Birth story - Gerdie and baby Ludwig

*Trigger warning* - use of word contraction, not negative for me

I get so excited when I tell my birth story. It was honestly such a beautiful experience and I give lots of credit to Hypnobirthing.

A bit of background, my firstborn was also a unmedicated birth but he was a stargazer so a bit of a tricky birth to say the least. I was on my back, tired and pushing for long. My husband and I had done postnatal classes and thought we were prepared but, we weren't.

Fast-forward 4 years and I was pregnant again and determined to be as healthy and prepared as I could possibly be.

I read soooo many birth stories and I did the Hypnobirthing course which I cannot praise enough, it is amazing.

I exercised all through my pregnancy. I did Les Mills classes, yoga, aerobics (low impact) and weight training.

My exercise was my saving grace as I got insomnia and anxiety from around the 5th month of pregnancy and exercise helped me a lot.

South Africa has a very high C-section percentage in private hospitals so I was pleasantly surprised when my gynae did not argue with me about doing a natural birth. He said that if my first born was so big(10.4lbs) I should be fine this time around. He also added that they would induce me at 40 weeks so this baby would most likely not be THAT big...

When we got to 40 weeks I was sooo ready to meet our little boy. We saw the gynae in the morning and he did a check, I was 1cm dilated and 100% effaced.

He gave me a prescription for putocin, a very low dose, and gave us instructions to insert the gel that evening at 12 o'clock. He said to phone him to give him an update at 8 in the morning.

We inserted the gel at 1 in the morning but my husband accidentally spilled half of it so I only ended up with a half a dose and I didn't expect it to have a big effect on me and the labour, so we went to bed.

At 3 o'clock I woke up with a big contraction. I got up and decided to get my son's bag ready for preschool. I packed his things and did the dishes. I got big contractions every 5-8 minutes. At around 4:30 I woke my husband up and told him to phone his mom to come. She was going to be looking after my son when we went to the hospital.

She arrived at 5:00 and we started packing the car and getting ready to leave. I started realizing that this was definitely established labour even though it was still so quick after my 1st contraction. The surges were very, very strong and regular so I was dreading the drive to the hospital. I had 3 contractions on the 12 minute drive so and I told my husband that I would need an epidural immediately when we get to the hospital.

We went straight past reception to the maternity ward stopping every couple of minutes with contractions. This was very funny as I would drop my yoga ball and hang on my husband's shoulders during each contraction, then pick up my ball again and waddle on.

I refused the many attempts from everyone to take me in with a wheelchair

When we got to the room, after what felt like the longest walk ever, I told the nurse to phone my doctor immediately. She explained that she has to check me first before she calls the doctor, that is the procedure.

I got to the room at 05:45.

I insisted on standing on my hands and knees on the bed and here is where my husband was so amazing. He could see what I wanted to do and spoke for me when I couldn't.

The one nurse tried to get a drip in while the other one checked me, but my contractions were coming one after the other so they couldn't get a drip in. While they were doing the check the nurse said something about bulging and the next moment my water broke.

The one nurse then went to phone the doctor while the other one was about to take the soaked sheets off the bed when I had my first moo contraction. The nurse got such a fright and told me to get on the bed immediately. Again they wanted me to lie on my back and hubby stepped in and spoke for me. I leaned on the bed railing and stood on my knees on the bed when the next contraction came, with this one baby crowned. My husband excitedly told me he could see the head. The nurse panicked a bit and called the other nurse back in. They were both yelling at me to push even though I knew to just let my body do it's thing. He was out with the next push. My little Ludwig, a whopping 10.75lbs (4.75kg)

I looked at my husband and we were both in shock and laughing. We couldn't believe it was already done. We got to the hospital at 05:45 and he was born at 06:00, My Dr showed up at 06:30.

I am so thankful for this experience and I wouldn't change it for the world!