Birth story - Martina and baby Piper

I had a very good pregnancy, mainly because I practiced hypnobirthing, yoga and meditation. I decided it was important to focus my attention on positive birth experiences instead of listening to people telling me how much I would scream or the pain I would feel. People often don’t think of the words they use and can easily cause anxiety for a first-time pregnancy. Plus, people often fixate on sharing difficult births instead of the amazing experience that birth can be. So, I decided to stop listening to them, reading positives mantras and watching positive videos. 

I was pregnant with my first child and she was due on Monday the 21st of October 2019. I practiced hypnobirthing until the last day. On Friday the 18th I started feeling some pre-period pains but nothing very hard to handle. On Sunday I went to bed early, at 9pm because I felt I needed to rest, and at midnight I woke up because I needed to pee. I went to the toilet and just afterwards, my water broke. Keeping calm, I called my husband saying “I think something is happening”. I used an app on the phone in order to track the contractions once they arrived. I sat on my birthing ball and waited just a quarter an hour at which point the contractions were already every 5 minutes and lasting 1 minute. And from then, always closer together. At 1:00 am we decided to go to the hospital, it took probably 15 minutes. The midwife that welcomed us was really calm and asked me some questions, they put us in a slightly dark room where they tracked the contractions and checked the dilation which was at 4cm. I walked by myself into the delivery room, I tried to listen to some music but it was distracting me from the breathing exercises. Chris helped me to keep calm, the best birthing partner I could ever possibly have wanted. At around 3am I had a bath but the contractions didn’t allow me to relax into the water. I asked the midwife when she thought the baby was coming and she said “for breakfast, maybe lunch but I don’t think so”. I helped myself with a cord hanging from the ceiling in order to stand up and concentrate. The room was slightly dark and quiet as I had requested and the midwife came to check me only when necessary. My husband was with me for the entire labor, helping with breathing exercises and providing a hand to squeeze. At around 4.30am the midwife came back into the room and asked me to lay down. I was 10 cm dilated and ready to have my baby. The time to push had arrived.  As she was emerging, the midwife put my hand on our little lady’s head and after a couple of final pushes, at exactly 5.30 am of the 21st of October 2019, I saw her. Though there was some pain, I didn’t need any painkillers; In fact, the thought didn’t cross my mind. My baby was here! The first thing I said was “she’s perfect”. The midwife left us alone with the baby for 40 minutes, naked on my breast. I expelled the placenta with another contraction around 30 minutes later. I didn’t need stitches and I was up and walking soon after. All -in-all, an amazing experience; fast and quite emotional but something I can’t wait to repeat.