Birth story - Laura and baby Farley

I bought the Positive Birth digital pack early in my second trimester. I had heard heaps about hypnobirthing from various podcasts and friends and I knew it was something I wanted to know more about. The pack was amazing for my husband too. We went into our birth so full of knowledge and confidence. 

Our due date came and went and at our 40 week appointment, with no signs of labour on the horizon, the midwife discussed induction. I was considered low risk so we felt no reason (other than impatience!) to consider induction just yet. We decided we would wait until our 41 week appointment the following week to see where we were at. 

I continued to do everything in my power to bring on labour naturally - bouncing on the ball, long walks, raspberry leaf tea, clary sage etc. On Wednesday 12th Feb, our 41 week appointment came and still there were no signs of labour and baby was not engaged. We decided that now we were going into week 42, the waiting was causing me a bit of stress and anxiety, so we booked in for an induction at 8am on the 14th Feb. Because we were considered low risk we knew we could still labour at home if everything went to plan with the propess and labour started within 24hrs. 

This moment was such a massive relief for me, I felt so much more relaxed about everything because I knew we would have our baby in a couple of days.

That night we went back to our flat, got a nice take out and continued to watch Friends on Netflix. I went to bed at 11pm and at 1am I got up to go to the toilet. In that moment my waters broke! (I definitely put this down to letting go and fully relaxing after making the decision for induction.) We went to the hospital for them to confirm and came home and tried to sleep and relax as much as possible. It was 3am by the time we got home and it was so hard to go back to sleep as we were so excited! 

At 5am my contractions started. They came on fast and I was surprised how close together they were. I used the Freya app to track them and tried to sleep in between. I got up around 6am and had some breakfast and sat in the lounge and breathed through each contraction. I let my husband sleep until 8am when I went in and woke him. By 9am I had to stop and really breathe through each contraction. I used the Tens machine which really helped me feel like I was in control of each contraction and laboured in the lounge with my husband by my side. The build up was strong and consistent. I stayed in the zone and knew that if I continued to stay focused things would progress positively. I was under no illusion that this was going to be a long day and going to be a massive mental and physical test, but I knew I had all the tools and support to do it.

By 1pm contractions had been coming every 2-3mins for 3hrs so after speaking with our midwife we went into the hospital. 

When we arrived we were so lucky the birthing suite was empty and the room we wanted was free! Our midwife checked me and I was 3cms dilated so she said we could stay in the birthing suite and when I got to 5cms I could go in the pool. She offered me a sweep and pethidine to help get me to relax in early labour, which I accepted after she explained it would wear off in a few hours and wasn’t considered dangerous for the baby. She said she would be back in 4hrs to check on me. 

At about 5pm our midwife came back and I was at 5cms. She said I was now in established labour and I could get in the pool. I laboured in the pool with gas and air till about 8pm when all of a sudden I felt my body shift and the contractions slowly changed. My body was pushing! I told the midwife but she said try not to push & that she would check me in another 45mins. That was difficult but I knew I needed to listen to my body and I knew I needed to let it push. I was so desperate to be checked as I just knew I had to be at 10cms.. I could feel my baby’s head descending. 

I had to get out of the pool so she could check me just before 9pm. In the most lovely and supportive way she said I was probably only going to be about 7cms but not to be disappointed.. but by that stage I was done, I would’ve demanded an epidural if I was only 7cms.. 

The moment she checked and I heard the words “Oh wow, there’s a head, you are 10cms and it’s time to push!”, I had a new lease on life. My husband describes it as me coming from some other place back into the room and getting straight back into the zone.

I asked to get back in the water and started pushing through each contraction but contractions slowed to about 2 in 10 mins and because baby was posterior it was a struggle to get him down the birth canal. After just over an hour my midwife said we needed to change it up and I had to get out of the water. This was the most intense part of the experience because his head was crowning so trying to physically move out of water and onto the mattress on the floor was incredibly difficult. 

Once I made it onto the mattress I really wanted to remain in a UFO position, but my amazing midwife knew she was going to need to help so she explained it would be best for me to lay on my side with my husband supporting one leg in the air. 

My baby had both his little arms crossed across his chest (which we didn’t know until his head was born), so I ended up pushing for another 20mins with my husband encouraging me and my amazing midwife helping to reduce my risk of tearing by massaging the area, applying hot compress and talking me through my pushing and breathing. My husband was able to help deliver our baby on the floor of the dimly lit room - everything about it was completely natural and almost primal. Farley took his first breath at 10:55pm and hubby cut the cord after some delayed cord clamping. 

It was the most incredibly empowering experience I’ve ever gone through. The feeling of having my baby immediately in my arms and seeing the overwhelming emotion on my husbands face is something I’ll never forget. I asked for the shot to help the placenta delivery and watched immediately as my midwife massaged and pulled it straight out! After about an hour of lovely skin to skin, my midwife stitched up the tiny tear I had and cleaned some small grazes and we were ready to be transferred to the postnatal ward. Because there were no complications and baby was perfectly healthy we were allowed to go home the very next morning. 

When I think about the fact that we had gone from booking an induction, accepting that our birth plan would probably be completely different and may have lead to more intervention - to our beautiful baby boy deciding to come all on his own and for us to get the exact birth we wanted, still blows my mind. I definitely put the whole experience down to how well informed and confident my husband and I felt from doing the Positive Birth digital pack and understanding what we needed to do to have the birth we wanted. We feel so blessed and our little boy is a pure joy and reflection of the relaxed environment he was born into.