Birth story - Gemma and baby Ginny

My twins were born in Nov 2016- it was a vaginal assisted theatre delivery- I wouldn’t want to call it “traumatic” as I feel incredibly lucky they arrived safely and healthy but I didn’t feel prepared or educated for their delivery and it was extremely “watched” upon.

When I fell pregnant with our third baby I knew I wanted my experience to be different and that’s when I came across hypnobirthing and the positive birth company. I used the digital pack and downloaded the Freya app in preparation. After completing the digital pack I realised I had choices, felt educated and loved the theory behind the breathing. I had concerns about pain relief as I am extremely sensitive to medication it makes me vomit profusely, so I was hoping for a water birth in hospital. In my third trimester I practiced the breathing techniques daily and listened to the MP3s nightly. I felt calm and prepared for the arrival of baby.

I finished work in good time and spent lots of time relaxing at home, preparing for Christmas and spending time with our twin boys. At teatime 15th Dec 2019 I lost my mucus plug. I felt a little bit nervous as I knew this was the start- not sure when things were going to progress but knew this was it. We put the twins to bed as normal and I got ready for bed. At 22:00 I started to have period like pains- I told my husband to get some rest and that I was probably “imagining” it and that I was going to try and rest. I couldn’t sleep mainly because of excitement and anticipation. At midnight the pains started to ramp up and they began to feel like surges. I used the breathing techniques to get through each surge. At midnight I contacted my parents in preparation to come over.

At 3 am, after watching a few hours of television, I woke my husband up just to say that I was definitely feeling stronger surges and I felt we should go into hospital as I couldn’t really feel baby moving. My parents arrived and we set off to hospital. On arrival to hospital, at approximately 5 am, the midwife’s checked babies movements and were happy so gave us the option of going home. We decided to go home as I felt that I could continue using the breathing techniques and stay in the zone better at home. We arrived back home at 6am and I tried to get some rest but the surges were to strong so I just stood/sat on the bed and breathed through each surge. I stayed calm and in control. By 9am I was having 3 surges in 10 minutes and being 40 minutes away the midwifes advised that we came back into hospital.

We arrived back at hospital at 10am- the midwifes examined me which I was happy for them to do, and I was 4cm dilated. They said they could see my waters were so close to breaking and that I was progressing well. I felt in complete control and continued to use the Freya app listening to the MP3s and focusing on my breathing. The midwifes asked if I wanted further examination but I knew I just needed to focus on my breathing and trust my body. At 15:20 my waters broke and immediately after this my breathing changed and I felt the shift to the down stage of labour. Because of this immediate change and the midwifes visibly seeing my change in breathing and stance I was transferred to the delivery suite where I got straight into the water at about 16:00.

The midwife asked no questions she just allowed me to stay focused and breath through the surges. I could feel my body moving baby down. The midwife would listen to babies heart rate but knew I was so focused that she did not need to examine me or even ask to examine me. At approx 18:00 the midwife called the second midwife as babies head came out. This was amazing as she remained underwater ready for my next surge. I remember the midwife saying to me just one last surge and I would meet my baby- I remained calm but utterly excited knowing I would be holding my baby after that next surge. My husband was close by the water and at 18:07 Ginny, our mermaid baby, was born. She was lifted straight onto my chest- this felt so magical. I felt so empowered knowing that I was in complete control of my labour. I could recognise each stage and knew exactly how to deal with it. I was in compete love with Ginny and was so excited to bring her home. Ginny fed almost immediately after being born and by midnight, after her checks, we had left the delivery suite and were on our way home.

I couldn’t sleep when we got home as I just wanted to introduce her to the twins. At 6am I heard the boys waking up so I surprised them by going into their room. I hadn’t seen them since I put them to bed on the 15th night. I said I have a surprise in our bedroom- they both came running into our room and were so excited to see “Ginny” on our bed. This had to be one of the most amazing moments of our lives.

I am so proud of myself and if someone was to ask me would I put my body through a third pregnancy/forth baby I’d definitely say yes. I can’t believe how focused I was. It was a completely different experience from my twin delivery. Thank you to the positive birth company and the digital pack for assisting me in welcoming Ginny into this world. I’ll be forever grateful