Birth story - Jessica and baby Hamish

As soon as I reached the 20 week mark of my pregnancy I started the digital pack with my husband. I had a real fear of birth and the course completely changed my outlook and perceptions and equipped me with the confidence in my body that I needed. The course helped us understand the importance of place and space and we realised we wanted a home birth with as little intervention as possible. As a first time mum I wasn’t sure how this would be received but my midwives were incredible and fully supported our choices.

My waters broke at 3.40 am on the 30th of December in spectacular fashion, all over the landing carpet! Surges started shortly after and I stayed in bed and chilled out whilst my husband went about setting up downstairs with our fairy lights and birth pool. I started to use the Freya app to time my surges and by 11 am they were coming roughly every 6 minutes.

As my waters had broken, a midwife came about lunchtime to check how we were doing. I was conscious that the risk of infection begins to increase (albeit a small amount) after 24 hours so using our BRAIN decided a vaginal exam was sensible to see how things were progressing. My cervix was still posterior but soft. My surges continued all day and night, coming roughly every 6 minutes and lasting for 1 minute, but never hitting the magic 3 in 10. I used my up breathing to help me cope and kept mobile throughout.

24 hours had now passed and another midwife came to see how we were doing on the morning of the 31st of December. I agreed to another exam and there had been no change to my cervix despite the consistent surges all night. We used our BRAIN and decided not to go for an induction straight away and to stay at home and wait and see if things progressed, using all the relaxation, oxytocin inducing techniques from the course. Again, my surges continued all day and night coming now every 4 to 5 minutes and lasting for 1 minute.

In the early hours of the 1st of January I had a real emotional wobble. A midwife came to see us and again there had been no change to my cervix. Again we used out BRAIN to consider our options and decided it was time to go to hospital for an induction. I was started on the hormone drip because my waters had gone. I coped for 4 hours with my up breathing and gas and air however, my surges really ramped up and after 4 hours I asked for an epidural. I’d gone 66 hours of consistent surges with no sleep and was exhausted.

After 6 hours I was examined... no progress again, this was so demoralising after 72 hours! The consultant advised another 4 hours on the drip, after which there was still no progression and my cervix was starting to swell. At this point we made the decision to have a cesarean section and baby Hamish arrived shortly after on the 2nd of January. My birth preferences were all considered and we still managed to have our music playing, delayed cord clamping and skin to skin.

It turned out baby’s head was turned to the side and was coming cheek first so there was never sufficient pressure on my cervix to cause dilation.

My birth experience could not have been further from what we hoped for but, it was still a hugely positive and powerful experience. Without the PBC course I’d have felt completely out of control but using the relaxation techniques and up breathing I was able to cope with my labour for so long and using the BRAIN framework we were able to make sound and informed decisions throughout. I really cannot recommend the course enough!