Birth story - Emma and baby Lennon

I'd had a fairly straight forward pregnancy aside from a Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) test due to low PAPP-A at 12 weeks and prescribed aspirin until 36 weeks. I kept super active during my pregnancy doing ‘The Bump Plan’ online video workouts which were amazing and put me in great shape for birth. #

On the Sunday morning at about 7am I lost my mucus plug, and I knew it could be time! I started getting some light cramping so sat in bed, rested and re-read my positive birth book & listened to my hypnobirthing affirmations (if you are going to give birth, I cannot recommend these two things more).

By 5pm the Freya app told me my surges were fairly close together (3 every 10 mins lasting about a minute) and I was bleeding a bit (turns out my mucus plug was a bit bigger and bloodier than I'd imagined!) so we decided to get to hospital. When we arrived I found out I was only 2cm dilated, and they suggested I go home. Sam and I chatted about it but we felt very comfortable there and I liked the safety of being with the experts, so I asked reeeeally nicely if I could stay.

Two covid tests later and some sweet talking, they found us a room and my waters promptly broke. Everything was pretty manageable at this point, I did my breathing, Sam kept me hydrated and calm repeating our affirmations but it was certainly a bit more intense than I'd expected -but in between the surges all was dandy and I felt great. They sort of felt like a wave, the moment I felt like it was all too intense, the wave crashed back down and I was fine again, as my affirmation said "my surges can't be stronger than me, because they are me".

I spent a lot of time like a cat, sat on a beanbag in the corner of the dark room. Time then seemed to both stay still but also fly. I can't really remember much for the next few hours but some back pain, Sam giving me massages and lying down on a beanbag trying to rest as much as I could. Eventually the midwife had a look at me (I'd asked for limited examinations so she just watched me for a while to see where I was at - magician!) and decided we were ready for the pool and I was SO ready to float in that warm water.

We got in and it was so nice, I just floated through the surges and kept warm and cosy. Again, time went by (apparently about 8 hours!) and the midwife asked to examine me as things had slowed down a bit (a risk of being too calm in the tub) I agreed as I was starting to get a bit exhausted. We found out some of my water was still in front of baby's head, which was slowing things down and although I was nearly fully dilated but there was still a lip of cervix in the way.

We continued as before in the pool but I knew something would probably have to change, and after a midwife swap and some more pool time we agreed to having my waters broken. The midwife discovered I was also fully dilated - woo! Then I felt the urge to push, such an odd sensation where my body just suddenly knew exactly what you need to do next.

For two hours that continued and I knew my time was running out before they'd want to intervene (before this my midwives had just pretty much left me and Sam to it, offering advice when asked - honestly they were like guardian angels in the background) so on their advice I got out the bath started doing some squat pushes on the loo (glam) and they decided I needed a catheter as my bladder was blocking baby.

I lay down on the floor with Sam behind me, the midwives popped in the catheter and I knew it was now or never and pushed as hard as I could. The midwife suggested it might be time for an episiotomy as baby was getting a bit distressed (he'd been super chill up to this point) I knew that was the one thing I never ever wanted (and she knew it too, the rascal was getting me to get my A-game on) so I did a couple more giant pushes and out he came! Covered in his own poo😂 the meconium gave everyone a little fright but he was wailing away so we were still able to have skin to skin straight away whilst the consultant was called just to give him a once over in case it got to his lungs. Thankfully they were pleased he seemed all good.

I had the injection to birth the placenta (weirdly more relieving than pushing out the baby!) And the cord was cut. I hopped into bed and got that all important uninterrupted skin to skin with my new little angel for hours!

Honestly it was the most surreal but natural process ever, I just had to listen to my body, take advice from midwives when I felt I needed it and breathed through every surge that was bringing my baby closer to me. All of this with no pain relief (not even a paracetamol!) and no tearing (thanks perineum massage). I felt like a freaking warrior, its just amazing.

My two takeaways…

Hypnobirthing with The Positive Birth Company, for Sam and I, was a godsend, even the midwife commented how amazingly it had worked for us.

Bring better snacks, dry quavers when you're in the labour zone are NOT the best.