Birth story - Emily and baby girl

I wanted to share this story, as the positive birth stories from the Positive Birth Company helped me so much in preparing for my birth. If you’re reading this in anticipation of your own delivery, please know that you really CAN do it! And it’s brilliant that you’re already looking for ways to think and be positive about your birth so that you can make it the best birth for you and your baby – it really will help immeasurably. I’m so grateful to Siobhan and the Positive Birth Company, as I’m convinced that without the online hypnobirthing course I took, my birth would not have been so easy and natural. I managed to do the whole thing without any pain relief, and in spite of being a first-time mum, the whole process was only 6.5 hours from the first contraction to delivery. So yes, positive births really are possible with the right mindset, good preparation, and of course, plenty of luck – all of which I’m so grateful for!

So without further ado, here is my positive birth story! (I’ve given plenty of detail about the run-up to the birth, too, as that was something I was curious about as a first-time mum and didn’t really know what to expect.)

From 37+1 weeks (bang on term – our baby is definitely well organised!) I started to have pre-labour symptoms. I wasn’t entirely sure if this was what they were, as they went on for a couple of weeks on and off, but thought they couldn’t really be anything else given how far along I was in my pregnancy! I threw up once, but mostly it was low period-like cramps which came on and off occasionally. By 37+6 I had what I thought might possibly be a single surge, lasting a few minutes which I had to stop and breathe through; the same thing happened (again, only once!) at 38+1. This time I timed it: it lasted 7 minutes (!) and was like strong, low period pain which again I had to breathe through, but not really like a surge coming on and off. The morning after this (38+2) I thought my waters might have broken, and the midwives at the hospital recommended that I should come in to get it checked. They monitored the baby and said all was good, and hooked me up to a machine that recorded the baby’s heartbeat and any activity going on in my womb: although my waters hadn’t broken, they said that they could see signs of small contractions and that some of my mucous plug had come away, so we started to get excited – things were beginning to happen! Cue a week more of on-and-off light period-like cramping and a bit of an upset stomach, which I’d read could be a sign of labour coming, so we were pretty sure things were on their way...

Sure enough, a week later at 39+1, on the morning of 11th Feb, I woke up to find that my waters had broken. This time around I was pretty sure this was it (even though this was my first birth) - there was a lot of it, and it had exactly that light straw-coloured-pinkish tinge to it that we’d heard described in our prenatal classes. I came back to bed and told my husband that this was it – my waters had broken!! We called into the hospital and they said just to monitor the situation and give them a call back at the end of the day if nothing had happened yet so that we could start talking about an induction. I kept an open mind about having an induction, but wanted to do all I could to have a natural birth if possible, so we had a really relaxing and lovely day – we even went out for lunch and had a delicious steak so I’d have plenty of fuel for the marathon ahead, which was amazing and definitely helped!

I had a few light period-like pains during the day, but nothing regular that I’d describe as a surge. Then, almost exactly 12 hours after my waters had broken, while we were having dinner around 7pm, the period-like pains started to come more frequently. We called into the hospital and they said to monitor them until they were coming at the recommended frequency and length. We tried watching something to distract me, but I found I preferred to sit quietly with the meditations from the hypnobirthing class playing on the Freya app (which I would absolutely recommend, by the way – it was totally brilliant!). I started timing the surges and from the get-go they were pretty regular, coming every couple of minutes and lasting almost exactly 45 seconds – so I knew this must be it! At this point my husband asked me how powerful they were, and I said probably around a 2 out of 10 – so definitely manageable. Although I was planning on giving birth in the birth centre at the local hospital, I wanted to stay at home as long as possible as I knew from the hypnobirthing classes and my prenatal classes that it was the best place to be at this point to keep me calm and keep the oxytocin flowing, so I sat and bounced on my birthing ball and breathed through the surges using the Freya timer, very quietly and calmly, almost like a meditation. My husband said looking at me I looked really peaceful and was almost smiling! After about two hours the surges started to come closer together, so we called the hospital again and they suggested I try to take a bath and take some paracetamol – but the surges were too powerful to get upstairs, and soon after taking the paracetamol I started to throw up. It definitely felt like my body was getting into gear!

By now it was around 9:30pm and I said to my husband that I felt like I needed to be in the hospital. We jumped into the car and drove slowly to the hospital (feeling every bump in the road!) – things were definitely progressing and as I tried to get out of the car by the hospital I threw up again in the parking lot. Luckily it was late at night so there weren’t too many people around to see! A very kind male nurse came out with a wheelchair for us and my husband wheeled me into the birth centre. We went first to an examination room where I continued to breathe through the surges: a midwife came in and said she couldn’t examine me as my waters had broken and there might be a risk of introducing infection, so she observed my surges and their frequency and duration. After about an hour, around 11:15pm, she said that it was clear to her that things were progressing and that I wouldn’t be going home, so she was happy to examine me: sure enough, I was 4cm dilated! We went through to one of the birthing suites around midnight and we asked if they could run the pool for us, as I had wanted to try using the birthing pool for labour and delivery. However, after only about twenty minutes of breathing through the surges, which were getting progressively stronger, I suddenly felt an incredibly strong urge to go to the bathroom. Even before I got there I felt a strong wave rush through my body and let out a kind of deep bellow, which I recognised as the “mooing” sound of the pushing stage – but I could hardly believe it was happening so quickly, as I’d only been 4cm about half an hour ago! The midwives rushed in and helped me out and onto all fours on the upright seat-bed in the delivery suite, saying that they wanted to make sure the baby didn’t land on the floor. I was still in shock that it was all happening so quickly and could hardly believe that this was really it, and that they thought our baby was already on her way!

The midwives guided me to hold onto the handrail over the top of the bed, and with my husband standing next to me, holding my hand, giving me sips of water and constant encouragement, at 12:15am I started to go into the down stage of labour! I kept asking if it was alright for me to push so early, as I’d been expecting it to last so much longer, and the midwives (who were absolutely amazing) kept reassuring me and telling me just to follow the natural urges of my body, so I did and just kept going with the rhythm of the surges. After twenty minutes or so they said that the pool was ready, but by this point I knew that I was where I needed to be, the handrail was helping and I didn’t think I could move anyway, so I stayed where I was. All the while the midwives were measuring the baby’s heartbeat and, although I didn’t feel like things were progressing, they told me her heartbeat was descending lower towards my pelvis which meant she was on her way. I just kept on pushing and breathing out through my body: it was an incredible workout – not least on my arms, gripping onto the handrail! – and my husband afterwards said he was just in absolute awe of what my body was doing. To me it felt as if my body just took over, and with the help of my down breathing I felt like I could support my body and my baby to do what they needed to do.

Around 1:20am, an hour later, the feeling of pushing changed again as I started to feel the baby’s head advancing. I pushed harder than ever, knowing that this was it and that there were only a few more pushes to go before it was all over and our baby was here. It was super helpful and reassuring that I could hear the midwives getting everything ready for delivery, which meant I knew we were almost there! There was a moment of feeling the baby’s head crowning (not super painful, just a strange feeling) and then a huge push, and then she arrived at 1:43am! I could hardly believe it, it felt like a bit of a dream as it had all happened so quickly. The midwives immediately placed her on my chest for skin-to-skin and I had the injection to deliver the placenta, which was incredibly easy after all that had just happened. My body was shaking with the adrenaline of the birth and I just couldn’t believe it was already over – I kept thinking I had dreamt it and that I’d have to do it all over again!

The midwives then gave our baby to my husband for some skin-to-skin while I had a few stitches (not at all painful and they healed incredibly well over the next few days). We then were given some tea and toast and left together as a family in the birthing room, which was just wonderful – my husband climbed up onto the bed next to me and we cuddled together as a family through the early hours of the morning, until we needed to move to the postnatal ward around 7am.

All in all it was an incredible, empowering experience – for me, the most amazing thing was how much I was able to create a calm and positive experience for myself and my baby through the breathing techniques and positive mindset I’d learnt through hypnobirthing. It truly has empowered me to bring that into every single day, making my birth not only an amazing experience in itself but also a touchstone that I can look back on to remind myself of my mind and body’s positivity, resilience and immense strength! I wish you the very best of luck with your own birth – know that you can do it and more, and that it can be an amazing, empowering experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life – and, most importantly, it will gift you with your own beautiful baby!​