Birth story - Emily and baby boy

*Trigger warning* - Mention of Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH) after birth.

My pregnancy was really smooth with no complications, had pretty bad heartburn and restless legs in the night from the second trimester but still loved my time being pregnant. By the time my due date came and went I was still feeling really well and full of energy (still helping doing easy jobs renovating our new house) but definitely feeling drained with the constant ‘where’s your baby’ conversations.

By 40 +6 my midwife discussed the need to book an induction for the following week, which made me feel quite nervous/disappointed as was really hoping to birth naturally. So decided to have a stretch and sweep to see if this would get things moving. Unfortunately nothing much happened and I booked in for another at 41 +2 with my induction being booked for 41 +5.

This time, straight after the sweep I went on the CTG and felt tightenings straight away. Around 2:30pm I went home and continued to feel quite mild period type cramps consistently through the afternoon. After a few hours I used the Freya app to time them and they were coming every 12-17 minutes but really mild. We had dinner and did a few jobs at the house until around 7:30pm when they were every 4-7 minutes but still feeling like period cramps and talking/ laughing through them. I decided at this point to contact our midwife to see what she suggested, as it is a 2 1/2 hour drive to the hospital and being our first baby, didn’t want to leave things too late to get on the road, not knowing what to expect in terms of discomfort/intensity in labour. She came round at 8:30pm and checked to see if there were changes in my cervix since the sweep, which she said there was. I was around 2cm but she said it was our call as to whether to drive down that night or to stay until things progressed and surges were more intense.

We made the call to drive down and book a hotel if needed when we got there. The car journey went really quickly (I’d been a bit nervous as to how this might go). We stopped to put on the TENS machine incase I might need it on the road. The surges were really manageable the whole way, and I used up breathing throughout. By the time we arrived in Dunedin, I was feeling quite uncomfortable in the car (trying to stay on my side was tricky with not much space). We got into a hotel at 12:30pm where I continued to labour and began using the TENS machine and up breathing. I began timing surges again and they were consistently 2-3 mins apart, after 45mins I called the midwife and she said she’d recommend waiting a little while longer as going to hospital may slow things down. I was still finding them manageable so continued where we were. After another 45minutes or so I was feeling a bit of pressure down there and decided I wanted to head in.

We arrived at the hospital around 2:40am and made our way to the labour ward. The midwife and student midwife monitored a couple of surges and asked how they felt and asked if I was ready to get in the pool. I felt that I was still managing really well breathing and using TENS, so was a bit nervous I might be getting in the pool too soon as I was expecting things to get way more intense. However the midwife was so supportive and said she felt like it would be a good time to go in, so I did. And it felt wonderful, lights were dim and it was super calm and quiet. I instantly felt like I was in ‘the zone’ and with the first surge in the pool I felt an urge to push.

I continued to labour in the pool for a couple of hours, using down breathing and falling asleep between surges (which I wasn’t timing but felt like they were more spread apart). After 2 hours or so I felt a much stronger sensation in my bottom and this is where I must have transitioned as I was starting to feel like I wasn’t making progress with each surge.

The midwives were so amazing and reassuring, I had a feel and I could feel the baby’s head just inside my vagina, still in the sack. This definitely helped me to know things were definitely progressing and wouldn’t be much longer til baby arrived! After another few surges the sack and babies head crowned and I definitely felt the ring of fire! But with the next surge baby came out in one and the sack burst as baby came out.

The midwives untangled baby from the cord and as we picked baby up from the water we saw that we’d had ourselves a little boy! arriving at 5:54am.

It was the most surreal, amazing and empowering moment. My partner was amazing throughout, being really calm and supportive which allowed me to stay in the zone the whole time. We enjoyed skin to skin in the pool and stayed there for a little while.

Unfortunately as we tried to move from the pool to the bed, I felt really dizzy and at this point we had to cut the cord and baby went straight to daddy for skin to skin while I was supported and had the injection to pass the placenta quickly. The rest of the morning was a bit busy as I needed medication to manage a PPH. But I was in such great hands, baby was loving skin to skin with his daddy and I felt really safe and supported.

I am so so grateful I was introduced to hypnobirthing. It completely changed my mindset around birth and gave me so much knowledge going into labour. I had the birth I’d been hoping for and can look back on the whole experience as an amazing and positive one which I am so proud of.

Good luck mummas! The tools really do help to stay calm and positive, whatever happens you’ve got this!