Birth story - Rochelle and baby boy

Where to start! In November last year I found out I was pregnant. It came as a massive shock as I’m only 23 but I knew this was the right time and soon became ecstatic for this journey. My partner and I kept the news to ourselves for 5 whole months! As we wanted to enjoy it as much as possible in private and away from all the constant Covid talk. After telling friends and family I started to get comments on how awful and painful birth would be. They made me feel anxious about what was to come I took the recommendations and advice from my midwives about trying a hypnobirthing course. As the classes were cancelled, I purchased the digital pack online to see if I could make my birth a positive experience. The course inspired me enormously! I gained so much knowledge and my frame of mind was completely changed!

So at 39+6 weeks pregnant the day before my due date, my baby was ready to come! On the Saturday I realised, around 11am, I had lost my mucus plug! As there was no pain accompanied by it I carried on with my day thinking labour would possibly start in the next few days. However! Around 6pm I felt an ache in the bottom of my stomach similar to period pains but just shrugged them off to being normal pregnancy aches and pains. A few hours later I got my birthing ball out and tried bouncing to ease the ache.

Around 11pm I went to sleep however the ache got a little more intense and by 3am I woke my partner to tell him my discomfort. After realising I was probably in early labour, I used the Freya app to time my contractions to check if this really was the case. My contractions became deeper so most importantly I used my up breathing techniques to stay relaxed during each one. Around 3:30am I called the hospitals birthing centre as the app had told me my contractions were becoming more frequent. I was told to come in so they could check me over and see what stage I was at.

We arrived at the birthing centre around 3:45am and were welcomed into a lovely peaceful and calm birthing suite. The midwife listened to baby’s heartbeat and checked how dilated I was, I was only 2cm at this stage. She gave us the option of staying or going back home until I had progressed. We chose to go back home to eat and try and get some sleep before the hard work was about to come! We got home for 4:30am and tucked into a hot chilli. I got out of bed to put my plate down, still breathing through the surges when suddenly a gush of water poured all down my legs! My waters had gone! My contractions started to become more intense and we grabbed our bags and headed back to the hospital.

Once in the birthing suite my partner had a nap on the bed in the room, I felt so at ease as he was allowed to stay with me the whole time despite Covid rules. I stayed up and used my up breathing to calm my contractions as I knew this was just the beginning. I sat on the mats on the floor as this was the only place I felt comfortable. I stayed here using up breathing from 5am- 8am. At 8am the midwife came and examined me to tell me I was now 3-4cm. So I carried on doing my breathing exercise up until 11am. At this point they were so much more frequent and a lot stronger and I started to feel sick. I rang the bell and asked the midwife to check me again so I could knew the progress and to ensure things were happening in there. She did another examination and said I had reached 5-6cm. At this point she ran the birthing pool ready for me to get in.

Calming music was played and the lights were dimmed, all of which I had down on my birthing plan. I tried bouncing on the ball and sitting on the toilet at this point as I couldn’t get comfortable anywhere. However none of these positions felt right. It was finally time to get into the pool where I carried on up breathing and asked to use the gas and air as the contractions became crazy! My partner fed me water in my straw water bottle (which I highly recommend for birth!) and I laboured in the pool for the remainder of the time. I used the gas and air for around an hour however threw it out after as I felt breathing alone felt better. In what felt like forever, I stayed leaned over the pool on my knees staying focused and positive. I tried different positions suggested by my midwives such as sitting on the toilet and on a birthing stool to try speed up the labour but none of these felt comfortable again. The midwives played more soothing music and kept my pool topped up with warm water which all helped make the atmosphere more relaxing.

A few hours later I finally felt the urge to push. The feeling felt more like I needed a poo & the midwives reassured me this feeling meant my baby was ready to come out! I pushed and pushed using down breathing at every contraction. As the midwives couldn’t check my progress properly because I was in the water they told me to feel down below where I felt my baby’s head and hair! 😃

This made me more determined to push with all my will power as I knew this was near to the end! And I would soon have my baby in my arms. After pushing for approx 30 mins I took the biggest breath and pushed down as hard as I could when finally my baby’s head pushed out 😆. The next push was followed by baby’s body and I pulled baby out into my arms. Our surprise baby was a BOY! The feeling was indescribable and so surreal, my partner sobbed his heart out and we both just gazed at our little creation in awe 🥰

We had delayed cord clamping to make sure baby got all the bloody supply he needed, then dad cut the cord afterwards and I delivered the placenta. The midwives were concerned I looked like I was loosing a lot of blood so they got me out of the pool and gave me the injection to speed up the delivery of my placenta. This made me throw up but it was out so quickly. They checked me for any tears but I had ZERO! I was so happy to hear this! After being cleaned up I tried to breastfeed however my little one didn’t seem too interested and took a while to latch, however he did in the end. My baby boy received the vitamin K injection and was weighed in at bang on 7 pounds 🥰

We stayed in the suite for a couple more hours loving and staring at our baby boy. I was so happy and empowered that I had such an amazing birth! No pain relief just patience and breathing skills. The positive birth company gave me the knowledge and confidence to birth my baby and I am more than happy that I invested in such an amazing course. I’d definitely do it all again and recommend it to any pregnant person I come across now 😂

We were finally discharged at 11pm and took home the most precious little gift we have ever received. Love you son 26.07.2020 👶🏽👨‍👩‍👦💙❤️