lasted only 15min or so. I had my relaxing playlist on Spotify on and focused on breathing through each surge.

By the time we arrived in hospital I was welcomed and checked by a lovely midwife, who confirmed my waters broke and that I was “allowed” to stay at the MLU as I was 4cm dilated.

Unfortunately, we were told a room with the birthing pool was not available at the time, so we were given another room. My husband was amazing at making it feel very cosy and relaxed, putting our music on speaker, adding fairly lights and spraying some lavender room spray. I sat on the ball, leaning forward to the bed and just focused on breathing in and out. We started using the TENS machine at about 3.30am as surges became more intense and were 3-4 minutes apart – the TENS machine was a god send, I would recommend to anyone! We spent from 2am till 8.30am in that room, I felt very relaxed and in control, I was in a beautifully calm environment, with my husband by my side encouraging me.

The midwife came in the room to check baby’s heart every 15 minutes – which was always good and stable. At 7.00am, she asked me if she could check how dilated I was. She felt like I should have been more “advanced” at that point. Using my BRAIN I decided to accept her offer and get checked. She found out that part of my waters did not break and were impeding baby’s head from pushing on my cervix, and thus not helping it dilate. She suggested to break the rest of the waters manually and we agreed at that point it was the right thing to do – we really wanted to avoid getting chemically induced at a later point.

After she broke the rest of my waters – a very painless experience btw – I immediately started noticing my surges increasing in intensity and frequency. This made me really happy as I knew I was getting closer and closer to meet our baby.

At 8.30am we were given the amazing news that a room with birthing pool became available, so we happily moved there and created the same relaxed environment as in the previous one – room spray, fairy lights, background music etc. We instantly bonded with our “new” midwife Isabella as well as a student midwife Genevieve. They were both very conscious of our birth preference and went above and beyond to make sure I got the care and assistance I was hoping for.

Getting in the warm water felt such a big relief. I have to say it was a bit hard finding a comfortable position at the very start. I tried sitting but soon realised that being on all fours was the best option.

I spent 30 minutes or so in the pool having very intense surges, but I was cuddled by my husband and offered water, cold flannel, snacks etc.

Then suddenly, I felt a change in the way my surges were feeling and where I felt lots of pressure down below. I also started being louder – the pushing phase had started!

I pushed my baby out with every surge, breathing through them but also screaming a bit more than I had anticipated 😊

I had few wobble moments and said I couldn’t do it as I felt the pressure and intensity was too much. Everyone was amazing at reminding me I had totally got it and could do it all by myself.

I felt my baby’s head moving downward and upward again and again and I was thankful to Isabella, who gently guided me though.

Finally, at 10.26am our baby boy was born – my husband caught him under water with the midwife’s help. His birth was so gentle he didn’t cry and was very content to be held close to my chest. As wished, we got immediate skin to skin and delayed cord clamping. We got out of the pool as I was bleeding and they wanted to keep an eye on the amount of blood, so we sat on the bed and waited for the cord to stop pulsating. I have never felt so great, I made it, all by myself without any pain relief, not even a paracetamol. I was so happy and emotional I might have mentioned to my husband I want 5 more kids – let’s see about that :D

We waited for my placenta to be delivered naturally but unfortunately it was taking too much time and I was losing some blood, so I accepted the injection. The placenta came out in a matter of minutes. The midwifes said it was a beautiful and healthy placenta, which again made me really proud 😊 That’s probably why our little one was born 3.962Kg and 56cm long!

I had to get a couple of stiches for a second-degree tear – baby decided to come out with a hand on his cheek so it made it quite difficult for mummy to push him out. I have to say I didn’t feel a thing, neither the tearing when pushing him out, nor getting stitches.

After a quick shower and leaving baby to have some skin to skin with daddy, I got baby back into my arms.

I really feel like I could not have asked for a better experience, I’m so happy to have found the Positive Birth Company and did the online course. I’s also extremely grateful to both my husband for being my rock and the team of midwifes that supported us at Wexham hospital.

A special thanks to Genevieve who was such great as student midwife and also kind enough to take lots of picture of the delivery – we will treasure them forever.

Thanks for reading this long story everyone, I wish you all an amazing birth experience!