Birth story - Sarah and baby Ripley

Being my 4th baby and having delivered my third using The Positive Birth company hypnobirthing techniques, I really thought I’d be doing the same again and having a nice quick natural birth. But remember that every baby and every birth is different, plus this little lady has other plans! At my 31 week scan ( which I had because I had increased levels of water which they wanted to check on) I was told that she was breech. I’d never had a breech baby before so did lots of research on breech births and the potential risks involved. I also read lots of positive breech birth stories to see how the outcome had gone.

At my next scan two weeks later I had even more water, so baby was having a nice swim around in my uterus and was also quite happy. At 37 weeks as she was still breech I was offered an ECV where they try and turn the baby and get her into position.

This seemed very unnatural to me and with and only 50% success rate I really didn’t see the point of trying and causing potential distress to the baby. Also, as my waters have gone early in two other pregnancies, I was told that if they went early this time, I was to get my bum in the air and call an ambulance immediately, as I could be at risk of cord prolapse when the umbilical cord comes out before the baby and it can be very dangerous, even fatal. It was at this point that I decided that a planned section was the safest way to deliver my baby. She was such a miracle (my first non rainbow baby after so many miscarriages with all the others) I wasn’t going to risk anything going wrong in labour. So we booked in on her due date and started to prepare for a section. I spoke to some other mums and to my midwife and stated on my birth plan that I wanted music playing and to have skin to skin as quickly as possible, which was all fine.

The day came along and we were both excited and anxious but I used my breathing techniques to keep calm and relaxed. My husband also makes me laugh a lot when I’m in labour which I find really helpful to stay relaxed and calm. We even had a little dance on the way to the theatre.

We had a wonderful midwife who kept me completely informed the whole way through the process. And a great team in the operating room. Who also made me laugh, as when I said I had a play list, the reply was, “Please no Ed Sheeran we’ve had enough of him” 😂😂 lucky for them I had no Ed Sheeran.

When the spinal went in I used breathing techniques from my hypnobirthing course to stay calm and relaxed. Then as I was laid down my midwife said I could look in the mirror in the theatre lights to see what was happening if I wanted to. I did it was fascinating but also made me realise I need to eat less chocolate 😂 My midwife said they’d started the operation and she kept checking on me. My husband was stroking my hair which was relaxing me and before I knew it the canopy was down and I saw my beautiful daughter be born. (After having a scan before the operation to check she was still breech which she was, she actually turned as soon as they cut me and she came out head first)

I was absolutely elated and cried at the sight of her. After a quick rub down she was straight on my chest for skin to skin whilst I was sewn back up. So we has some lovely bonding time before we went into recovery, where she latched on straight away.

It was the most amazingly calm and wonderful experience and in the same circumstances I’d do it all over again. Even though I desperately wanted a natural birth, I know I made the right choice in getting Ripley delivered to me safely.

Crikey that’s a lot of info but I do love talking about positive birth experiences even when it’s not what you planned.