Birth story - Ruth and baby Ed

He’s my 3rd baby and after two stressful labours with my daughters, and despite already having done a hypnobirthing course in my first pregnancy, the anxiety started to creep in a little so I decided to do the positive birth company digital course as a bit of a refresher. SO glad I did!

This was my longest labour of the three but by far the most positive. Early labour started for me on the night of Monday 21st as I was going to bed. I had irregular mild contractions all night and into the following day. I called my mum at 6am to come and care for my daughters, thinking at some point on Tuesday I’d be heading in to my local midwife led unit for my water birth but alas the surges remained irregular and mild, some getting a little stronger and then tailing off again. I used my up breathing, watched tv, walked a little, snacked and drank to keep my energy up, sat on my ball a lot, slept when I could, used my tens machine and listened to the relaxation mp3s constantly. This continued until Wednesday evening when my husband and Mum were putting the girls to bed. Whilst my surges weren’t 3 in 10mins I just knew it was time, so as soon as the girls were settled I grabbed my husband who called an Uber and off we went.

I was dreading the car journey but actually my surges tailed off and became milder - which worried me a little as I didn’t want progress to slow down but as soon as we arrived at triage everything was in full swing again. Amazing how nature does you a favour in these moments to get you through! We were met by a slightly bolshy midwife who said I HAD to be examined despite me really not wanting this, I let her go ahead thinking that was the only way I’d get to go in the pool. She had a huge shock and a panic only to discover I was already fully dilated and I was rushed out of triage in to a Labour room. Not what I had wanted but luckily the midwife who cared for us from this point took her time to read my notes, including my birth plan and previous labours and really assessed us and she judged things so well.

She dimmed the lights and when it came to pushing, down breathing was working really well (as a side note my previous hypnobirthing course never mentioned down breathing and it’s always been at this point that I’ve struggled, it’s sooo good!) but she could see that I actually needed a little guidance to make sure things were kept steady and not too fast in the end, despite my notes saying otherwise. But the way she spoke and the language she used helped guide my little guy out to the sound of me saying ‘I did it!’ and then sobbing with elation!

So in the end I went from naught to fully dilated with breathing, tens and relaxation mp3s alone. And all on about two hours of broken sleep. But I really believed I could do it! And I did.

Big thank you to Siobhan Miller and to that lovely midwife. Who’s name I’ve managed to track down and I will be sending a thank you card to!

All the best to all you ladies still to birth your babies!