Birth story - Hayley and baby Elsie

I had a sweep at my 38 (+4) week appointment and was booked in for an induction the following Sunday (39 weeks) due to a big baby and a previous haemorrhage with my first delivery. I was planning to cancel the induction as I really wanted to go into natural labour and following the PBC, I felt very confident that I could have a whole new experience this time around.

Anyways, I was having a few minor niggles following the sweep but baby girl was very quiet on the Saturday afternoon which was bothering me. I popped up to get check and thankfully she was well. (A beautiful rainbow was showing over the hospital and I fully believe It was a sign of Gods promises to me about having a positive birth this time round). While I was there they offered another sweep as they could see I was booked in for an induction. I gladly accepted the sweep and low and behold, I started contracting that night around 12am. Grandma arrived about 1am to have our little boy and we headed to the hospital.

When we arrived, they checked me over and I was around 3/4cm dilated. I laboured for a while on the assessment ward (we were alone so it was lovely). A few midwives didn’t really believe I was in labour as I was so calm. I was using the Freya app, up breathing and had a wee playlist on so felt very in control of the surges. I was checked again a while later and I was 5cm so they moved me to the labour ward.

My waters were breaking over this time and I continued to labour well with up breathing and started using gas and air when the surges got a bit more intense. They checked me after 4 hours and I was at 6cm but seemed a little stuck there - they realised after a few more hours that a little pocket of waters hadn’t broke and on my next exam, they popped these. I was still 6cm at this point.

Feeling tired but still in control of the surges, I thought it would be at least another 4 hours but within a few minutes, I was starting to ‘moo’’ between breathing down and using gas and air. All sorts of noises were coming from me! I thought, surely not yet. The surges got pretty intense and frequent.

All I wanted to do for most of the labour was stand and that’s exactly what I did when I gave my final pushes. Much to the midwives surprise and a very quick run to catch her, baby Elsie was born and placed in my arms.

I have to thank the PBC for giving me the tools I needed to breathe well, believe I could do it and for remembering to use B.R.A.I.N & UFO positions. This really made the world of difference and helped me on my beautiful labour journey. My husband is still in shock about how night and day different my two labours were and we are both just grateful and blessed immensely..💖🙌🌈🥰👨‍👩‍👧‍👦