Birth story - Nicola and baby boy

My second baby was born in October, a beautifully calm, planned home birth and a world apart from the arrival of my daughter two years ago. I can’t thank hypnobirthing and The Positive Birth Company enough for making me completely change my attitude towards birth and for allowing me to bring my baby boy into the world in such a magical way. I hope my birth story can help other pregnant ladies as much as all the amazing tales from other mums did for me.

My daughter was born at the MLU at 38 weeks. My waters broke at home at 11:00am and contractions went from nothing to wanting to push within a few hours. By 3:00pm, I was in hospital at 9cm. I wanted to birth in the pool but as things were taking their time, the midwives asked me to get out so they could guide me with the pushing. I ended up giving birth at 7:00pm, lying on my back after two hours of screaming the place down and pushing with all my might.

Although my first birth experience was over fairly quickly, the trauma of the pushing haunted me so much throughout my second pregnancy that by the time I finished work at 37 weeks, and having nothing else to occupy my mind (and little to distract me thanks to Covid restrictions) I was becoming more and more terrified of how I was going to get my little boy out of me and into the world.

I stumbled across The Positive Birth Company on a search for positive birth stories from second time mums who had, had an easier labour than with their first. I read story after story of mums who had given birth in just a couple of pushes but I never believed it could happen like that for me. I decided to read Practical Ways to Make your Birth Better, and loved it, it all made perfect sense and helped me see that the home birth that I was debating was the right choice for me. I also bought the Freya app to guide my breathing through contractions when the time came.

I rushed through the book convinced that baby was going to follow his sister’s early arrival, but at 40 weeks we were still waiting. “My baby will come when my baby is ready” being the positive affirmation I repeated to stop my impatience getting the better of me. After weeks of Braxton Hicks, I woke up at 3:00am, 40+2, with mild surges in my back. I woke my husband, not completely convinced that this was it, but we got up and prepared the living room just in case.

I was so fed up being pregnant, it was very exciting to think the end might be in sight! The living room floor was cleared and everything covered with plastic sheeting. We brought everything we might need downstairs, including packed hospital bags, just in case, lowered the lights, put lavender oil in the diffuser and queued up my favourite trilogy, Pitch Perfect!

I bounced on my birthing ball, dancing along, pausing to time the surges and follow Freya’s up breathing. By 5:30am, we made the call that this was definitely happening and rang my in-laws to come and collect our daughter. I sat sobbing on the sofa after she’d been picked up, overwhelmed that it would never just be the three of us again.

My other half called the MLU to let them know what was going on and to find out whether there were any midwives available for a home birth or if we should think about getting in the car. I was so grateful when I knew I could carry on at home, I knew having to face the Covid restrictions on arrival at hospital would slow my labour down.

At one point I had a bit of a wobble and started to panic, so a guided meditation on the app reminded me to trust that my body knew what to do.

As my surges intensified, my other half hooked me up to the Tens machine, and between that, the Freya app and pretending to be a Bella(!) we got to 9:00am in a pretty calm and manageable way. The surge timer wasn’t showing that my contractions were getting closer together but I was finding it harder and harder to breathe through them. I had needed a wee about a hundred times that night, but the pressure was building and I knew it wouldn’t be long till I needed to push.

I told my partner that I needed the midwives here, NOW! He called the hospital, telling a small lie about the length of time between contractions and by 9:30am, the wonderful midwife S and student E were sitting in my living room.

I was leaning over my birthing ball at this point, determined to work with gravity this time round. S asked me about my preferences; being upright and delayed cord clamping. After a short while observing me, and giving me my much-loved gas and air, I was examined to be 10cm dilated. I’m sure my body was holding on until the midwives arrived and I felt safe to deliver.

S called the second midwife, and I can clearly remember her telling her that she probably wouldn’t make it in time!

I knew I had entered the transition phase as I could hear myself telling everyone I couldn’t do it and didn’t want to.

The pushing this time around was a world apart from with my first. I didn’t have to do anything at all, I just let my body do its thing and went with it. I couldn’t believe what was happening, it was like the stories I had read, it was painful, but it was amazing! By the third push, I could feel my little boy entering the world, his head was out, but I waited, completely trusting that my body knew what to do. With the next surge and a push that I did not have to work for, he was here.

It was the most incredible experience, there were tears from everyone. Giving birth to my son in the comfort of my living room was magical and I would recommend a home birth to anyone. I had delayed cord clamping, the injection to deliver the placenta and made myself comfortable on the sofa for his first feed.

Plans went slightly awry at this point as my bleeding would not stop. The midwives did everything they could to keep me at home, but after collapsing on the way back from the loo, the decision was made that a trip into hospital was needed.

We had an exciting ambulance journey up to the Consultant Led Unit, which was thankfully completely empty so my partner could stay with us. I spent a couple of hours hooked up to a drip, ate as much food as I could get my hands on and was discharged that evening.

The house was absolutely spotless when we arrived home, the midwives had left the place cleaner than it had been to begin with! They really were amazing, they allowed me to have the birth I wanted, with minimal intervention and made me feel totally at ease.

I never dreamed that in the middle of a pandemic I could achieve such a wonderful birthing experience, but hypnobirthing made it possible, I only wish I had done it for my first.