Birth story - Laura and baby Alfie

On Wednesday 1st August (40 + 6) I had mild surges throughout the day which I was able to breath through. This had been happening on and off for a week and a half so I didn’t think anything of it and went to bed.

About 1am the surges started to wake me up but I was able to sleep in between them. By 3.30am my husband had woken up and was rubbing my back and keeping me relaxed. At 4am I decided to use my tens machine and started to think of the positive affirmations in my head, I realised this was it! I felt in control and excited!

We decided to ring the birth centre as the surges were 3 minutes apart at this point and called my mum to watch my daughter. As we were getting ready to go with the next surges I felt like I needed to push. I also noticed a small amount of blood so we called the birth centre back. They advised we called an ambulance and we would need to go to the labour ward as I was bleeding. The midwife suspected this was because I had dilated quickly. Although all this was going on I remained calm, I was breathing through my surges (and also mooing by this point!)

I went downstairs and kneeled holding a chair for support. Through the next few surges I felt the babies head moving down and knew we didn’t have much time to get to the hospital. The ambulance crew arrived and couldn’t see the head. Using BRAIN we decided to go in the ambulance to the hospital as it was only a 15 minute journey. On arriving at the hospital we went to the pregnancy assessment unit whilst a room was being prepared. The midwife examined me and I was 10cm!

Our room was ready and I asked for a pool to be told there wouldn’t be time. I was so happy that it was almost time to meet our baby. A few surges later and his head was out, this felt amazing and at 6.09am our little man arrived. He was put straight on my chest and I cried with happiness. We had delayed cord clamping and the golden hour which was lovely.

Although we didn’t have the water birth I had pictured it was a very positive experience and I put that down to all the techniques I learnt on the course. I knew what was happening to my body and felt in control and empowered to make decisions for me and my baby. Thank you positive birth company️🏼x