Birth story - Emily and baby Abigail

*Trigger warning* - use of word contractions

Pregnancy 🤰🏻

I used PBC with my first birth and it was special, I had a great experience.

My second pregnancy, although it was straight forward and I had no complications, it felt different than my first. I experienced extreme nausea on the first trimester. Second trimester was great. Third trimester was tiring, specially with a 2 and half year old toddler running around. I swore I would give birth early as I was so busy and active but my due date came and went and nothing… I started having Braxton hicks from week 32. I couldn’t remember what contractions were like and sometimes was in doubt if I was experiencing contractions or if it was the baby moving. By week 37 I was getting impatient and had to work on my mental well-being to get back to a positive mindset and really trust that my baby would come when my baby was ready.

Labour:

On the week of my due date I had 2 nights of having mild contractions that lasted 3-4 hours and then faded. It was disheartening as I was so ready to get labour going again.

On Sat 18/02 I had a lovely day with my little family and had some visitors over for afternoon tea. By 7pm I started having those mild contractions again. Didn’t think anything of it but by 7:30 they had become more intense already. I started timing them in the Freya app and by 8 the app said I was in established labour. I asked my hubby to put our daughter to bed, said goodbye to our visitors and called my friend who would be babysitting for us. By 9pm the contractions were coming every 3 minutes and lasting 1 minute long. We rang the hospital (which is 5 minutes away) and they told us they didn’t have enough midwifes and that we had to go to a different hospital (25 minutes away), this stressed out my hubby but I was trying not to think much of it.

We set off to the new hospital at 9:30, having contractions in the car was not fun, no matter how much I tried to remain in the zone. Got to the hospital/midwife led unit at 10 pm, the midwife asked me to lie down so she could examine me but the contractions were coming pretty quick and were intense - I couldn’t stay laying down. We tried 3 times until she managed to examine in-between contractions. I was 4cm. She prepared the bath, gave me some paracetamol and left me to it. My hubby was an amazing birth partner and got the room set up for us with my playlist, snacks, water bottle and was encouraging me through out.

1.5 hours later, I was fully dilated. My waters finally broke and I lost my mucus plug so they had to empty and refill the bath. At 11:45pm I started pushing. I made a joke about wanting my baby to be born on the 18th, and the midwife said I had 10 minutes! (I wasn’t really aware of the timings, I only know them now because the midwife had written them on a board). By midnight I was crying thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to do it (probably transitioning?), my Angel of a midwife coached me through it and at 00:12 am her head was out and at 00:13 she was here! I was so excited and the euphoria I experienced was out of this world!

I knew water births were great (I wasn’t able to have a water birth with my first due to Covid) but to have finally have experienced it and birthed my daughter after weeks of dreaming about it, was amazing! It wasn’t a walk in the park like I know some women experience, but I am proud to have managed with up breathing, paracetamol and a bit of gas and air (I don’t think gas and air did anything for me, apart from making me a little sick 🤷🏻‍♀️)

5 minutes later I was walking out of the tub and delivered the placenta. I had no tears and didn’t loose much blood. We were discharged the next morning and my recovery has been so good, and I am putting it all down to the prayers that were prayed over me, water birth and positive affirmations from PBC. I felt empowered and am loving the bubble of second time parenthood.

Also, although we had to go to a hospital we had never been to before, it turned out to be a really good experience, even better than what I was expecting with the original hospital. Oh, and when the real contractions start, you will know its the real deal 😅