Birth story - Tawhida and baby girl

I initially found out about the positive birth company at around 28 weeks through someone else on Instagram who used it. I started the course at 34 weeks.

So my due date went by and around 3 days before she was born, my family told me to have a bath to induce labour naturally, I was ready to try anything so I had a bath that same night and from that night I had some surges, I could breathe through them but I did have broken sleep, but then in the daytime it stopped. This kept happening for two days, so I called maternity unit and they said it might be Braxton Hicks contractions because they’re irregular.

On the 30th of March surges started again and they didn’t stop at daytime like they usually did so I knew it was labour because it was carrying on. I also confirmed this with maternity unit.. I stayed home, had a bath with lavender essential oil, sat on my birth ball and ate pineapples lol! That night I didn’t sleep a wink because of how strong and regular the surges were, I used the upbreathing that I learnt in the course and that really helped! I finally called maternity unit again when I was timing the contractions and they looked regular about 3-4 minutes but they said it’s probably early labour and I’m probably not even 4cm so they advised me to stay home.

5 minutes later they were about 1 minute apart! So I went in at 12pm even though the midwifes advised me not to, I just went with my gut instinct. When I got there, she checked my dilation and I was already nearly 7cm, I was so relieved and shocked at the fact that I did 7cm at home and I really believe the breathing and staying calm is what helped me! They then took me to room with a birthing pool because I wanted the pool to either give birth in or to have it as a pain relief. They gave me gas and air and I took it as soon as they offered, this really helped me get my mind off things.

2 - 3 hours later I got into the pool which felt so nice! My water also broke in there, my husband kept giving me drinks and and snacks. I believe the water dilated me to 10cm so fast but I got to the pushing stage and it got too hot for me so I got out and went on the bed on all fours, I can’t thank the midwives enough they were so encouraging and supportive and of course my husband too. I was so close to giving up pushing and at this point they said the baby swallowed some meconium so they took my husband to the side and told him if I don’t push baby out within half an hour they’ll either need to do c-section or assisted delivery as it was dangerous, meanwhile I didn’t even know this was happening!

Then they said they can see the baby’s head and I felt the baby’s head and immediately felt more motivated and I pushed and to our surprise it was a girl! 💖 We didn’t know the gender either so it was a very nice surprise. I had a second degree tear, the stitches didn’t really hurt or bother me afterwards either. I had skin to skin, baby latched on straight away. I really believe this course helped me to have a positive birth.

I was initially scared of giving birth until I came across this course. The midwives were so so impressed at how calm I was throughout it all and I give credit to the upbreathing technique!

Thank you to the positive birth company for what I was taught throughout the course which allowed me to have such a wonderful birthing experience! 😊