Birth story - Cristine and baby Freya

I began the digital pack at around week 20 and completed it over the course of my pregnancy with my husband tuning in for the birth partner sections. The content was so helpful and as a first time mum, eliminated a lot of my previous fears about giving birth. I loved the in-depth information and science behind how our bodies are made to cope with labour. Over the course of the weeks leading up to labour I practised breathing and focused on positive affirmations. Unfortunately however, at my final midwife appointment my baby was still in a back to back position having been like that for a number of weeks. This unnerved me a little as I’d heard how back to back labours could be longer and more painful. I began to worry that this might undo all my positive hypnobirthing efforts but after a little panic I decided baby will know what to do for the best and to put my trust in her.

On the evening of 27th March I had a nap while my husband went to the gym. I’d had no previous signs or symptoms labour was pending. I got up to go to the toilet and all of a sudden my waters broke, however having needed the toilet I genuinely wasn’t sure if it was my waters or not(!) I called triage feeling stupid and they told me to monitor it and call back should anything change and that early labour can take a while so to try to relax. Around 10 minutes later surges started coming thick and fast, however because of baby’s position I didn’t feel any in my stomach at all, mostly just my back. By this point my husband was home (after leaving his chilled gym/pool/sauna session to discover a lot of texts and missed calls) and I used up breathing to breath through the surges and forced myself to stay upright and moving. I started using the Freya app and we quickly realised the surges were coming FAST! I called the hospital back and asked if I could go in, they agreed but they still seemed pretty skeptical that anything would happen any time soon.

On arrival we had to wait a while in triage to be assessed and surges were getting really powerful. I asked for an examination and was found to be 7cm dilated already. We couldn’t believe it, I had really expected to be in very early labour and sent home but instead I was quickly wheeled through to the labour suite to give birth.

I had hoped to use the midwife unit which is part of the hospital but unfortunately it was full. The labour suite was just as good however, I had two lovely midwives who kept the atmosphere very calm and relaxed. I felt really unorganised as we hadn’t had a chance to bring our bags from the car so I didn’t have any of my home comforts but this wasn’t important at the time. Most of the rest of the night was a blur, I used gas and air to get through the surges and before I knew it the midwife was telling me she could see a little head and lots of dark hair and my baby girl Freya Violet was born, in a 7 hour labour.

Photos of when she was first born and now, at 2 weeks old ❤️