Birth story - Jennifer and baby Pip

⚠️ Mention of tearing, stitches and use of word contractions

My pregnancy was straightforward, I stretched and walked every day and continued training in the gym until 39 weeks, modifying my training where necessary and just doing what felt good. Towards the end of my pregnancy I was swimming 3 times a week. I picked the affirmations that resonated most with me and repeated these to myself regularly. I did a 10 minute guided mediation every morning as well as listened to the positive affirmations track. I found reading other positive birth stories really helpful, particularly for showing that every birth is completely different. I felt confident going into birth, and trusted that my body was perfectly designed to birth my baby.

We had been for a walk on Monday evening, three days after my ‘due date,’ and were chatting about the birth, I actually felt a bit anxious at this point not knowing when or how it would be. My partner reminded me of the affirmations and I was also telling myself that millions of women have given birth in the way I hoped to, there was nothing to fear! I had been having some sporadic period pains for a couple of days and around midnight that evening I started to think they were getting a bit more regular. By the morning I was having contractions every 3-4 minutes so I got up and went into the lounge where I got down on all fours and leant over my birth ball, put on my labour playlist and used hypnobirthing breaths during each contraction. I started timing my contractions at 7:40am when they were around 5 minutes apart. By 8:55am the Freya app was telling me I was in established labour (but I still didn’t really believe they were proper contractions as I’d read proper ones started either in the back or top of the uterus so I still thought they were Braxton Hicks!). My partner got up and asked me whether we needed to call the hospital, I said, “I guess so as I think I’m in established now,” so we called and I spoke to the midwife who told us to have breakfast, shower etc and make our way in but no need to rush. Shortly after I got off the phone I started to feel ‘pushy’, but we got ready slowly. The sensations built up quite quickly so at one point I thought this baby was going to come in the lounge! My waters hadn’t broken by this point, but they did as soon as I got out the shower.

We drove to the hospital (typically we got stuck behind a tractor on the way!) and I had 3 contractions on the journey, I really had to hold the urge to push and tried to really focus inwards and concentrate on breathing. When we got to the hospital we had to wait 5-10 mins in the waiting room, the midwife who would be with us all day, Beth, said it sounded as though my contractions were not that regular, I said, “oh but I’m feeling the urge to push!”

We got in the birthing suite and Beth examined me, to all of our surprise I was fully dilated. I laboured on all fours on the bed for a while whilst the pool filled. We had our playlist on and I was focused on breathing through each contraction. I couldn’t wait for the pool to fill and it was such a relief to get in. I got comfortable on my knees with my elbows resting on the lip on the side of the pool. This was totally instinctive, I just went with what felt good for my body.

My partner sat opposite me whilst I was in the pool offering me jelly babies and reminding me to relax my jaw, this was really helpful. Beth told me I would have an hour to do my own thing and after that if baby was not here yet, that was when they would encourage more active pushing. Pretty quickly after getting in the pool Beth said, “ok Jen I can just see her head.” After another couple of contractions Beth told me to put my hand between my legs so I could feel her head. This was the most amazing thing to do, her head was so soft and wrinkly! But I felt my vagina and thought ok that’s pretty tight around her head, we’ve a long way to go!! I continued to have contractions, staying on my knees but sitting back in between. After a while I asked to try the gas and air, everything was getting pretty intense at this point. Beth was starting to gently encourage me to push on each down breath and even though I’d asked for no coaching, she was amazing and I found this really helpful. Beth told me to try and get three really good long pushes on each contraction, however I could only really manage to get two out before the contraction passed. I did have a moment of thinking ‘I can’t do this’ but Beth and my partner Gary told me I was doing it and she was nearly here which gave me a great boost.

Gradually I got to the point where I just thought ok she needs to come out now, whatever it takes I need to push her out! Beth told me it would feel really stingy but that it would pass quickly, I thought ok here comes the ring of fire! It did sting, but it honestly was only for a second or two. With encouragement from Beth and making a lot of noise I pushed her head out. It felt like the longest time to wait for the next contraction and I thought to myself, this is weird I’ve got her head hanging out 😆 on the next contraction I gave another big push which felt almost as hard as getting her head out. Before the last contraction Beth told me ok on the next one she’ll be here, I’m going to pass her through your legs and you need to lift her out of the water and on to your chest. Once she was out this is what I did, it was the most incredible moment. I looked at my baby girl and could not believe I’d just birthed her.

After a few minutes, and our first pictures as a family, we got out of the pool slowly and down onto the birth mat on the floor. With my baby girl on my chest and with Beth guiding me I delivered the placenta physiologically. This was nothing in comparison to birthing a baby! I started to lose quite a lot of blood, Beth felt my uterus and said it wasn’t contracting as quickly as she’d like. She said she’d like to give me the injection to stem the blood loss, I had requested no medical interventions and felt that Beth really respected this, talking me through exactly what the injection would do and what the drug was. I felt confident to have it so agreed and instantly it worked. I felt no after effects. Beth helped me get my baby to latch and then inspected me, I had one small second degree tear and two grazes, which all required stitching. Beth went to get ready to do this and my partner and I just looked at each other in amazement. Beth gave me local anaesthetic (this was sore but I had my baby so I didn’t care!), stitched me up and I fed our baby daughter. Once I was sorted my partner had skin to skin with our baby and I had a shower. I remember being in awe of what had just happened, although I felt a bit faint and tender! Beth was a little concerned about my blood loss and so we had to stay in for a minimum of 6 hours so that they could check my bloods before we could go home. At this point I got onto the bed, Beth brought us tea and toast which I devoured!

We spent the next few hours alone with Pip, having lots of skin to skin, food and a few showers for me, we were reassured that if we needed anything we just had to press the call button. By 7:30pm Beth was finishing her shift, she told me I didn’t need to have bloods so we could be discharged. She gave us the option of staying in the labour ward overnight but we were happy to go home. Another midwife came to discharge us at around 9pm and we were home by 11pm to start life as a family❤️

I think remaining active throughout my pregnancy really helped prepare my body to manage labour and birth. The hypnobirthing course was amazing for learning how the body works during labour and birth, I felt calm and in control at every step and loved it, it really helped me understand what was happening and I could visualise the process my baby was going through during birth. We also did an NCT course (through the Daisy Foundation) which gave us the reassurance that we were confident in what we were doing going into it. I was really pleased to have done both.

The midwife we had, Beth at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol, was absolutely incredible, she completely respected everything we had asked for, she was calm, encouraging, confident and talked us through everything. She made me feel so comfortable and created the perfect safe environment.

One week on: Birth really is like the hardest workout of your life, but it is absolutely incredible and you get the most precious reward. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It seems crazy to me now to think that even when my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, I still didn’t really believe I was in labour. I think this is down to the PBC course giving me the tools to stay relaxed. I would recommend hypnobirthing to everyone!

Thanks so much Siobhan for starting the PBC 😁