Birth story - Mary-Lou and baby Cooper

*Trigger Warning* Mention of contractions (not a trigger for me)

Background:

I had done hypnobirthing for my first pregnancy but once they mentioned induction to me, I feel hypnobirthing went straight out the window. I felt stressed and couldn't relax so felt I didn't get the full benefits first time round. I was determined to make my second time round a better experience.

Pregnancy:

Second time pregnancy went very well, up until 30 weeks and then I caught Covid, I was devastated but working in a preschool it was inevitable that it was going to happen at some point! The doctors told me they weren’t worried and that I would just be brought in for extra scans, which reassured me. When I was brought in for one of those scans at 39 weeks I was told baba was looking the same weight as my first, around 7lbs 8oz. I know they can't be exact on their things but thought they're prob not far off as through my whole pregnancy everything was identical to my first pregnancy!

I even thought I was carrying a girl to the point that I would go around saying hello Freya (to my bump - that was our girls name) when I was in the car or out and about. My bump was the same shape as my first pregnancy, I had no cravings like when I was pregnant on my little girl, even baby's heart rate was 140 which would indicate a girl..... so everything pointed to a baby girl in my tummy. Just goes to show, old wives tales tell us nothing!!

Labour:

Due to having Covid at 30 weeks pregnancy they wouldn't allow me to go over 41 weeks so when I reached 40 weeks I knew an induction was highly possible. This time round I didn't let it bother me and focused most of my pregnancy on breathing exercises.

When I was brought in at 9am on the 1st of June for induction, there was no beds available for me, I told them I wasn't going home so they gave me a private room. I was delighted at the privacy and felt myself relax even more. They started with the gel at 10 and told me that had to be in for 6 hours so they would be back to me at 4pm. Straight away I felt pains so started on my ball while watching friends, which I spent most of my pregnancy watching to produce oxytocin. By 3pm, after lots of walking around, the pains became so intense that I asked for gas and air to get through. They told me they would check me so at 3.15pm they checked me to tell me I was 1cm. I was very disheartened as I was 1cm at a sweep the week previous. The nurse saw I was upset so left the room while I practiced my breathing and composed myself. She then came back 10 mins later with the head nurse. The baby went into distress and I was in a lot of pain so they rushed me up to delivery which all happened very quickly. When I got up there they told me I had progressed so quickly that I had jumped from 1cm to to 7cm in that space of time! I got the epidural shortly after that as I felt I couldn't continue anymore... And after that kicked in it was the most relaxing experience ever!!! The midwife said that my contractions were coming thick and fast and that I wasn't getting much of a break between them... Thank god for the epidural

I chatted with the midwives about our recent journey to Australia as the midwife had been there too, we had lovely conversation as she check me every hour and each hour that passed I progressed 1cm. At 9.30pm she checked to say she was happy I was between 9cm and 10cm dilated. She asked me to give a little push, just to see if baby was coming down the birthing canal and when I did, she shouted stop stop! She could see baby's head and they weren’t at all prepared yet.

At 9.48pm I pushed and baby's head came out and at 9.51, baby's body followed. My partner looked at me in absolute shock and said "it's a boy" and I had to ask the midwife to check again, I was in absolute shock!

It was such a relaxing birth compared to my first and even though it wasn't as controlled as I wanted it, it was perfect for us.

If we go on to have a 3rd I will definitely continue to use hypnobirthing.