Birth story - Tayo and baby Jonah

I will always be grateful for the experience of my first pregnancy. We got pregnant straight away and had a straightforward pregnancy with no complications. Other than a few weeks of nausea and fatigue at the beginning, I felt great. I prepped for the birth by reading the PBC Hypnobirthing book and sticking positive affirmations all around the house - I think my husband thought I was losing the plot!

I woke up early on the morning of Sunday 19 February with tightenings. These felt different to the Braxton Hicks I had been experiencing during my third trimester. I stayed in bed and tried to rest but eventually got up at about 5am and sat on my ball whilst watching Our Planet – I have always found David Attenborough’s voice to be relaxing!

The tightenings were becoming more frequent (every 5-10 mins) but they were very manageable. By about 8am they had fizzled out completely so I had a shower, got dressed and went about the day as normal trying not to think about it. My husband and I went for a long walk and had a hearty dinner that evening. We went to sleep at about 10:30pm. I got to sleep almost straight away but something told me things were going to kick off that night…

At about 11pm I woke up with a contraction and felt a trickle of liquid. I knew my waters had gone and called triage right away. They asked me to come in to be checked so we got dressed and got in the car to go to hospital. I knew it was likely they would send me home at this point as I wasn’t yet in established labour (though my contractions were starting to ramp up), but we brought my hospital bag with us just in case. When I arrived, the midwife checked me over and confirmed that my waters had broken. She said I seemed relaxed and in control and that unless I had any concerns, that she recommended I go home and wait for established labour to start. I agreed – although the contractions were becoming more intense, I was working through each one with my up breathing and wanted to stay at home for as long as possible as that’s where I felt most relaxed.

We went home and I tried to rest as much as possible in bed and get some sleep between contractions. By around 4am, the Freya app was saying that I was in established labour. I called triage again and we agreed that I would stay at home and call back again in an hour as I was still managing well using my up breathing. After an hour, the contractions had really ramped up so we set off for hospital (with me lying across the back seat as I could no longer sit with the frequency of the contractions).

We got to hospital at around 6:30am. I had my first (and only) internal examination shortly after arriving and was told I was 7cm dilated. The contractions were now pretty relentless so I got my husband to hook me up to my TENS machine. It didn’t really do anything to ‘help’ the contractions but it did give me another sensation to focus on whilst the contractions were at their peak. The midwives started filling the birthing pool but told me that the baby could arrive before the pool was ready for me to get in…

I had no sense of time whilst in that room. I remember my husband giving me sips of coconut water and asking if I wanted my playlist on (I really didn’t care about music when it came down to it!) and before I knew it, I felt a change. I got into the birthing pool which was still fairly shallow but deep enough for me to lay on my side, which is what I wanted to do instinctively. I could feel lots of pressure in my bum and I could feel the baby moving much lower down than I was used to. My body was pushing automatically. I just trusted it and went with it, now using my down breathing. Before I knew it, my husband was telling the midwife that he thought he could see the baby’s head… and shortly after that, our perfect son, Jonah, was born at 9:58am on Monday 20 February weighing 7lbs 10oz / 3.44kg.

I won’t attempt to put the feeling into words, but it was one I’ll never forget. Shortly after delivering Jonah, I got out of the birthing pool. I had the Syntocin injection to speed up the delivery of the placenta (which took longer to come out than the baby!) and had quite extensive stitching for a second degree tear, although I didn’t feel the tear happen at the time.

I am so grateful to the PBC (and Beth Kitt of The Bump to Baby Chapter) for helping me to have exactly the birth I wanted and also to feel prepared for all eventualities and empowered. Finally my husband was the most wonderful birthing partner and helped me to feel safe and in control all the way through. I wish more women knew about hypnobirthing and PBC is so great for helping this information to become more accessible ❤️