Birth story - Ella and baby boy

*Trigger warning* - third degree tear.

I had a birth that was completely different from all of my expectations. This was my first baby and I started having tightenings at around 35 weeks. I was monitored but as they didn’t progress I was sent home. The following day, I was on the loo and suddenly felt a gush of fluid! I knew immediately it was my waters and I rang my midwife. Because I was still technically pre term they said to come in immediately. I was sent to a ward where they monitored baby and did a swab to check if my waters had gone, which they had! The surges started to get more intense and frequent and I started using up breathing and the Freya app to stay calm. I’d wanted to labour at home for a while so I had to adapt and use these techniques in the hospital instead.

Once it was confirmed that I was in labour, I was taken to a lovely labour room on the midwife led unit of the labour ward. It had a starry night sky projector that we switched on and there were affirmations up all around the room which was amazing as in the rush we hadn’t brought anything with us to get the oxytocin flowing! I continued with my up breathing and my husband did some light tough massage. From here my surges kept tapering off and it felt like things weren’t progressing. I found it hard mentally but kept reminding myself, using positive affirmations, that my baby would come when he was ready.

I used the pool and continued to labour, opting for some diamorphine to help me get some rest as I’d been awake for days and knew I’d need my energy for the birth! After some rest, I was told that I would need an induction if my active labour had not begun on its own, due to risk of infection because my waters had broken the day before. I was about to be taken for an induction when the midwife offered to check my cervix to see where things were at. To everyone’s surprise, I was 4cm and the rest of my waters were bulging! It turns out they had started to break from the back but not fully gone, so the midwife broke them for me, and things ramped up very quickly from here! Immediately my surges became very intense and I found myself struggling for breath.

At this point I had a wobble but I bounced on the birthing ball and tried some gas and air to get back to feeling calm. I also asked for some more diamorphine as it had worked well before. Once this kicked in I was in the ZONE! This part was truly magical. I sat upward resting my back on the bed with my legs down, using a special bed designed for giving birth (so cool!) as this was a position that was UFO but they could still monitor baby easily. I continued up breathing, using the gas and air and staying as calm as possible.

Before long I felt my body start to push and I started making some very interesting noises! I told the midwife I needed to push, she had a look and I was 10cm! I started pushing, using the down breathing technique with every surge and after 20 amazing minutes my son entered the world.

From the midwife breaking my waters, to my baby being born it had only been 3 hours! Because things happened so quickly I was really thankful for how calm I managed to stay using up breathing and repeating affirmations in my mind. We had delayed cord clamping and lots of cuddles when my son was born and I felt completely euphoric!

Unfortunately I sustained two tears, one of which was a third degree tear. I found that the PBC course enabled me to stay completely calm even when I was wheeled off to have a spinal block to repair the tears. Some people thought this part sounded traumatic but I kept breathing and overall my experience was absolutely incredible and so positive. The atmosphere was so relaxed and even though I hadn’t even packed a hospital bag, my son coming early was the most wonderful surprise and hypnobirthing gave me the confidence I needed to remain calm and enjoy my birth experience to the fullest.