Birth story - Emma and baby Ruby

After being induced with my first child just over 2 years ago and not getting the calm water birth I’d wanted I was apprehensive for how this one would go. I wanted a home water birth but due to low platelet count was advised to go to the MLU to have baby. A friend recommended the positive birth company and within a week of receiving the book I had read it from cover to cover and felt much better.

On the 5th Nov, 2 days after due date and having random contractions over the previous week or so I was starting to lose faith that I wouldn’t know when it was actually happening.

Turns out I didn’t need to worry. At about 11pm I got a first strong surge that broke my waters, surges were coming every 10minutes, so by midnight I started to use the Freya app to time the surges and help me focus on my breathing, in between resting in bed. My partner was happily sleeping through it all and was not concerned that baby was coming anytime soon from previous experiences.

By 12:45 I was quite uncomfortable and decided to run a bath to help relax, By 1:15 I was feeling nauseous so woke Matt to call the midwife to ask about taking my anti nausea tablets and to turn the heating back on, whilst on the phone the Freya app advised I was in established labour. The midwife on the phone insisted on talking to me, so from trying to breathe through my surges (I couldn’t work out why I couldn’t follow the up breathing pattern (there was no way I was transitioning yet) and giving her some details, I all of a sudden had an urge to push. She told Matt to empty the bath and get some towels (his face was a picture at this point), before the water had time to drain from the bath our little baby girl Ruby Lauren was born in two surges (I didn’t actively push in any way-my body knew what to do). I brought her straight to my chest and Matt wrapped us in towels whilst we waited for the paramedics to arrive.

It was the most unbelievable experience and I think a lot of it was down to understanding what was happening and having faith my body knew what it was doing, this allowed me to stay calm and focused! Thank you so much!