Birth story - Mum and baby Girl

Firstly, I want to say that my husband as my birth partner and my amazing midwife whom I’d seen during pregnancy were both absolutely incredible. Couldn’t have done it without their calming presence and support.

I always felt that because my baby was small, she would come early. How wrong I was! To cut a long story short: we are emigrating back to our home country, South Africa at the end of July after living in the UK for 18 years. We always thought we’d have a June baby with plenty of time between birth and our flights at the end of July! 😅

I had a smooth pregnancy apart from growth scans due to small measurements but these were stopped at 32 weeks. From 35 weeks I really started struggling with fatigue and just wanted baby to come out. I don’t recall the fatigue being as bad with my other two but third time mother and working obviously adds to it! By the time I was 40 weeks I was feeling very deflated. I requested a sweep but nothing happened. Then requested another sweep at 41 weeks and booked an induction for 41+6. By now I was totally fed up and tried very hard to remember that baby would come when baby was ready. I had a bloody show the day after the sweep.

41+2: I started feeling mild surges in the evening but only whilst lying down. These went away whenever I stood up and by morning they were gone. They were mild enough to doze through.

41+3: The following evening the same thing happened but these were much stronger now and I was unable to sleep through them. Every time I got up from bed they went away so sleeping was impossible.

41+4: another sleepless night of surges where I couldn’t get comfortable and couldn’t lie down.

41+5: I called my midwife and ask to reschedule my induction a day earlier as I couldn’t cope with the sleep deprivation anymore. My induction was rescheduled and I felt calmer and happier.

10:30 my husband and I went in for induction. On the walk from the car park I had a couple of very mild surges.

12:30 My waters were broken as my cervix was already 2cm dilated and low. This was an bit uncomfortable but gas and air got me through.

We went for a walk after this, sideways up and down the hospital stairs. This really helped to bring on some surges. I started to feel a constant period like pain in my lower abdomen and lower back which made feeling when the start of a new surge would be quite difficult. When we got back to the room I got onto the gas and air which helped a lot.

15:00 I was totally exhausted by now having not slept for 3 days. I requested pethidine to help me relax and possibly have a little nap. After 30 mins I asked the midwife when the pethidine would kick in because I felt nothing! She just said that I must be hardcore and have a high threshold because it hadn’t worked for me!

16:15 The midwife requested an examination which I agreed to. I was only 3cms dilated but I didn’t let that get to me as I could feel my surges coming closer together. The Freya app really helped me focus on nothing else. The midwife suggested another examination in an hour and then the drip if I hadn’t progressed. She left the room for a bit and I told my husband to tell the midwife or doctor no more examinations and no drip. I then put on my noise cancelling EarPods and completely zoned out. Suddenly I could feel things started ramping up from here. My husband stood behind me as I sat on the ball and did light touch massage and at one point the midwife gave me a lovely massage.

I continued to listen to the Freya app and could faintly hear the pool being filled behind me. I then suddenly started feeling baby move down and could feel my breathing change. Two more surges and I got in the pool at 17:45.

As soon as I got in I felt so much relief being in the water. My body totally relaxed and I felt the urge to push and really focused on my down breathing here. I was determined to breathe baby out. I keep repeating over in my head “just breathe”. 6 surges later her head emerged. This felt absolutely amazing and didn’t feel the ring of fire at all. Two more surges and down breaths and she was born!

I couldn’t believe things had progressed so quickly. I went from 3cms to baby being born in less than 2 hours! The midwife said after that she had never witnessed anyone truly breathe their baby out the way I did. ☺️ Birth is the most empowering experience!

This is my second birth using Positive Birth Company and the Freya app. And again I had the most amazing birth!

EDIT: I’m adding this edit 4 months after giving birth. Not sure why this suddenly occurred to me while cuddling my baby after her bedtime feed but felt I had to share. I’ve realised that during labour, when breathing through surges my mind and my body were completely separate from one another. I was in my mind and I was looking down at my body, letting my body do what it needed to do without any input from me. If that makes any sense!?