Birth story - Emily and baby Elsie

*Trigger warning* - use of word contraction and previous emergency c-section.

Pregnancy

I had a previous emergency c-section in 2014 which I didn't cope with particularly well to be honest. Growth was an issue with my son in 2014 and he was born 4lb15 full term. So during this pregnancy I had growth scans and was under a consultant. I had a good pregnancy this time although I did suffer quite badly with SPD in the last 2 months. My growth scans showed healthy growth and plenty of water so I was desperate to try for a VBAC which was really well supported during consultant appointments

PBC

I invested in this quite early on in pregnancy. I would watch the recordings a couple an evening, and usually one or 2 on a Sunday morning whilst my little boy was in swimming class. I wanted to mentally prepare myself for all possible eventualities so watched every video and then near the end I re-watched videos about up breathing, down breathing, birth preferences and oxytocin increasers. I printed the birth plan template, filled this in and put it in my notes. My midwife was really impressed and she took a picture to show her colleagues.

The Birth

I had some really light cramping the night before but didn't want to get my hopes up so just went to bed as normal. Woke up at 5am with a bad belly (a griping pain). I went to the toilet but the pain would just clear and then every time I tried to lie back down in bed the pain would come back. This carried on until about 6 when I told my husband I didn't think I'd be able to do the school run because my belly was hurting. By 7 o'clock it was more obvious that these were contractions so my husband got my son ready for school and rang my mum to ask her to take him for us. I then used the Freya app to time them, each one was lasting 118 seconds so they were particularly long and I couldn't believe it when I realised that one was 8 mins apart, then 7.5, then 6, then 5.5... I found the app really helpful to concentrate on the up breathing.

I told my husband to ring hospital. They wanted to speak to me, the midwife heard me having a contraction and realised how long they were, my mucus plug also went whilst I was speaking to her on the phone so she told me to come straight in. I live 5 mins from the hospital but I had my eyes closed the whole time and stayed in a weird crab position in the car. My husband had to park in the ambulance bay, and we ran to the lift. I had a contraction in the lift, another at the door to the ward, and then another when I got to the bed and that's when I felt the baby coming down the birth canal and I shouted "it's coming out" . The midwife got my leggings off, examined me and she said "right let me just check that what I'm feeling is definitely right..." and then she smiled and said "your 9cms and with that last contraction I saw the head".

They waited until my next contraction was over and then zipped me upstairs to labour ward. Once in that room I had some gas and air which was amaaaaazing. The midwife said "right it's in your hands now you can make this as quick or as slow as you like" I opted for quick so I did down breathing to let my body push her out but did also push when I felt I could. She was out in about 4 contractions and it was amazing. Born at 9.15, only 4 hours after waking up thinking I needed a poo and only about 30 mins after getting to hospital.

My husband told me "it's a girl!". The cord was a bit short to have her on my chest so I just sort of held her between my legs for a while. We were left in the room just the 3 of us to have cuddles until 3.30 when we facetimed my son to show him his sister. I then went down to the ward and my husband went home but I was still euphoric all night it was amazing.

My birth plan had consisted of a lot of things I didn't have time to do, e.g having music, room sprays, candles etc, but I honestly couldn't have asked for a better birth. I was very sore for a week after. I did have a 2nd degree tear so I think it was a mixture of this plus the spd which didn't go straight away. A week later I was able to go for a long walk and didn't need to take as many paracetamol so nothing in comparison to a c-section recovery.

Overall a really positive birth and for me a very healing process after a precious traumatic birth. I recommend the pbc to everyone who will listen. I believe it was my calmness and being in the zone which allowed me to progress so quickly and I couldn't have done that without the tools the PBC gave me. Anyone else who is aiming for a VBAC I'd also recommend the VBAC support group on Facebook and use it in conjunction with the PBC both are invaluable

Good Luck everyone x