Birth story - Mairéad

I first discovered this course during my pregnancy and I was fascinated by it. I had always dreamed of a natural waterbirth so I thought hypnobirthing would go perfectly with my ideal birth. Everyone I mentioned it to would laugh at me and say how it wouldn’t work but I’m so glad I ignored them and proceeded with the online course.

I started listening to the course when I was around 30 weeks pregnant and listened to a lot of the videos with my partner.

From listening to the videos, I had it in my head ‘my baby will come when he is ready’. So I was ready to refuse sweeps and inductions. However I was admitted 5 times in one week due to reduced movement (twice in one day) and the hospital were very keen to induce. I agreed and scheduled it for two days later on Saturday 12th January. I tried everything I could to start labour naturally beforehand but nothing worked so I went in to be induced.

They examined me and I was 2cm dilated but my cervix was still quite high. So they inserted the 24 hour pessary, which started mild surges within 3 hours which slowly increased in intensity. I listened to my relaxing music while I had a bath and kept practicing my breathing. However when they examined me after 24 hours, I was still only 2cm.

They then inserted a 6 hour tablet, which made my surges a lot more intense. I was given paracetamol which didn’t really help at all. So I decided to go for a bath, my partner helped me into the bathroom and my surges really picked up. They were coming every 2 minutes and I practiced my breathing techniques and breathed through each contraction and I kept thinking of my positive affirmations knowing that I was getting closer to meeting my baby.

I was starting to make a lot of noise with each surge and I was also being sick quite loudly so a lovely student midwife came to check on me, and asked if I could get out of the bath to see if they could examine me and see if I needed to go to labour suite.

I slowly managed to hobble back to my bed and they examined me and said I was still only 2cm and I wanted to cry. However they agreed to take me to labour suite to try to break my waters to encourage something to happen.

By the time I got to labour suite I was saying that I needed drugs. I was asking for an epidural which is totally opposite to the natural water birth I had planned, and ridiculous considering I had only had paracetamol. They gave me gas and air and said they would arrange an epidural for me. The gas and air was FANTASTIC. I felt each surge still but they made them bearable.

I agreed to the epidural and the doctor came to administer it. They asked me to sit up on the bed, but as I’ve done this I felt a massive gush of water and I apologised for weeing myself. But my midwife assured me it was my waters breaking. This was at 8:33pm.

They asked me to lay back down because they wanted to put a clip on babies head because his heart beat was a bit high and due to a slightly higher bmi, they were having trouble locating it at times. As I went to lie down I felt pressure in my bum. I apologised again because I said I think I’m about to poo. I was so worried about pooing during labour the whole way through my pregnancy. The midwives exchanged a look and asked to examine me again. They checked and they said the baby was coming. I felt so panicked but tried to stay calm and remember my breathing techniques.
16 minutes of pushing, 5 actual pushes and he was here 💙👶🏻

I totally did not have the labour I planned and I think it’s important that it’s okay to accept drugs if you need them. I personally wasn’t able to use the visualising techniques as I couldn’t but the breathing tips and helping to stay calm definitely helped me. I really think that’s what helped me have such a quick labour. I was so calm and I was informed as I knew everything that was happening. Thank you so much for all of your help throughout my pregnancy and labour 💙👶🏻