Birth story - Roshni and baby Kiaan

Hypnobirthing was something I was really keen on as I am really interested in the power of the mind and the law of attraction etc. I started watching the videos at 20 weeks and also read the ‘Positive birth book’ which complemented the course really well.

I finished work when I was 38 weeks pregnant and found maternity leave really boring, I remember speaking to my bump and telling him to come whenever he was ready but ideally before the bank holiday weekend . I even wrote down how I wanted my birth to be (I wrote ‘my birth will be better than I imagined, I will have a water birth and use gas and air, my baby will be happy and healthy and will be head down and will latch on immediately) and visualised the midwives saying to me ‘you’ve done an amazing job, you’re so calm’. The screensaver on my phone said ‘ I trust my body and baby to birth beautifully’. Doing all of this really impregnated my subconscious mind with positive thoughts about giving birth.

I always wanted to have a water birth, even though people around me were quite negative about it. I had a gut feeling that I had to have one.

I had a few bumps along the way, when I was about 34 weeks pregnant, the midwife said I was measuring too small, she said I may not be able to have a water birth as smaller babies don’t cope well during labour. I had lots of checks with consultant and the Tuesday before I gave birth, I was told that my baby’s weight was within the normal range and that my pregnancy was low risk.

The Sunday before I gave birth, I had mild cramps and it felt as if my period was about to start. I confided in a friend, who told me that my baby will be here by the end of the week! I went to pregnancy yoga on Wednesday and on Thursday I had a pregnancy massage. On Thursday evening, I felt mild period like cramps which were really manageable. By 1am on Friday I noticed that there was a pattern and I couldn’t sleep through them anymore. I started timing the surges using the Freya app (which is amazing by the way) and started breathing through them. I ran a bath and sat for ages, this really helped numb the surges. I also bounced on a birthing ball and rewatched some of the videos from the hypnobirthing course. On Friday, in the afternoon, I remember having shower, doing my hair and telling my husband ‘the baby will be here today, I need to look presentable’ lol. My mucous plug also started coming out on Friday morning. When the app suggested that I was in active labour, my husband and I went to the hospital and we waited for them to check me over. The midwife refused to see how dilated I was as she said I wasn’t in active labour as I was far too calm. She told me to go back home and try and come back when the surges are more intense. I was really disheartened!

The next day, the surges really intensified. I also felt a lot of pressure down there (baby must have engaged then) and ended up sitting on the toilet to help with the pressure. The surges were only every 10 minutes but were so intense that I couldn’t speak during them. I was getting really impatient and annoyed that they were so irregular but yet so intense. I also did the cat cow yoga pose during surges to help me out.

At 4pm, my husband convinced me to go to the hospital. I called the hospital and lied that my surges were 3 in 10.. unfortunately I had to lie because I felt as if they were trying to stop me from going in. When I went to the hospital, they whisked me off to the maternity assessment unit and checked to see how dilated I was. They told me that I was already 6cm dilated (before they checked me, they didn’t really believe that I was in active labour because I was so calm - the breathing techniques work so well). When I found out that I was 6cm dilated, I got so excited. The midwife asked me about pain relief and I requested an epidural. The midwife looked at my birth notes and said ‘you’ve done the hard part at home, why don’t you have a water birth?’.

The midwife started running the bath at 5pm and when I sat inside, the warm water numbed my surges. The gas and air helped so much too - I enjoyed using it lol. I remember telling my husband ‘this is so easy, I can do it’. I also remember looking at the clock and saying ‘this baby will be born in a few hours’. We played music, had the lights dimmed, the midwife also only checked on me every 15 minutes which was great as I liked being left alone. I instinctively started moving side to side whilst I was in the pool.

Around 7.30pm, I heard a loud pop and said out loud ‘my waters have broken’. I also felt that the surges were really close together and I said out loud ‘I’m in transition’!

After that, I felt the need to push, and I asked the midwife whether I was allowed to push. She said ‘do whatever you feel you need to’. I forgot how to do the down breathing but after about 10 pushes, the babies head came out (the ring of fire is real) and then the body came out (this was so easy to push out). The placenta came out naturally about 20 minutes later. We had immediate skin to skin, and then I ended up having my 2nd degree tear stitched up. My husband did skin to skin whilst I had the tear stitched up.

The midwife showed me how to breastfeed and baby Kiaan managed to latch straight away.

All in all, I never thought my birth would go this perfectly. Yes the latent phase was long, but the breathing techniques really helped. Everyone in my family was shocked that I used little pain relief as I am known for my poor pain tolerance. Giving birth made me feel really powerful and I’m excited to do it again. My health visitor said that she has never met anyone who is so positive about their birth story - it’s a shame really!

The course helped so much. Thank you Siobhan and to the rest of the staff at the Positive Birth Company.