Birth story - Laura and baby Lyra

First time Mum

Midwife Led Unit (MLU)

Vaginal birth

*Trigger warning* - I was advised to consider induction early due to suspected big baby.

Pregnancy

I felt really lucky to have a lovely pregnancy that I really enjoyed. I had some quite bad nausea in first trimester and bad indigestion in the 3rd but other than that I felt great and continued to walk daily and do my exercise classes throughout.

I had to see the consultant for regular scans due to a rare antibody in my blood but it did not cause concerns and it was nice to see baby more often. Baby measured on 50th centile up to 32 weeks and then at the 36 week scan shot up to 97th! My gestational diabetes test was negative so unsure why the sudden spurt.

The consultant suggested we have sweeps at week 38 and be induced at 39 weeks, which upset me. After speaking to my community midwife and using BRAIN, we decided not to do anything and booked a sweep for the due date to see how things were looking then.

I was still feeling calm and told myself that, if it wasn't for the antibodies, we would have no idea she might be a large baby as the midwife measurements were consistent so we went with those and reminded ourselves that my body can manage my baby size.

I found this course really helpful but I should have practiced the up breathing/meditation more. I practiced down breathing on the loo every day and I could really tell when it came to the birth.

Labour

I started having surges at 930pm on Friday (38 +5) they were 10mins apart all night and I didn't manage to get a huge amount of sleep but breathing through them really helped and they were very manageable. At 8pm sat night I felt my waters pop which was a really interesting experience. The surges then noticeably increased in intensity and Freya app said we were in established labour. We phoned the hospital MLU who said to wait another hour before heading in. We did and the surges started to get much more powerful, I lost more water and the mucus plug and then started to feel nervous about the car journey which is 45 minutes! My husband was great and reminded me to relax and not to worry. We got in the car with music and a duvet and hot water bottle. The first 20mins were awful but then I managed to 'sink' into the discomfort, rather than tense, and breath through them.

We arrived at MLU at about 10pm. I was 4cm. I used the birthing pool till 2am when I started to feel pain/cramp in my thighs, hips and back and really had a moment when I doubted I could do it. My husband reminded me I could and to relax my shoulders which made a big difference. Because I was so tired, we used BRAIN and decided to have diamorphine to try to give me a some rest time. Up until this point I hadn't got on with the gas and air but they got me a face mask for it instead of the mouth piece and this matched my breathing. Although I didn't feel much effect, it helped focus me during the surges. I lay on my side on the bed which I found comfortable and dozed between surges. At about 3 I felt such pressure in my bum I was quite taken aback and my body really started pushing without me but I was told to breath through it and try not to push. I was 9cm at about 4...I think...I lost track of time at this point.

It was a huge relief when they said they could see her head at 6am and I was allowed to push. I used down breathing, made some amazing animal noises and she was born at 6.25am!

She was 8lb 15oz and I had no tears which I was really happy about. The midwives and my husband were so good, overall it was an amazing experience and I think had I practised the meditation before hand, my 'wobble' in the pool might not have been so bad.

She was born at 39 weeks, just like the consultant wanted, but she came in her own time and I'm so pleased I trusted my instinct.

Good luck to all of you. You really can do it.