Birth story - Lydia and baby Athena

It's taken me 12 days but I gained so much confidence reading all the incredible positive birth stories from this group I was always going to post mine regardless of how it went. Luckily I am so thankful to have had the most incredible experience and whole heartedly feel it was due to the preparation I did beforehand, allowing me to feel calm and centred and fully trust in my body. Here's how it went...

I had some mild period cramps the week leading up to the birth, though these were off and on and few and far between. On Tuesday evening I woke at 2am with some slightly stronger cramps which carried on until about 5am and then went away. I woke up sad that this hadn't been it...!

That week I had been trying to keep busy, having gone over my due date by a week. I went swimming a couple times and started driving to the local park to walk among the fields and trees. Whilst doing this I had my headphones on and listened for the third time to chapters from Sophie Fletchers audio book, Mindful Hypnobirthing. I had also watched all the videos in the positive birth company pack and practiced my up breathing and listening to the visualisations at home either lying in bed or in my nursing chair. Walking in the beautiful sunshine helped me be calm and relaxed and feel like I could take on whatever was to come. I didn't know this for sure but it helped me to be positive. I went home, made some lunch and then curled up in front of the TV.

At 5pm, I started having strong period cramps again. These continued for an hour and it was then that I realised they were coming every 20mins. I text my husband to check he was on his way home from work. He was.

At 8pm I put on the TENS machine as the surges were getting stronger. This really helped and I started using the 'boost' button on low.

By 11.30pm we decided to get into bed to try to rest. The surges were very strong at this point but still manageable with the TENS. I started singing a note at the highest point which helped!

At about 1am I decided I couldn't sleep and wanted to get up. I took dome paracetamol. We called the birth centre and spoke to a midwife. My contractions were coming approx. Every 5 mins but weren't longer than 60 seconds and didn't seem regular. She advised me to get in the bath. This was a game changer! I put on my headphones and listened to my 30 minute relaxation track in the bath for an hour. It was at this point that I started Up Breathing. I remember feeling the surges change from coming upwards to moving downwards. It was at this point that I got out of the bath and noticed I was bleeding. It was my bloody show but I thought something was wrong so said to my husband, 'We need to go now'. He tried calling the birth centre again, but no one picked up. We made a decision and hurriedly packed up all our things and left the house for the hospital. 8 minutes later we arrived (I still had my headphones in the whole journey, closing my eyes).

We arrived at 4.30am and I decided to be examined. The birth pool was all I wanted at this moment but the check up took me out of my 'zone'. However, to my delight, the midwife let me know I had got to 6cm!! This was the best news and allowed me to feel empowered. I could do this!!

They had a room for us (so lucky!) With a wonderful birth pool, shower, toilet etc.

I spent approximately 5hrs in the birth pool, got in straight away, again, a game changer. I breathed through each surge, moving and moaning with my body. Again, headphones in the whole time, in my own zone, concentrating on the words and relaxation and visualisations with Sophie Fletcher. I used the Up Breathing with each surge which was invaluable. My husband fed me water, Lucozade and Jelly babies!! The midwife stayed in the background, occasionally coming to the side of the pool to check babies heart rate and smile at me lovingly, giving me a thumbs up each time.

At around 9am I felt tired and felt that things had slowed. I decided to get out of the pool. (So hard and had to be very brave). Whilst getting out the midwife checked me with a mirror and said she could see the head!!

Pushing was difficult and I had to learn to push for a long length of time during each contraction. I remembered the science I had learnt that each time the baby would come down and then slightly up again. I persevered.

Finally, at 10.14am baby Athena Rita was born, 8.8lbs. Sadly the chord had to be cut straight away as she was born with meconium. They whisked her away, after I had only a minute of touching her, to clear her airways. The longest few minutes of our lives. But she was strong, took her first breath and came back to us.

We are so happy with our beautiful little girl and feel so lucky to have equipped ourselves with such an amazing set of tools for a positive birth. 💕