Birth story - Ellie and baby Frankie

I was diagnosed with GD at 30 weeks and had been planning a home birth. However even though it was diet controlled the baby started measuring big on scans. Really big. I started having quite intense meetings with consultants about delivery and interventions and started to feel like I was losing control of the situation. We bought the course pack and started to ask lots of questions and practised the breathing techniques at home following all the videos.

At 37 weeks baby was measuring 9lb6oz and they were advising to induce straight away. Using BRAIN we decided (after reviewing our own personal medical situation) that we wanted to wait. Baby was fine apart from size but we really had to push our case. We had extra monitoring and went up to due date. At 40+1 the consultant said he was pretty much guaranteed to be 12lb6oz (a worrying thought for a first time mom!) So we decided to induce the following day. When we arrived I was already 2cm and favourable so they broke my waters and gave me a few hours before starting the drip.
The drip is intense. I knew it would be and had watched the induction videos a lot to prepare. This is when the course kicked in fully! My husband Erik was incredible. He set up the room with lights, music, smells and set about counting and telling me calm loving stuff to relax me between each surge.

There was a moment I felt I lost control, in the second stage, I was down breathing and remembered all the scary meetings and doctors telling me I should C-section and I basically lost faith in myself. Again Erik was amazing and used all his course practise to help me remember what I was doing and why. The midwife was incredible and focused on using the words we'd requested until the very last surge where baby got slightly stuck and she said 'just put a push behind your next breath' (as the baby was struggling).

Franklin arrived after 4 hours on the drip and afterwards I couldn't believe I'd done it! The breathing is massive, especially for induction I think, it keeps you going, also I used the mantas 'bring on the next surge' and 'each surge gets me closer to my baby' in the gaps! Having Erik know the course so thoroughly kept him focused and calm even when it got a bit rushed at the end. The birth plan template was followed by our midwife to the letter and Erik got to tell me it was a baby boy which was so special.

And Frankie was a 'huge' 8lb 8oz...

Thank you so much, I genuinely couldn't have got through it without this course and it's advice!