Birth story - Laura and baby boy

I bought the digital pack early on (before 20 weeks) after hearing about hypnobirthing and deciding I would rather do an online course than face to face.
I devoured the videos and loved to learn all about the science behind labour but also the techniques to help make it a positive experience. The more I learned, the more I was excited about and looking forward to birth.

In terms of birth preferences, I was hoping for a water birth at the midwife led birth centre at our local hospital.

Fast forward to Sunday, 21st of April, having spent the morning teaching my usual spin classes (I kept very active throughout pregnancy), I spent the afternoon with my parents and husband in the park as the weather was beautiful and my parents were visiting for the Easter weekend.
We had a picnic and then went for a long walk through the park.

When I got home around 5pm, I started feeling some period like cramps shortly after.
I wasn't used to these cramps and only knew about them from other birth stories and pregnant friends, where it was always said these can come and go in the lead up to labour. As I knew that these could come days or even weeks before the actual event, I wasn't too concerned, especially as I didn't expect my baby to come until after his due date.

We met my parents for dinner at 7pm, by which time the cramps were still coming and also in more regular intervals. But I still thought nothing of it, as I didn't see this as surges of any kind.
However, during dinner, I had to start to focus and breath through the cramps as they became even more uncomfortable. My parents were immediately concerned and suggested I go to the hospital. I literally laughed it off, but my mum started secretly timing the frequency. By the end of the dinner, she said you need to at least call the midwives as they are coming exactly every five minutes.
I said I want to go home and promised I would call the midwives.
My husband and I went home and I called the birth centre. Luckily the lovely midwife who I had been seeing for my appointments was there and I explained the situation.
She suggested to get some rest and if I couldn't sleep through the cramps to start timing them.
I also noticed that some of my mucous plug had come out, which I told her as well.

Given I was still convinced this is just my body 'testing the waters' and not the real deal, I told my husband I want to go get ice cream. So off we went, me starting to actually do the up breaking through each 'cramp'.
Luckily our ice cream place was closed and we headed back home. As soon as we got home, my husband put friends on (our favourite show) and I told him to start timing the 'cramps' with the Freya app (this is amazing by the way and I can not recommend it enough!). The app said after five minutes that I am in established labour and we should head to the hospital. I told my husband that given it is just 'cramps' and not real surges, we should hold off.
But I also kept having to go to the bathroom (diarrhoea - another sign of labour I guess), where more of my mucous plug came out. The second time around, I literally just got out of the bathroom and my waters broke with a massive gush, soaking me completely. So I told my husband to call the midwife again and I went back into the bathroom, sitting on the toilet. The next surge came and I actually felt myself pushing and making roaring noises. I called my husband who was talking to the midwife and said I needed to push and I'm not going to make it to the hospital. So he asked the midwife what our best options are. She said, try and come to the hospital or if this is really not working, call an ambulance.
My husband urged me to put new clothes on and get into the car. I said I cannot move from the toilet as the next surge came and I was roaring and pushing again.

Eventually I got off in between surges and got some new pants on and we got into the car. Me kneeling on the passenger seat, the wrong way around with my forehead against the headrest, breathing through three surges on the way, with each of them thinking, ‘I don't really want to give birth in our car!’
The second phone call happened at 10:18pm and we must have gotten to the hospital around 10:35pm or so.
We went to the birth centre and they led me into a room. I asked whether they could fill the pool, which they did.
I leaned over the pool as another surge came. The midwife then told me to get undressed and kneel on the matt, where I leaned over a pile of cushions. She listened to the baby's heart beat after my next surge and said, it is quite low and I may have to be transferred to the labour ward. I asked whether I could have one more push. The next surge came and I pushed with it, feeling the head come down and crown almost, but he wasn't ready yet to come out, so I stopped pushing, remembering everything I learned in the course and also wanting to avoid tearing. She checked the heart beat again and said it has recovered better this time, but told me to turn around so she could examine me. This was super uncomfortable, but I turned around and she said baby is coming soon and the pool will not be full, so to just continue.
I turned again, kneeling over the cushions again and with the next surge I could feel the head crown again, but not quite come out. My husband was amazing throughout, always reminding me of the breathing and rubbing and massaging my back in between and during surges, which felt amazing and helped me relax in between the surges.
The midwife also coached me a little, by encouraging me to push when a surge came, which I didn't mind, as I still feared they would transfer me to the labour ward, if baby didn't come out soon. So with the next push, the head finally came out and I could feel that something might have torn, but didn't care.
I waited for the next surge to push again and the body came out.
I turned again, leaning back against the cushions and was handed our baby boy for immediate skin to skin. My husband was of course right by my side and we couldn't believe what had just happened. He was born at exactly 10.53pm, less than 20 minutes after we arrived at the hospital and just over an hour after the app told us that I was in established labour.
After what felt like just a few minutes the midwife asked me to push again to get the placenta out. I felt a bit weird as I assumed I needed to feel surges, but just tried to push and it just slid out of me with little effort. My husband then got to cut the cord.

The midwife examined me and said my perineum was in tact but there was a tear in my inner labia, which needed stitching.
I was put on a bed for the local anaesthetic and stitching and our boy already latched on for his first feed, which made me the happiest person in the world.

I have to say I felt like a rockstar having had this incredibly short labour with no pain relief and not even a perineal tear. I put all of this down to the hypnobirthing course, which taught me everything I needed to know about labour and gave me the tools to have this amazing birth experience.
I would like to therefore thank Siobhan for creating the digital pack, but also my incredible husband, who was the best birth partner. While I didn't have my planned water birth, I could not have asked for a faster or easier labour.
I already recommended the digital pack to all my pregnant friends and everyone in my antenatal course, the majority of which have bought the course as well.