Birth story - Maggie and baby Ivar

In general, out of my whole pregnancy I can say I had a couple of really good months during the second trimester. The first trimester was very hard as I was very sick everyday, and extremely tired all the time. The third trimester was challenging as well as the sickness came back a little bit and the discomfort was shocking.

Since I started the hypnobirthing course my views about everything changed, and even though I was booked at my nearest hospital for a normal birth I decided to also book myself into a birth centre to have a water birth there and have the best experience possible. The birth centre was 1h away from home but I thought I would do as best as I could to get there just to have that assure myself that experience.

On the 19th of October, I was 37 + 4 weeks, my water's broke at 4.45am whilst I was sleeping. My partner and I got up, I was very happy, I knew the baby was coming soon then, I just didn't know that all my plans were about to change completely. I called the birth centre and they asked me to come in to check that it was definitely my water's, so we had a coffee, I packed in the car all my stuff just in case they offered me to stay as it was far away, and we started our journey. Contractions started, very irregular and easy to deal with using the up breathing techniques I learned in the course.

Once in the birth center they sent me to the hospital area to be checked, and informed me that if labour didn't start they would have to induce me and they booked me in for 48h later. I thought this was a long period of time having in mind my water's broke already but...as this was my first time I didn't think too much about it. We started driving back home and as the contractions were intensifying a little I thought I should inform the hospital nearer to my home just in case I couldn't make it back to the birth centre. To my surprise, they told me I needed to be booked for an induction 24h after my water's broke, so we went home, relaxed watching films, listening to the relaxation mp3s, had a nice bath and slept when I could.

At 4am I arrived at the hospital. I didn't think about what was going to happen and when they told me that my partner was only allowed between 9am to 9pm, and that I had to be in the ward I literally crumbled. I then asked for all my options and for them to explain to me what exactly was going to be the process (started using my BRAIN). They said that because of the risk of infection I had to be monitored, and so unfortunately, I was not longer going to be able to have a water birth or to give birth in a birth centre, so even if I decided to go back to the other place I would be in the same situation. They were very nice, and did some blood tests and monitoring, and after confirming that the baby was happy they let me go out the ward to spend some time with my partner.

After an hour or so I came back to the ward, my contractions were still the same, irregular and not too painful. In the afternoon one of the midwives explained me that to start the induction they would give me a gel and monitor the baby for 1 hour, then had to wait 6 hours hoping that labour would start, if this didn't work they would take me down stairs and start with the pitocin. So again, using my BRAIN I asked her to check how far I was to make the decision to keep waiting hoping to start active labour on my own. I was 2cm so I told her to go ahead with the gel, the risk of infection goes up and I was only going to get more tired, so I felt like I needed to start getting things moving. After this, I spent the hours walking around the hospital with my partner, stopping and having a funny "dance" together every time I had a contraction, then I had dinner and had some time bouncing on the ball.

At 9pm my partner had to leave and I had some rest whilst listening to the mp3s, but it wasn't long until the midwife called me to go downstairs to start with the drip, which was at 10.30pm. I called my partner to come back and he was like flash, they only had time to set up the monitors and he was already there! My partner set up the room to make it nice and comfortable, with some electric candles and room spray. The midwife told me it was fine for me to stand up if I wanted to, but I needed to be close to the machine because of the cables. Then, a doctor came and asked her to check me and give me a sweep to make sure the membrane was completely gone before they put me on the drip. I was still 2cm and my membrane was already gone.

Once they put the pitocin things ramped up very quickly, contractions were much more intense and I was already very tired, I didn't like the fact I couldn't move much around. The midwife told me to think about the option of an epidural, and using my BRAIN I decided I would have it. They put me on the epidural at 2.30am and 20min later, once it started doing its job, I went to sleep. At 7.30am she checked me again and I was fully dilated so she told me now we had to wait for the baby's head to come down which I could feel happening and it was amazing (having in mind I could not feel any pain at all because of the epidural), and then start the pushing game.

Around 9am I started pushing being coached by her because I couldn't feel all my contractions. I was still very irregular so after 1 hour into this a couple of doctors entered the room telling me that after 1h they had to offer me assistance for the delivery because the baby needed to come out. I didn't say a word about this and carried on giving my all to push baby out, it took me 2 more big pushes with the courage of " I do not want any assistance" and baby Ivar was born at 10.05am on the 21st of October, the midwife placed him on my chest straight away, I had skin to skin, delayed cord clamping, and she gave me the injection to expell the placenta which happened about 10 min after.

To my surprise, I was all fine, the midwife even considered not to do any stitches. In the end she did 2 stitches in the inside wall and that's it, I felt extremely lucky lol.

Prior to all of this, I never wanted to have a sweep, I didn't want to have an induction, I didn't want to give birth in the hospital, I didn't want to be laying on a bed, I didn't want an epidural. Everything that happened was completely the opposite of what I planned, but the knowledge that hypnobirthing gave me with those videos made this birth a massive positive experience. I asked specific questions several times when I needed information to make my decisions, the midwives were always on board and kindly responded to all my questions. I knew what was happening at all times, and I knew what to expect. I adjusted to everything making it into my own, like for example the set up of the room. I am so grateful to the positive birth company, because I felt strong and empowered all the way through. I know that if I wouldn't have had all this information I would've been scared and tense, and everything would have been a completely different story. From a very happy mum ❤️