Birth story - Laura and baby Taylor

My surges began at around 4.30pm on the 20th June which I was so happy about as I was due to be induced on the 24th. Hooray! As I kept telling myself and everyone around me....the baby will come when the baby is ready! My body was doing it's own thing just as I had hoped.

I used my breathing techniques and bouncing on the ball and TENS machine to get me through the early surges which were very manageable. I even had a glass of red wine! My husband and I got the bedroom ready with candles, yoga room spray and lovely calming music. It felt like our own little zen garden.

When things started to ramp up around 10pm we made a visit to hospital, being a first time mum I just wanted to be checked out and given an indication as to how things were progressing. I was told I was 1-2cm dilated and would need to go back home until further progression. I felt ok about this as it was a relief to know things were moving in the right direction!

I stayed at home for another couple of hours and things really started to heat up. Surges were coming thick and fast so we made our way back to hospital at 2am. I was told I was only just 3cm dilated which was very disheartening, I felt sure I was further along than that! However she agreed to keep me in and we were taken to a gorgeous private room in the MLBU. My mum and husband (my birth partners) set the room up for me, ran me a lavender bath and I tried to focus on my breathing and concentrate on each surge, knowing soon I would meet my baby!

I was checked on every hour by the midwifes who did their best to stay out my way and let me get on with things. At around 6.30am I started to feel physically and mentally drained and so I requested some pethidine which turned out to be life saving for me! It gave me 40 mins rest on the bed next to my husband and it really was the energy boost I needed to continue labour.

When I got to 7cm I made my way to the pool room....this is where things got a little slow.

To keep it short - I spent 6 hours in the pool room with very little progression, I was really struggling at this point to stay positive and the surges were becoming unmanageable. I think I begged for an epidural at this stage!

I soon got the urge to push and was told I was now 10cm so things were looking good for me to start pushing my baby down! This stage seemed to go on for hours and the midwifes were becoming concerned as to why I wasn't progressing. The gas and air and my down breathing were helping but I just felt that something wasn’t quite right....

The baby was fine but I was really struggling.

It was then that a midwife said to me ‘when did you last pee Laura’ and I couldn’t tell her. I couldn’t remember the last time I had weed. They asked if I would mind leaving the pool to have a catheter inserted to see if my bladder was causing problems for the baby’s grand exit. If I am honest it was at this point I had a real panic and wobble and wanted to kill someone for daring to ask me to leave the pool! But I used my BRAIN and decided it was best to check.

It turns out this was the best thing I could have done, my bladder was so full they managed to fill a medium sized jug with my urine. Essentially the baby and my bladder were battling for the exit inside me, hence why I was really struggling with the pressure and the constant feeling of coming up against a brick wall.

At this point the baby’s heart rate began to lower and they noticed more of my water break along with some meconium so they asked if I would mind being taken to the labour ward. As much as I was sad to leave behind the zen of the pool room - I was also more than ready to meet my baby and get him out safely.

I had now been in labour for around 25 hours and I was extremely exhausted and fed up. I have to say if it wasn’t for my husbands encouragement to ‘keep breathing’ ‘focus on your breath’ I don’t think I could have done it! I was so glad I got him to watch all the Hypnobirthing videos with me! He was so prepared every step of the way.

It took around an hour of coached pushing / breathing and a few position changes and out came my precious son! Taylor was born at 7.48pm on 21st June.

Nothing will ever come close to what I felt when they plonked him on my chest for skin to skin. I was in utter disbelief that this tiny human was mine!

He decided to come out pooing which was hilarious because he covered me and himself in poo which gave everyone a laugh! I felt as though we had both come through an epic battle together, and here we were basking in our glory, covered in shit on the hospital floor ! Team mates for life 💙

My labour was certainly a lot longer than I would have anticipated, I had a lot more intervention than I expected but I have to say that I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was a huge challenge but I felt like superwomen!

I wanted to thank Siobhan and the Hypnobirthing digital course for allowing me to feel so informed throughout the whole process , and for also equipping me with fantastic breathing and relaxation tools to help me stay focused during some very challenging moments.