Birth story - Divya and baby Arian

I have finally had the chance to share my positive birth story. I hope my story will inspire, especially a lot of first time mothers out there.

Before I discovered hypnobirthing I was absolutely terrified of giving birth and didn't know how I was going to manage it. I'm a size 8 and couldn't imagine pushing out a whole baby.

A friend of ours introduced my husband, Rohan and I to hypnobirthing and we decided to purchase the Positive Birth Company digital pack after being inspired by Siobhan's YouTube videos. The videos made sense so Rohan and I decided to give hypnobirthing a shot. We religiously followed this to the end which led to an incredible birth of our son, Arian.

My baby was due on the 15th September. I was 1 week and 5 days overdue.

I was booked in for an induction on the 27th September which I had accepted as I was getting excited to meet my baby. I was convinced no matter what the circumstances, I would make my birth a positive experience. I also had a strong gut feeling that things were naturally going to progress despite being booked in for an induction.

On the 27th Sept at 9am, my husband and I went into the hospital to be Induced. We were seen by the midwife who advised that the doctor would be coming to assess me shortly. It was 10am and no one had come to see us. My husband and I decided that we should go for a big breakfast whilst the doctor was assessing other patients. I didn't get a chance to have breakfast that morning and thought if I get induced, I will need the energy. The midwife said that's a good idea as the doctor will still be a while.

We returned back to the ward at around 11am. The doctor was still reviewing other patients.

Around 12pm, the doctor finally came by to assess me and explained the procedure for induction.

The doctor was getting everything ready to insert the pessary at which point, my waters broke (talk about miracles). I was getting lower back pain that morning but didn't think anything of it as it was very mild and Rohan was helping me ease the pain using light massage techniques.

As my waters broke naturally the doctor advised us to go home and see if things progressed naturally, if not, I would have to go back in to get induced to reduce the risk of infection.

Prior to being discharged we had to stay in the hospital for CTG monitoring. The baby was moving a lot so the CTG scan took a while.

My husband and I left the hospital around 3pm that afternoon. We decided to go and have a late lunch. I started getting mild period pains. I wasn't sure if these were surges. I told my husband and he suggested we start timing them. We then decided to go for a walk in the park at which point I was getting surges every 10 to 15 minutes but again, I wasn't sure if these were actually surges as it felt like period pains. I was using the up breathing technique to get through the surges/period pain as and when they were coming and timing them on my app.

We reached home around 6pm at which point my surges were getting frequent and intense. My husband decided to create a calm and relaxing atmosphere in our bedroom by lighting some candles, turning on the diffuser and putting on some relaxing music. I kept on using the up breathing technique to tackle each surge as they came. My husband was doing a fab job as my birthing partner to ensure I was calm and relaxed and helping me count through my surges.

Around 10pm, the surges became really intense and were every 3 minutes. My husband phoned triage but they told us to stay put at home for another hour and call back after that. At 11pm we called them back and they said try and stay at home for at least another 30mins because I was a first time mum. They said if we were not 4cm dilated that they would have to send us back. We tried to stay put as long as possible however within this period I felt like the pain intensified and started to feel anxious. I didn't realise at the time but I was going through the transition. Before long I was getting the urge to push while I was still at home. I told my husband that I feel like pushing. My husband packed our bags and we decided to go into the hospital rather than making another call to triage.

We reached the hospital around 12am, as we had to take a couple of pit stops in the car. My husband spoke to a midwife in triage whilst I waited in the waiting area. The midwife said they didn't have any beds and that she would need to check. I then went in the room and said "look I think I need to push." She saw me and knew straight away something wasn't right. She did an examination and said she could feel the head and shouted "get the wheelchair...this baby is being delivered now". All the midwives around suddenly rushed to wheel me into the birth centre. The midwifes were all surprised. They were praising me and couldn't believe how I managed to stay at home and dilate to 10cm with only 2 paracetamol. After hearing this, I felt ecstatic and more confident that I got this far without any pain relief. I felt like giving myself a big pat on my back. I would say that my husband was my biggest pain relief. He was there every step of the way geared with his tool box.

Once I was at the birth centre, the midwife was trying her best to fill up the pool but there wasn't enough time as the pool took a while to fill up and by 1:47am on the 28th September my little angel, Arian, was born with no further pain relief not even gas and air. We didn't even get a chance to set up the birth centre as everything happened so fast and my birth partner was busy attending to me while I was pushing.

I felt euphoric and empowered after I had given birth. I couldn't believe what I had done. It was a magical moment for me.

I did sustain a second degree tear which required stitching. Our midwife was lovely but unaware of our birth plan as everything was left in the car boot. During the second stage she kept asking me to give a little push which I shouldn't have listened to as I could feel my body naturally pushing down the baby with each surge. It was all very new and sudden to me being a first time mum so unfortunately I did push. However I was also doing my down breathing and my midwife was amazed how well I was progressing and actually mentioned whether we had done hypnobirthing as she could tell from the techniques we were using.

I want to say a huge thank you to Siobhan Miller for this most wonderful experience of my life & all you mothers out there for sharing your amazing birth stories. Reading everyone's stories definitely boosted my courage and confidence.

As I mentioned earlier, I was terrified initially of giving birth but after the course I became stronger and more confident and overcame all my fears. It's amazing what your mind can achieve and what a powerful tool it is.

I still listen to the MP3s when I'm breastfeeding, feel like relaxing or even to help me sleep when I've had an exhausting day. Listening to the mp3s help me relax and reminds me of the special time when Arian was inside me and that feeling is just indescribable.

Lots of love & best wishes to you all xx