Birth story - Marie and baby Finley

I felt I had a bit of a traumatic birth with my first son and was very anxious about giving birth again. I had friends around me who said they had great birth experiences and was both disbelieving and jealous of them and wanted to see what I could do to have a better birth second time round. I heard from an online forum about the PBC and decided to invest.

The videos were such common sense! Once I completed the course I then watched them again with my husband who also found them really useful. I realised one of my main mistakes in labour last time was being frightened of contractions and tensing my whole body, not working with them. I also spent a huge amount of time on my back and in a brightly lit room, so these were 2 things I wanted to change second time round.

On the 29th March I went to pick my son up from school and we went to the local park. I started with some period pain like cramping whilst there but didn’t think much of it as I’d been having these on and off for a good 3 weeks. We did the bedtime routine and I realised I’d had to stop and breathe through some cramps during story time so when I came downstairs at 8:30pm I started timing them using the Freya app and it almost immediately said I was in established labour as surges were 3 in 10 minutes lasting at least 45 seconds!

At 9:30pm my husband went to the shops to get some bits to make sandwiches for our hospital bags and then drove our son (who stayed asleep thankfully) round to his parents. I pottered about the house finishing the hospital bags and tidying, bouncing on my birth ball and watching Big Bang theory for a bit but around 11pm I was done with tv and wanted a bit of quiet so we lit candles and made the living room cosy. My husband had a nap on the sofa and I put on the sound on the app and listened to the positive affirmations whilst breathing through each surge. At one point I had a shower with a dim lamp in the room as well, keeping the calm atmosphere. The evening seemed to fly by and I was shocked every time I saw the clock!

The surges began to get closer together, coming almost every minute for a minute and I realised I was beginning to moo and moan through them, and I couldn’t sit any longer so I said we needed to go to hospital. I’d already called them around 11pm and warned them I was having regular surges but was happy to stay at home as long as possible. I had a mild panic we’d left it a little too late though but thankfully the hospital is less than 10 minutes door to door.

Once we got into hospital at 3:10am we were met by my midwife Jane who took us into a room (the same my first son was born in!) and read through my birth plan. She was fantastic, following it perfectly and allowing me to do what I felt I needed. My husband put the battery candles round the room to help keep the calm lighting I’d been using at home and I stood at the side of the bed breathing through surges. I agreed to an examination as I wanted to see how I’d progressed and was elated to find I was 9cm having done almost all of it at home just using up breathing! Jane said it was clear I was in established labour when I came in but she wouldn’t have guessed I was so far along with how calm I was! She then asked me to do a wee sample which I was happy with but as soon as I got into the bathroom I realised I couldn’t because I wanted to push!

We made it back to the bed and Jane told me to go with my body. I stayed standing against the side of the bed and asked for some gas and air at this point to help me through the surges. It was only at this point did I stop using the Freya app! I didn’t really manage the down breathing but I felt completely in control with each push, and could feel baby’s head moving down and back up just like the videos described which made me so happy I could feel and experience it. Just before baby’s head was born my waters went with a bang and I remember thinking about how the water actually stung my feet as it hit them with force! Poor Jane was covered as she was crouching behind me helping guide baby’s head out as he was trying to come out with his hand on his face!

Very quickly after this I then did another couple of huge pushes, not so much mooing as roaring like a mama lion and he was born and immediately passed through my legs to me! My husband and Jane were both laughing at me as I was so happy, crying ‘a baby! I did it! It’s a baby!’

We moved onto the bed and had immediate skin to skin and delayed cord clamping and after 40 minutes (which felt like 10) I asked for the injection to speed up placenta delivery. Unfortunately during this time I became quite unwell with a fair bit of blood loss and my blood pressure dropped quite steeply so I was given a drip of oxytocin to help my uterus contract quicker and fluids to stabilise my blood pressure. However a couple of hours later I was feeling much better and back with it.

I had a second degree tear which needed stitching, although I never felt it at the time, and a small tear on my labia near my clitoris which I could feel immediately after giving birth as the cord was resting on it but I’ve since healed wonderfully with no concerns and we are now getting into the swing of being a family of 4, and I can’t stop harping on to all our visitors about my amazing positive birth experience!