Birth story - Lizzie and baby girl

My first child was born via emergency caesarean. During this labour my waters broke and I had irregular contractions, but labour never really progressed. My sons heart rate dropped dangerously low and he needed to be delivered quickly. The care I received during this labour was phenomenal and, although I was scared and felt totally helpless, it was the birth I needed for my son to be born.

Due to this, getting pregnant for the second time I still didn’t know how my body would be during labour. I was very keen for a vaginal birth but my previous experience had taught me my child would be delivered in the way that is best for them.

During my second pregnancy my mum suggested ‘googling’ up breathing. Which led me to the The Positive Birth Company. I watched all the YouTube videos and learnt about the two different breathing techniques.

The big day arrives and at 02:30am I felt period like cramps that were coming every 15minutes. I was pretty sure this was just my body warming up but I couldn’t help feeling excited that my body was getting ready for me to meet our new addition. This went on for two hours and then stopped. During this time I was breathing in for four and out for eight.

It wasn’t until midday that I felt the period like pains again, I had my mum with me as we walked round Tesco’s and I had such a terrible pain in my back and hips. How I managed to walk round I’m still not entirely sure. As we got into the car to come home we began to time my surges. They were coming every 7minutes. We had lunch and I put my son down for a nap thinking I might take the opportunity to nap as well. However I was too excited thinking I was getting closer to meeting my baby, plus the surges were getting stronger. I couldn’t relax fully, so I returned back downstairs to my mum who had begun to quietly scrub my cooker clean (when we came home from the hospital the following day, I’d never seen my cooker so clean). Later when we were talking about what happened she said it helped her while I was having my contractions.

It got to the point where I thought I should probably ring my husband and let him know things were progressing as he was at work, and after letting him know, I rang the birth centre and took some paracetamol. It was at this point I was worried they would ask me to come in as I was to be monitored after having a caesarean the first time. I felt happiest at home at this point. Thankfully they were happy for me to stay at home and suggested having a bath to help with any pain I might be having. All the time my surges were coming every 5-7minutes and gradually increasing in intensity and I was up breathing through each of them. I got myself in the bath which slowed down the intensity of the surges. My husband then returned home and we all had dinner together. I never thought I’d be able to eat anything, but I did. Surges were getting stronger, still every five minutes and I was beginning to feel that I needed to be in hospital. As I had each surge I would breathe in for four and out for eight counting on my fingers. I had it in my mind that we would put my son to bed before we travelled to the hospital. As my husband did bath and story time I rang the hospital to say I wanted to come in, which they were happy with.

My son was in bed and we waved to my mum as we got in the car and drove off. We arrived at the hospital about 19:30. I was examined, I was 2-3cm dilated and baby’s heartbeat was listened to and all was well. They asked if I wanted to stay or go home. I wanted to stay, I was ready for some more pain relief at this point. There was a knock on the door and in came the midwife who looked after me post caesarean. She had been fantastic, so seeing her was such a relief for my husband and I. She took us round to our birthing room and got me some more paracetamol and codeine.

As I said before, I had to be monitored due to my previous caesarean. So they hooked me up. During this time they found that baby’s heartbeat was now a bit fast and they were concerned about this. I had to have some fluid to see if she was dehydrated and if that would slow it down. They broke my waters and at this point I was 4cm dilated. Surges were getting stronger, they gave me gas and air but I didn’t like the way it made me feel, so kept breathing in for four and out for eight. This for me was the best thing, as I knew by doing this I only had to do it around four times and then the surge would be over, but it also gave me a sense of control. They then asked if they could put a monitor on babies head to get a more accurate reading, which I was happy with.

I was now further dilated and baby’s heartbeat was still too fast. The registrar came to talk to me as the heart rate wasn’t coming down as they would have liked and felt they needed to get her out quickly. He asked to examine me, again I was even further dilated. As he was talking I remember saying I feel like I need to push. The midwife said if you need to push then do so. Due to wanting her out quickly I was assisted with her delivery.

The up breathing technique allowed me to stay at home for as long as I needed and kept me calm, both the midwife and registrar commented on how calm I was when we did go into hospital.

It also helped me to have minimal pain relief which is what I had wanted (although not against pain relief if it was required. I quite enjoyed the epidural with my caesarean ). Also here is a person who has been known to faint from period pains. I used the up breathing from the beginning until I felt I needed to push. It was brilliant how the breathing focused my mind and the process of counting kept me from spiralling into panic.

It wasn’t completely drama free but my goodness I couldn’t have been prouder of myself or happier as the team of midwives, the registrar and my husband cheered me on to push and my beautiful daughter was delivered vaginally at 22:31.

Even though they had been concerned about her heart rate, my daughter was absolutely fine and I was able to have skin to skin contact straight away. We were then allowed home the following day.