Birth story - Thea and baby Roman

I was due on the 22nd January, after struggling with SPD (extreme pelvic girdle pain) which left me on crutches for the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy, I requested a sweep on the 25th which my midwife agreed to carry out for me. It was always my intent to let my body do what it wanted, when it wanted, and my baby be born when he was ready, not when I decided; but the sciatica in my right leg and SPD made this impossible and I found myself in tears with just the stairs at home, so it was time for baby to perhaps think about moving!

I was told the sweeps don’t always work and to expect some mild discomfort and bleeding on the morning of the 25th. All the pain stopped by the evening and so I went to bed as normal. Then suddenly, 9am the next day, something started happening, I was having small, inconsistent surges which sometimes were every 18 minutes, sometimes every 12 minutes and somewhere in between so I carried on the day. I mainly tried to nap and drink lots of raspberry tea and do yoga poses for my pelvis in the hope that this was things moving along slowly! By 9pm (12 hours later) my surges had increased to every 8 minutes and lasting 45 seconds. I called the birthing unit to let them know (I didn’t wish to go in but thought maybe I’d keep them in the loop) they told me to try and get some sleep and so I tried.

I watched tv and managed a 2 hour nap just after midnight. Even though the surges were getting stronger every hour I persevered until 4am when they were now 4 minutes apart and still approximately 45 seconds long. I was using the Freya app the entire time and I used up breathing and the breathing techniques from the positive birth company’s videos to get me through. I woke my husband up and we headed to the hospital.

When I arrived my husband was allowed to stay and I was examined, I was only 4cms dilated and was left a little deflated! I knew I had a way to go, I carried on my breathing techniques for the day and got in the birthing pool at around half 11, this melted away my surges and made me feel a lot comfier.

By 1pm I was about 8cms and started on the gas and air to give me some relief whilst still breathing through each surge with my husband feeding me jelly babies and water and putting Vaseline on my lips!! (These three items were absolute heaven at the time) it wasn’t too long before I was pushing and at 15:02pm on the 27th January, our little boy was born, he was happy healthy and I will forever be grateful for the hypnobirthing techniques I learnt and taught myself and I am proud of how well I did really! If I can do it, then anyone can 💚