Birth story - Roisin and baby Ruari

I woke up about 4am with surges and I opened the Freya hypnobirthing app and began my breathing. Two hours passed and my surges were still regular, coming three in ten minutes. I rang the hospital and they said because I could talk while having the contractions they didn't think I was in active labour yet. Due to the lockdown they didn't want me coming in too early, so they said to ring back in a few hours. I had a warm shower, had a heat wheat pack on my lower back and I was sitting on my birthing ball. A few hours passed and I took two paracetamol and rang the hospital again as my surges had increased to every two minutes and were strong. They said because I wasn't in pain that I couldn't be far along and also my waters hadn't broken yet, but I wanted to go in as I knew my body and I wanted to be checked. The midwife informed me that if I wasn't four centimetres dilated then I would have to go home. I accepted that and we went.

When we got to the hospital the midwife was waiting for me and took me into an examination room. The moment I got into the room my waters broke and I felt the urge to push. She examined me, looked up in complete surprise and said "you're fully dilated". She ran to the door and shouted for other midwives and half an hour later, at 2.38pm, I gave birth to my beautiful boy Ruari.

The moment I saw him I felt like my whole body exploded with love, and as I held him in against my chest the midwife told us that our baby was a boy. It was the most magnificent moment of my life, and I loved every moment of my son's birth. I can honestly say I felt no pain at all, and I embraced every surge as it brought me closer to meeting my baby. None of the midwives could believe how well I had done, and they kept remarking on what a brilliant labour and birth I had.

As he had such a natural birth, he began breastfeeding really well from the moment he was born, and he's such a brilliant feeder still. I am sure my birthing experience would have been so much different if I didn't use hypnobirthing. Thank you so much for bringing this to women so they can have better births without fear or panic.