Birth story - Joanna and baby Jacob

During lockdown I shielded due to having rheumatoid arthritis and decided to use the time to do as much research as possible to prepare for the birth of our first child. I use meditation and yoga to help with my arthritis and this led me down to route of hypnobirthing so I threw myself into reading multiple books, watching/reading positive birth stories and practicing my deep relaxation and breathing. My baby had been measuring large at my midwife checks but I kept repeating the affirmation ‘my baby will be the perfect size for my body’ but secretly hoping he would come before 40weeks!

As soon as I finished work at 37weeks I spent several hours a day on my yoga ball, dog walking and drinking raspberry leaf tea! Then at 1.30am on Tuesday 15th September (38+5weeks) my waters started to trickle and I lost my plug after getting up to go to the bathroom as normal, but contractions had yet to start. I got back into bed and told my husband and said I was going to try and go back to sleep as could be 24hrs yet. 30mins later, after a powerful surge I vomited and then the surges were coming quite frequently but manageable with breathing.

I called the hospital just before 3am to let them know things were starting, and that I was happy at home for now, but as I hadn’t felt baby move since my waters broke they advised me to pop up for a quick trace to check him. Due to Covid restrictions my husband had to wait in the car whilst I had my trace as we then thought I’d be coming home again. Through the trace I continued focusing on deep relaxation and breathing and at just before 5am the baby was deemed A-OK so the midwife did an exam to check my progress before going home. I was going to be quite happy to be told 2cm as it had only been 3hrs since my surges started and was completely shocked, as well as the midwife, to find out I was 7cm!!

I then had a slight panic as I didn’t have my husband with me and started shaking, I knew I needed to control my adrenaline to keep the oxytocin flowing. Once I got to the delivery suite my husband was waiting for me and had completely set up my ‘cave’ and I felt instantly more relaxed to have him there and that’s when my body started pushing. I focused on my down breathing and my upright, forward and open position - stood up leaning over the bed listening to Freya and then at 6.23am our gorgeous baby boy Jacob was born a healthy 8lb 3oz and full head of hair!

I would whole heartedly recommend hypnobirthing and in total ore of my body!!