Birth story - Jamila and baby Rae

What I really want to do is share how much certain aspects of the course empowered our birth, which I hope will help others.

Due to a medical condition (Obstetric Cholestasis for anyone facing the same) I went into the induction ward armed with everything I knew I would need for a calm labour.

I was nervous, but having seen some positive experiences of induction on this group, I went in feeling positive.

Labour began gently and I used my up breathing while walking around, bouncing on a ball, and leaning over the ball to progress things. I loved the up breathing, it made me feel so calm and in control, and it was a clear signal to my amazing birth partner that I was experiencing a surge, so he would pause conversation and give me light massage for the duration.

A few hours later, I had to be transferred to the labour ward as I started to bleed. I have had a bleed with each of my 3 children when I have gone into labour, so the doctor said she thought it must be something that happens to my body when I dilate from 1 to 2 cm.

To be honest, I was disheartened to learn that after almost 8 hours of what I thought were fairly good (though irregular) surges, I was only 2cm dilated – I thought it would be much speedier! So I was relieved when they offered to break my waters and get things going to be on the safe side. I used my BRAIN, and knew I was ready for this so I said yes.

The surges began to get slightly stronger and more regular. My husband set about preparing the room – dimming the lights, spraying my calming mist and playing my relaxation MP3s (in the end I just wanted the Simple Head and Face Relaxation mp3 on repeat – I would catch snippets while having a surge to relax my shoulders or my jaw which I found so helpful.) and would come running over for a massage every time I started up breathing.

My lush midwife commented that the breathing technique was excellent and did everything she could to enable me to labour in the environment and positions I wanted. After about half an hour I asked if I could lie on my side and she could see that I was getting very tired and the surges were getting much stronger, so she offered me some gas and air and paracetamol to take the edge off. She handed me the Entonox and left the room to go get the paracetamol and that’s when things changed – I experienced some of the most powerful surges I have ever had and, I might as well be honest, I went to pieces! Each surge would practically lift me right off the bed – I started mooing, and shouting and pushing and felt completely out of control. When the poor midwife left the room I was calmly up breathing and when she came back a few minutes later, she found a screaming mad woman demanding an epidural! I remembered what Siobhan had said about adrenaline kicking in – but I was 100% convinced I had not reached that stage yet.

“It’s not the adrenaline talking I NEED an epidural you have to believe me it’s not the adrenaline!!”

Well, of course it was the adrenaline, and on examination she informed me that I was fully dilated and could start pushing. I begged her not to make me.

But she said “You can do this, use your breathing!” and I thought “Right! I CAN do this!” and I started using the down breath and oh my goodness it was amazing. I felt myself pushing the breath down, I could feel my baby’s head coming out with every breath and it was so empowering. I felt completely in control.

With the next surge, my baby was born completely calmly (followed by many apologies to my poor husband and midwife). I felt amazing!

What a difference to recovery a positive birth makes. I am still buzzing 5 days later. Thank you Siobhan for the amazing course, and I’d also like to thank the midwives on the ward at The University Hospital of Wales who were all amazing, from my first contact on the induction ward to the last midwife who discharged me.