Birth story - Jenni and baby Thomas

My third birth story (but my first with Hypnobirthing!)

My first two birth were private and very doctor led - they were great but oh my I wish I had the knowledge of this pack then! My first was induced at 40+10 and I had one round of pessary and oxytocin and epidural - I loved it! I felt totally in control and had a wonderful birth. My second was a spontaneous labour at 39+5 which I had epidural again but my daughter had shoulder dystocia (where the shoulders can get a bit stuck around the public bone on the way out) this was fixed with some pressure on my pubic bone from the midwife and a quick manoeuvre to change my position.

I’ve given that background because shoulder dystocia is rare but if someone else has had the same situation then they, like me! Might be looking for a positive subsequent birth story!

Because of the shoulder dystocia I was aware I probably wouldn’t be advised to go full term to avoid a big baby - I was keen to avoid a caesarean (after two vaginal births and the prospect of a summer with two other kids I found that a more stressful thought) induction didn’t phase me as I had a wonderful one first time.

We decided to aim for induction (which was to be discussed and confirmed at a 37week growth scan and consultant appointment) so I was keen to explore Hypnobirthing so I could have my third (and final!) birth as naturally as possibly still and the main reason was to avoid an epidural to allow me to birth in different positions to help avoid dystocia again.

We had a round of gel on Sunday around 3pm and then we went home, with minor surges. I bounced on and lent on my ball and focused on being UFO (and watched love island back to back!)

We went back to the hospital at 8pm and had to stay in to wait for a delivery room for my waters to be broken. This was all quite frustrating waiting so I would DEF recommend people take things to occupy you if going in for induction and take a pillow!

The next morning I was sooo excited to be partnered with a Hypnobirthing midwife! She was amazing we talked and talked about it all!! We talked through my plans, monitored the baby, broke my waters and sent me off for a walk. My surges intensified but I felt I knew they weren’t doing much downstairs - we headed back to the room and she helped me with some great positions, my husband set me up with a spacemask (they are amazing!) and a Hypnobirthing soundtrack on Spotify and I breathed trough surges and totally zoned out for an hour or so!

After a couple of hours I agreed to have the drip to help things along as I was only around 1-2cm and so she started me on that and I got back in the zone, using my TENS machine when things got uncomfortable. The surges were strong and intense but great as I knew they were bringing or baby closer to us and were doing good things! I tried walking around and moving - which was still possible with monitoring stuff so don’t worry about that.

I was so interested to see if I noticed the Adrenalin around transition - the other two times with epidural I had been sick - this time I wasn’t but had a real wobble saying I couldn’t possibly do this and I’m sure it’s too late for epidural but maybe I need one now in case this lasts a long while but low and behold I was fully dilated and ready to push!

I managed to push this time on all fours leaning up against the head of the bed (I had discussed this with midwives ahead) and it felt lovely to be left to my own devices to push out little Thomas rather than be coached to push️

Sorry for the long post and I hope my story doesn’t worry people about shoulder dystocia- it’s very rare, but I wanted to let people know a subsequent vaginal delivery is possible AND an induction with drip and without epidural is possible too! If I can do it anyone can.

My husband was amazing and really helped me focus at the end - helping talk me out of epidural and also saying things like “you know this is good intensity as it’s all working”

Thanks Siobhan - I so wish I had this all first time round too!