Birth story - Chrissy and baby boy

*Trigger warning* - use of word contraction and reference to previous instrumental delivery.

I used hypnobirthing when I had my daughter nearly 4 years ago so knew that I wanted to use it again this time round as well. Although her birth was a positive one, it was very long and ended in a forceps delivery with an episiotomy and meant a long recovery.

I had a relatively easy pregnancy with no real medical issues (apart from fainting at my 12 week scan blood test - I really hate blood tests ).

Unfortunately my father in law passed away suddenly at the same hospital I was due to give birth in 10 days before my due date so it was a very emotional lead up to baby arriving but my husband was still an incredible support to me despite all of this.

My due date came and went, I had a couple of failed sweeps at 40 weeks and 41 weeks but I tried not to be too disheartened. At my 40 week appointment we booked in induction for 41+4 to ensure that we’d be able to attend the funeral. I tried to keep as relaxed and calm as possible (well as calm as you can be with a very active 3 year old!) but by the time my induction day came around, there were no twinges or movement so we headed into hospital. I was checked and was barely even 1cm dilated so they decided the pessary was best. I did have a little wobble at this point as it took 4 days from start to finish after being induced with my daughter so I was worried it would be the same this time around. But my husband got me back in the zone and reassured me that every baby is different and it wasn’t likely it would be the same this time. After a couple of hours on the monitors, the midwife checked me over and said I could go home to see how things progressed and come back 24 hours later.

As we were packing up to go home, I started feeling a bit crampy but put it down to the pessary starting to move things along. As we started to drive home the cramps started to become more intense and regular. We stopped at McDonald’s and all I wanted was an ice cold coke (I never got to finish this and was devastated ). By the time we got home the cramps were coming every couple of minutes and I was struggling to talk through them. I thought I better start timing them and it quickly became clear they were contractions and I was in established labour! After a quick call to the hospital, we headed back in (it was a very long 30 min journey back with contractions coming thick and fast!). We got back onto the induction ward and they hooked me up to the monitors and saw that I was contracting every 90 seconds. They took the pessary out to try and slow things down and make it a bit more manageable. Up breathing was a life saver at this point and I was managing to breathe my way through the contractions. I kept telling myself that my surges were not stronger than me and that every surge was bringing me closer to my baby.

I started to ask about pain relief as I was struggling a bit with the intensity and frequency of contractions, the midwife seemed to think I was making a bit of a fuss as I was only 2cm at this point so not even eligible to go to the labour ward. As she went off to get some paracetamol, I had another contraction and my waters popped everywhere. This meant I could head down to the labour ward so I managed to shuffle there (stopping and leaning on the wall with every contraction!).

We got into our room on the labour ward and were greeted by the 2 most incredible midwives. They checked me and advised I was 4cm dilated. At this point I broke down as I was really struggling with the frequency and intensity of the contractions and wasn’t sure how I’d get through the rest of labour as I thought I still had hours to go (I was so wrong!). The midwives said as I was only 4cm I could have an epidural if I wanted, which I agreed to. The anaesthetist arrived almost straight away and they started to prep me for an epidural. As he was running through all the details I had a sudden urge to push. I had a huge panic as I was worried it was too soon but the lovely midwives encouraged me to go with what my body was telling me and got me onto some gas and air which took the edge off. Looking back this was definitely the transition as they checked me again and I was fully dilated (I’d only been on the labour ward 20 minutes, so had gone from 4cm to 10cm very quickly).

I climbed onto the bed and just let my body take over, it was such an empowering experience as my body just knew what to do. Downbreathing really helped me to centre and focus myself. After around 5 minutes pushing, the baby’s heart rate suddenly dropped and one of the midwives hit the emergency button and the room filled with people. A couple of Drs were shouting at me to push and that we needed to get the baby out now which really made me panic but my midwives were incredible in advocating for me and allowing me to push in my own time without intervention. At this point they took the gas and air away from me as it was becoming a distraction so I bore down and gave a huge push and his head came out, followed by the rest of his body. His hand had been up by his head and he’d got a bit stuck which had caused his heart rate to drop. He was bought up to my chest and I just burst into tears as I couldn’t believe what had just happened.

From arriving to the labour ward to baby arriving was just over an hour. I felt so fortunate to have such amazing midwives, one of them was rubbing my back the whole time and they were so encouraging and wonderful. The birthing centre was really quiet so they were able to move us into a lovely room in there until we were discharged - it had an amazing double bed so we managed to grab a few hours sleep before heading home!

If I’m totally honest, before this, my biggest fear had been giving birth without any pain relief but I’m so proud of myself for doing it and it was honestly the most empowering, incredible experience of my life. I had a second degree tear which was stitched up by the midwives while I had lots of newborn cuddles and a bit more gas and air! I recovered so much quicker this time round which I think was mostly down to the fact there was no interventions. It’s just amazing what our bodies are capable of and I’m so grateful for the hypnobirthing techniques that I learnt.