Birth Story - Lydia and baby Albert

Thommy and I would like to introduce you to Albert (Bertie) Oliver Walters, born on Sunday 26th November 2017. Here is our birth story:

When I found out I was pregnant back in March the one anxiety I immediately had was the birth. I was always one of those kids who would spit out medicine and have nervous tummy aches at the doctors or dentist. I needed to face my fear head on, so we attended Siobhan’s Hypnobirth course.

Following the course, I embraced myself in every single technique we were given and I must admit that without this my birthing experience would have been so different.

I woke up on Friday morning with the “show”, so rang Tom at work to tell him I was ok, but that we would be having our baby at some point very soon. I managed to carry on with Friday’s “lazy” tasks and even managed a walk around the park with a decaf latte in hand! By Friday night, things were starting to happen and at 3am my waters broke. We rang the hospital (as it was our first we had chosen a hospital birth) and we made our way in at 6am. By this point I was picturing pregnant lady gives birth on the road side as the surges were strong! Upon arriving at the hospital I was checked over and sent home. I was no where near ready to go in... 1cm dilated. We were told to come back at 10pm that evening, or earlier as my waters had broken and they didn’t want me to potentially harm the baby.

Saturday was the longest day of our lives... I ate sugary snacks, took millions of showers and watched films all day. I used up all of our towels from the bathroom and was doing up breathing all day to control the surges. Nothing happened quickly, so we waited until 10pm and made our way back to the hospital. Upon our arrival, I was told that Tom would not be able to stay with me. I was so upset! The midwife, however, said he could stay till I had my first check... 4cm dilated. I cried at this point! She suggested we take an hours walk around the hospital, so off we went. Again, this felt like the longest walk I think I had ever been on! Every few minutes... stop. In for 4, out for 8. Leaning on every surface available whilst we toured the wonderful hospital at midnight. The cafe was open at least and Tom got a brew. After half an hour, I couldn’t walk anymore so we returned to the ward and I was 8cm! Tom wasn’t going home and we were off down to delivery!

Izzy, our midwife was amazing. She let Tom and I put our music on, spritz our room spray and dim the lights. She pretty much left us to it as we continued with the breathing. Tom was amazing and he supported me by counting, rubbing my back and letting me squeeze his hand as the surges intensified! The surges felt like I wanted to poo - Siobhan was spot on with that reference during our course!

Everything was going so well until exhaustion hit. It was now Sunday morning and I had been experiencing surges with no pain relief since Friday night. Although I was chirpy in myself, Bertie was tired too and surges came to a halt. Izzy gave me a hormone drip to enhance the surges again which worked instantly, but poor Bertie was just chilling inside my warm belly not wanting to make his entrance.... After a while, I had to change my birthing plan and trust the midwives professional decision. I was sent down to theatre at 8am to have Bertie delivered by forceps. Unfortunately I was given an epidural and 4 pushes that didn’t feel like pushes later Bertie was out. The placenta immediately followed... I will never forget how calm I was during the entire process. The theatre staff said I was the most “upbeat and chirpy” person they had seen in there for a while. I truly believe the techniques I learnt on the hypnobirth course and the hours of practice I put in were the main reasons why I was so calm. Where was that little girl who had spat out medicine and been sat on by my Grandad just to take calpol all those times?!

Bertie is just a gorgeous and scrummy little boy. He’s smiling and gurgling away and I think he is rather chilled and content considering what he went through to be here! Thank you Siobhan for everything you did for us!