Birth story - Kim and baby Maria

For the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy, once I had taken maternity leave, I spent that time getting myself into a calm and relaxed state, listening to my positive birth affirmations and relaxing mp3s from the digital pack which really worked at getting me in a good place and being excited for my labour.

I had a sweep booked for the day I turned 40 weeks, and I was 50/50 about if I was going to go ahead with it, and had decided I would use my BRAIN at the appointment to decide what to do. The night before the appointment, at 39+6, my husband and I went to bed around 11pm. Right at the moment I had closed my eyes, I began to have what felt like intense period pain, and then I felt (& heard!) a huge pop as my waters broke and gushed all over the bed! We called the hospital to let them know, where they advised me to labour at home until things got going, which I was pleased about.

We set up our calm space in our living room and 20 minutes later, from my waters breaking, my contractions started. I started up the Freya app, began up breathing with my husband supporting, put the TENS machine on and found a comfortable position leaning my arms on my birth ball in a UFO position. My husband added the final bits to our hospital bag and dropped our dog off to my parents. From the moment my contractions started, they were already a minute long and every 2 minutes and the Freya app was telling me I was in established labour! I knew that I was having manageable contractions but as this was my first labour I did worry I wouldn’t know when I would need to go to the hospital so I decided to call them. They advised me to come in to be checked. I had had a low risk pregnancy and was planning a water birth in the attached midwife led birth unit, however they said unfortunately it was closed as they were very busy on the labour ward. My husband thought that I would find this very difficult but I felt my hypnobirthing had taught me to remain calm and I stayed focused on my up breathing.

We left to go to the hospital after 4 hours of labour at home. When I got to the hospital we went straight through to a private room to be assessed and my husband was allowed in with me. They checked me and said I was a stretchy 3.5cms which I was pleased about. The midwife then checked me with the doppler and found that the babies heart rate was dropping every time my contractions peaked. I used my BRAIN to agree that the best course of action was to be placed on EFM to work out why this was happening. They allowed me to stay in a UFO position, even though I wasn’t able to move around the room. They realised that the heart rate was dropping as my contractions were so close together right from the beginning, and I consented to an injection to slow the contractions which was to give the baby time and allow their heart rate to return to normal. During this time my contractions had really ramped up and I was quite glad for this to space them out to 5 mins apart.

I laboured for a couple more hours. The baby’s heart rate had thankfully returned to normal. They checked me again and I was 9.5cm! They said there was a small amount of cervix in the way but I was starting to have the urge to push, which they said I could do if that’s what my body felt like it wanted to do. During this time I had had the doctors coming in and out to check on how things were progressing due to the issues of the heart rate. As a precaution they had placed me on IV fluids, placed the baby on internal fetal monitoring and did an ultrasound scan. The doctor came in and advised against the midwife’s advice that I should not be pushing. I will admit I did feel as if I ‘lost’ my zone at this point as it was so different to what I had thought it would be like, and I could feel the doctors were watching very closely which started to worry me about further intervention. I even asked the midwife if I was going to be deemed failure to progress.

As my adrenaline was kicking in I did feel the contractions far more painfully than I had throughout the labour. I even asked for pethidine but my husband knew to question if that’s what I really wanted and the midwife also said that I had done well to that point and had specified in my preferences I didn’t want pain relief. This centred me again, reminding me that the best thing I could do was reduce my stress levels. I kept repeating the affirmation ‘every surge brings me closer to meeting my baby’ and I genuinely welcomed each one, feeling powerful as I pushed into them, excited to know my baby would soon arrive.

I had been pushing for a total of 4 hours (after I had been told to stop I was then given the go ahead again), which I knew wasn’t ideal. The doctor came in and said they were concerned at why the baby wasn’t coming and asked to check me. I asked what would happen once she had checked me, and she said the possibility of looking at intervention options. As the baby wasn’t in any distress I said I did not want her to check me and asked her to give me more time. She said she would come back in 20 minutes. They did ask me to lie on my back at this point and raised the stirrups. I agreed to this as I understood they were advising it for a reason. At this point I felt the fire in my belly and fully concentrated on what I needed to do to birth my baby. She was born moments later!

I felt euphoric when she was placed on my chest. We had our golden hour, with delayed cord clamping, skin to skin and she began breastfeeding.

My whole labour was 12 hours from start to birth and I feel hypnobirthing really helped it be so quick due to lowering my adrenaline and keeping me focused. I found out after that the baby’s arm was actually above her head as she was born, which explains why I had spent so much time in the pushing stage. I had a second degree tear and I had to have 2 injections for the placenta as I had lost more blood than they would have liked. Due to the blood loss I had to stay overnight on the postnatal ward for monitoring. At first I was upset by this as I thought I would be taking my baby home that day, but I had a lovely experience on the ward, with great support and also met another new mum who I have kept in touch with.

Hypnobirthing taught me to follow my instincts during birth. I trusted my choices and felt I made the right decisions for myself and my baby at each stage. I was able to frame the medical side of my birth as a positive as I understood it was necessary and that using BRAIN at each point meant I was in control of what was happening. I feel empowered by my birth and I am excited at the thought of birthing again, with my preference to be a home birth next time. I am also using the breathing techniques at times now when I feel anxious, and hypnobirthing as a whole has helped me to think more positively through using the same thought processes in many areas of my life. Thank you PBC for your wonderful digital pack and what you do overall to promote positivity in birth and beyond!