Birth story - Lia and baby Dakota

I wanted to share my positive birth story as a first time mum as reading everyone else’s helped me so much, so thank you ladies!

I decided to purchase the online digital pack when it was on offer and it was one of the best decisions I made! We bought it when I was around 30ish weeks pregnant and slowly started to work through the videos. We only managed to get halfway through before Dakota decided to make his arrival.

Our favourite section was the science part as it made me understand what will happen and why.

My birth story started on a Saturday morning when I woke up with a back ache. It felt like strong period pains but I had no pains in my tummy at all. I decided to ignore it as it wasn’t bad enough to stop me from doing anything. Around midday we decided to go for a walk to try and help relieve the pain a bit and it did help a little bit. We then went and got some late lunch/dinner. When we got home I was still achy so decided to have a bath and relax on the sofa whilst my partner went to his brothers for the evening.

After going up to bed the pain started to get worse and I couldn’t get to sleep at all. The pains lasted all night and I decided to start timing them to check if they were close together or not. I started to notice a bit of a pattern that they were every 3-4 minutes lasting 40-60 seconds long. I woke my partner and mentioned it but they weren’t as painful and I didn’t want to go to the hospital for Braxton-Hicks in the early hours of the morning. At around 8am I decided to get in the shower to try and ease my back ache and ended up in there for almost an hour in all sorts of positions🙈!!

I spent the next few hours relaxing on the sofa (when the pains weren’t annoying me), watching some rubbish my partner had chosen and trying to eat regularly. Throughout all this time I used the up-breathing to manage the pain. At around 3pm I went to the toilet and noticed a tiny bit of a show so I then decided to call the hospital to be checked over. They asked me to come in but advised they weren’t worried about the show but wanted to check the contractions. They then said I would probably be sent home.

When getting to the hospital at 15:30pm they monitored us for 20 minutes and the midwife said our baby sounded fine and happy and I was having contractions but they were probably strong Braxton-Hicks as I didn’t look or act like I was in labour.

I then had an internal examination (also used up breathing for this) to which the doctor looked up shocked and said “I can see hair, you’re 3/4cms dilated and in labour”. At this point I had a little cry as it became all so real that I was going to give birth to our baby. My partner reminded me to stay calm and relaxed.

As we were shown into a labour room I asked if the birthing pool was free but was then told, due to my gestation I wasn’t allowed a birthing pool as my baby needed to be constantly monitored. I used BRAIN and asked if I could be monitored in the pool but they said the trusts policy is that a 36 week baby isn’t allowed to be birthed in the pool. I then asked what the risks were if we weren’t monitored. After they explained everything I felt calmer and accepted that for the safety of me and my baby I wouldn’t be having a waterbirth. The midwife then asked if there was anything I wanted and I told her I was using hypnobirthing. She then dimmed the lights, provided me with a speaker to connect my phone and went and got me a birthing ball, bean bag etc. Once we were all set up my partner sprayed our lavender spray around the room and put on my labour playlist of relaxing sounds such as rainfall etc. Once all this was done I immediately felt calm and relaxed and ready to birth my baby.

Once settled my partner left to get my hospital bags as they were left at home and my Nan and mum stayed with me. During this period I was absolutely fine and just breathed through the contractions and continued to drink water. Once Jack returned I asked him to put on the Tens machine which I hated at first but slowly got used to it. I used the birthing ball and continued to walk around when not on the ball. After 4 hours I was checked again to be told I was 5-6cm. I didn’t feel disappointed as I knew my body would do what it needed to do in its own time.

I continued to breath and listen to the music and on my next check I was 7-8cm. At this point I was starting to ache a lot more so accepted codine and gas and air. I changed positions and ended up kneeling on the bed leaning over the back of it. My partner continued to remind me to breath and keep drinking lots of water. We changed the playlist over to the Positive Affirmations MP3 which was left on repeat for the next few hours.

Once we reached the stage where I needed to start pushing I did begin to lose focus and start to panic a little bit as my midwife had made me lie on my back to check our baby which made the pain intensify. I quickly changed positions to lie on my side which was a little less painful. Unfortunately, I never fully got the hang of the down breathing so I just continued trying to use the up breathing technique to get me through pushing our baby through the birth canal. My midwife did coach my through this part and advised me when I needed to push properly and when to just do little nudges. As our baby’s head was almost out the midwife asked to break my waters which I accepted and Dakota arrived shortly after!

Once he was born we had delayed cord clamping and skin to skin for over an hour where he started to root and tried to latch on. Whilst having a cuddle with Dakota my midwife stitched up a small internal tear whilst we had a chat about holidays! We were then given the famous tea and toast which was greatly accepted and I had the best shower I’d ever had!

I can honestly say that using the techniques and knowing the science behind labour helped me have the most amazing birth experience. Before watching the course I didn’t think it was possible as I’m a super anxious person that overthinks everything but I was completely calm about going into labour and looking forward to it. I now tell anyone and everyone about the PBC as it helped me meet my baby in the most amazing way! Most people can’t believe I had such an amazing birth with my first baby.

I cannot thank Siobhan enough for creating this amazing birthing tool!! I’m already looking forward to my next labour when it comes to it🥰.