Birth story - Kelley and baby Orlaith

My beautiful baby girl Órlaith was born at 39+1 on June 13th. She is my 3rd child & my second Hypnobirthing baby.

My second child (my son) was born weighing 10lb 6.5oz and because of this I was met with lots of obstructions and lots of ‘fear talk’ from consultants. I used BRAIN to make the best choices for me & my baby and in the end every single one of those choices were the right decision.

So, at a growth scan at exactly 39 weeks I was told my girl was weighing 10lb - I knew my body was capable was my response.
I was booked in for an induction at 40 weeks.

At my midwife app at 39 weeks I accepted a stretch & sweep, everything was favourable & looking good to go. I just had to go to the Maternity assessment unit to have a quick scan as baby was now measuring 39 weeks at 39 weeks (!) using the silly tape measure.

After the scan I met with the consultant to discuss the results. He said ‘I can’t let you go home, you need to be induced tonight’.
I told him I had my 2 kids & my niece in the waiting room, my husband over 2 hours away at work & my mum (who was visiting from Ireland but staying over an hour away) needed to get a taxi down.

So, I got home & started packing my bags (very unprepared 3rd time Mum!) and waited for my husband & Mum to arrive. I was getting surges that I knew weren’t Braxton Hicks at this stage.

We got to the hospital at 10pm and I was taken straight to the delivery suite, we decided that they would break my waters & take it from there. My husband & I had all these plans on walking around the hospital grounds, bouncing on the ball, having a cup of tea etc! As soon as my waters were gone the surges intensified - my midwife was only 6 months fully qualified & told me she was going on her break. In my head I thought ‘you are so going to miss this baby’s arrival!’ Another midwife arrived & I asked for gas & air, I don't think she quite believed me that I was in proper labour as she said you haven’t been here long, let’s give it another while! Anyway, I got the gas & air & I done my up breathing - with each surge I placed a flannel covered in Liquid Yoga spray over my face & it was amazing!

It wasn’t long after that I felt things had changed direction - I’d never felt that with my other 2 babies. I said to the midwife I think I need to push - I recall her saying somewhere during my labour ‘I’m not going to examine you as I don’t want you to be disappointed!’ I remember thinking ‘darling if you were to examine me now I think you’d be gobsmacked at how dilated I am!’

The first midwife came back and couldn’t believe how quickly things had progressed, she gave me a big hug & said well done, you’re doing brilliant! They then literally stood back & watched. I was just so pleased that I hadn’t needed to be properly induced with a drip.

I could feel as my girl’s head began to crown, one of the midwives poured warm water on me down there & it felt so good! My husband told me to look down & there was a little head covered in dark brown hair! I was speechless, just could not believe that that was my baby, for a split second on my gas & air daze I thought ‘hang on a minute, that’s not my baby, thats not her head - they’re doing this to encourage me’ - I put my hand down & felt her head & knew it was all going to be over in a few minutes.

With just 2 good down breaths my baby girl arrived at 1.19am - just a 59 minute labour!

To say I was totally shocked at how ‘easy’ and beautiful her birth was would be an understatement. Totally different to what I had mentally prepared myself for. I’ll almost go as far as to say I feel a little bit cheated as I didn’t get to walk the hospital corridors, bounce on my ball & have a cup of tea! It all just happened so quick which was amazing.
The young midwife said I was her first hypnobirthing Mum & she was amazed at how I breathed her out so calmly.

We had 3 hours in that room of total skin to skin & feeding, I was then taken to the birth centre and had a double bed all to myself and an ensuite - they even had a breakfast & lunch menu! Total bliss. I got home at 4pm that day and my Mum got to have lots of cuddles.

My 2 children are in love, she’s been here a week now & it’s like she’s always been here. My husband was amazing the whole way through - although he didn’t watch any of the digital pack with me I spoke about it so much he knew how to encourage me & said he now wants to learn it all to help in his job which can be quite stressful.

Órlaith is feeding like a champ, she only lost 1% of her birth weight at her 5 day check and is beautiful.

Siobhan, thank you so much for such an amazing course - you turned a potentially problematic birth (consultants words!) into a 100% positive birth for which I’ll always be grateful for.