Birth story - Milly and baby Isabella

*Trigger warning* - Talk of intense pain

Thank you to the Positive Birth Company for educating and empowering me to remain calm, focused and enjoy every moment of my birthing experience. After completing the course and welcoming my daughter into this world, I believe every new parent should complete this course so we are all equipped with the knowledge and skills to enjoy our birthing experience and be proud of our story.

Eight months prior to falling pregnant I had my second laparoscopy to remove endometriosis from seven locations in and around my uterus to prepare for the best possible chance of falling pregnant. We had been trying for about six months when, early one morning I was getting ready for work and, I took a pregnancy test and jumped in the shower. Five minutes later I poked my head out of the shower to see a positive test.

I loved the nine months of growing my baby. I embraced and loved the changes happening to my body and I was always excited for the birthing experience. I could not wait to bring a human into this world and all the feelings and emotions that came with it. I loved hearing and reading people's positive birth stories and how different and unique each story is. No two stories are the same.

At around 32 weeks I began to focus on my birth preferences. I planned to go into labour naturally and work towards no pain relief. Listening to a podcast on Siobhan, the founder of The Positive Birth Company, I knew I needed to complete their Digital Hypnobirthing Course so I had all the tools ready to go. Upon finishing work at 37 weeks, I completed the course and absolutely loved it. I took notes on each chapter and would take my husband through them and together we built our preferences. I felt empowered, relaxed and excited for what was to come. To my surprise, my OB said I was her only patient wanting to go into labour naturally and told me how Covid had completely changed people's approach to labour and birth as they wanted to be in more control.

My due date came and went and every day after that was hot, long and slow. Being an Australian Summer, those two weeks post due date were above 40 degrees celsius. I spent the days in a dark cool room or in the pool. I booked an induction day at 41+5 days as the hospital was overwhelmingly busy, never thinking I would need it, but it arrived and on Sunday at 6:00pm we made our way into the hospital to have the prostaglandin gel inserted to ripen the cervix. I was told that at most it would feel like period pain and as an expert in that, I knew I could handle it.

We were told to go home, get a good night's sleep and I would be back in the morning to have my waters broken. I really didn't want to have my waters broken as I wanted my whole body to be ready to labour. I started to feel “period like '' pain in the car on the way home and it slowly increased. We got home at 10:00pm and sat down to have something to eat but the pain had worsened and I was now not hungry. We hopped into bed to try and get some sleep but within 5 minutes the pain had escalated again, and I could start to see a pattern in the pain intensifying and relaxing. I asked my husband to time these patterns. We timed four and to his disbelief it appeared we were having what appeared to be surges 45-60 seconds, 4 minutes apart. I was in active labour. My husband called the hospital, and they told us to begin to make our way back into the hospital. We were home for a total of 1 hour.

The drive back to the hospital was a blur and luckily it was 11:30pm so no traffic on the road for the 30-minute journey. As soon as we arrived back at the hospital my waters broke, and my mucus plug came out. From 12:00am till 8:00am the surges continued at the same level of intensity and timing. The pain was making me nauseous and after every few contractions I was vomiting so they connected me to an IV drip to keep me hydrated.

Over these eight hours I focused on up-breathing through every surge and relied on my tens machine, the Freya app and light touch massage from my husband (my husband ended up doing this for 17 hours). At 8:00am my obstetrician assessed and said I was three centimetres dilated which was incredibly motivating to hear. I continued to breathe through the intense surges and at around 11:00am my incredible midwife Sophie, suggested I empty my bladder and then, upon returning to the bed, we would try some new positions. I had a very intense contraction on the toilet and breathed through it and upon returning to the bed we changed positions to lie on my side.

After a few assessments, Midwife Sophie said to me “Milly, soon your contractions are going to change. It's going to feel like you need to poo and you are going to want to push”. Learning this in the course I knew what was to come. About ten minutes later this exact sensation occurred and an examination saw I was 10 centimeters so we began the pushing phase. During each surge I was able to push three times. I focused on the downward breathing and my husband and midwives supported me through each push. Not having any pain relief it was clear to me when I was pushing correctly versus when I wasn't. It felt completely different and took more energy but I could almost feel the baby moving through me.

I pushed for over an hour and our baby needed to make its way around the birth canal curve, but this was proving to be difficult. Our baby’s heart rate was indicating they were a little stressed so my obstetrician was called. She came and presented a few options and we agreed we would try the vacuum as the first option. I was tearing so I had an episiotomy to assist with the direction of the tear. My Obstetrician inserted the vacuum onto my baby’s head (you can imagine the pain I experienced at this point!) and over the next two contractions assisted the baby. I knew I was very close when more midwives were called into the room to assist. In one big contraction I pushed and heard my husband who was holding my head up begin to cry. He could see the head and arms. The midwives then grabbed my arms and placed them under her arms and I pulled our daughter onto my chest.

The hour after was somewhat of an incredible blur as I focused on our beautiful girl Isabella. I required stitches and monitoring due to blood loss, but I was on my feet and able to shower a few hours later. The seventeen hours of intense pain became instantly worth it and a beautiful memory. I look back on this experience with such pride and I certainly have a newfound admiration of what our bodies can do and endure. It is truly remarkable.