Birth story - Gemma and baby Rohan

A little background first, I birthed my first baby (9lb 13oz at 42 weeks) in the water in 2015. Although I didn’t use hypnobirthing specifically, I knew if I believed in myself I could do it, I also used breathing techniques. It was amazing and I wanted to shout about it from the rooftop afterwards.

This time round, for reasons I’m unsure of, I was more anxious. I knew a lot more about hynpobirthing, and knew early on it was something I would use. I downloaded the digital pack and loved it!

This pregnancy I had slightly more input from healthcare professionals as I had previously birthed a ‘big’ baby - GTT, extra scans which I declined (I knew he would be big I didn’t need a scan to tell me so) and I made a plan with a consultant midwife regarding having a homebirth/waterbirth.

I initially wanted a homebirth, however at 36 weeks he was measuring well above the 90th centile, I agreed to a scan which showed he was actually well above 95th centile. Now this didn’t bother me, but I received negativity from community midwives and after a few weeks discussions with my partner and the amazing consultant midwife, I decided that to get the positive birth experience I wanted I would birth on the labour ward in the pool - I didn’t want anyone coming to my house that could potentially be negative.

Fast forward to evening of 10th September 39+3, I had noticed over the past few days that his big foot wasn’t sticking out of my stomach like normal, I had tried a few things but wasn’t happy and I couldn’t ignore it so I went in for monitoring. Monitoring was beautiful but still no movements, so they offered me an induction as it was their guidelines. I used BRAIN and I accepted, I was disappointed but I knew it was the right thing to do.
I stayed overnight for more monitoring, husband went home to sort out our little boy.

Morning of 11th September, I had a pessary at 0940, was 1-2cm dilated, had a stretch and sweep and went for a walk - I set myself up for a long day! After an hour or so, I could no longer talk through the pains and got in the pool for relief. They continued to get increasingly stronger, this is when continuous monitoring commenced, which showed they were coming, as I thought every 1-2minutes. This continued for a few hours and my heart rate steadily increased. I used the ball and ‘up’ breathing l, which kept me calm but they recommended pethidine to help my heart rate come down, which I accepted. I had pethidine in my previous labour and it was amazing for me. The pethidine gave me a few hours break, where I could talk, eat and gave my energy back.

Around 6pm, contractions changed and I felt a shift, baby was much lower and I had pressure with contractions. I continued with the up breathing, got back in the water started using gas and air sporadically.
However, my heart rate and babies continued to increase over the next hour or so, so I eventually got out and had to have some fluids.

At around 8pm I was feeling increasing pressure and strong urges to bear down, it was then I was examined again, and was 8cm. I continued to use ‘up’ breathing but my body continued to bear down.

I’m not sure if I used the ‘down’ breathing techniques, but my body took over and our baby boy Rohan was born at 21.13, hand up by his face like superman 😆 weighing a healthy 9lb 5oz (smaller than his brother).

I had a physiological third stage, and baby breastfed prior to delivery of the placenta. When the placenta was inspected, it was clear I made the right decision with an induction. It was very ‘gritty’ and not healthy looking at all!

Following the course definitely allowed me to concentrate on what I was doing, I listened to the MP3s throughout, and when I felt myself ‘losing’ it before second stage I was able to give myself a pep talk.