Birth story - Yan and baby girl

Having read many birthing stories on this group since joining, I was keen to share my own experience once delivered. Little did I know, mine would end up being a bit like the movies!

During pregnancy, I was lucky enough to experience very like sickness or fatigue. I managed to stay active and workout at least 30 mins per day, ranging from yoga, light weights, running, walking and swimming until the day of delivery. In addition, I also aimed to do 10k steps and consumed raspberry tea.

On the day of my delivery at 4pm, I was doing my usual 30 min low impact workout. Within 10 minutes, I felt the urge to "poo" and as I experienced mild constipation during pregnancy, I assumed it was normal. I then carried on working out for an additional 10 minutes before wanting to poo again. This time I felt exhausted and decided to end my work out by resting in bed for a few minutes with my husband. At approx. 5pm, I started to cook dinner (air fried wings) and watch TV. Shortly after dinner, the same urge came back and this time I noticed my mucus plug in my knickers and told my husband 'oh, we will probably have our baby within the next 5-7 days as I have just had my bloody show."

Around another 15 minutes later, these "urges to poo" were becoming "stronger" and I am now convinced that these were actually "surges".

Approx. 6:15pm, I turned on my Freya app, asked my husband to get my tens machine and call the hospital. During the call, I advised them of where my "surges" were happening and if this could be "contractions" and told them that I was doing hypnobirthing. The hospital said, "contractions' can be anywhere and told me to stay home and monitor it as this is my first baby it could take some time!

It was now around 7:15pm and with every surge I now felt the need to "push", started "mooing" and surges were every minute lasting over a minute. I told my husband to call the hospital again and they advised me to come in to be checked in triage.

We quickly jumped into the car with all our pre-packed hospital bags, I went into the back car seat and went on all fours/facing the back of the car whilst the surges continued. The surges continued to increase and my urge to "push" was now uncontrollable. The hospital drive time is 25 minutes, according to Sat Nav, we were still 8 minutes away. During the drive during one of my surges, I said to my husband, “I can now feel the baby's head (ring of fire) baby is coming!” By the next surge I felt a gush of warm water down my pants and what felt like big ball. It was my baby! My baby girl had arrived in the car and I heard a crying noise (which was a relief).

Quickly, my husband pulled over on the side of the road and came to the back of the car to pick up our baby and handed her to me. My initial instinct was to stay calm, give her skin to skin and call the hospital ASAP.

The hospital advised us to come straight to main entrance where there would be midwifes waiting for us. Upon arrival, I was wheeled straight to a delivery room, I cut my baby's cord and was offered an injection to deliver my placenta, which I rejected twice. During this time, I was able to continue with skin to skin (golden hour) with my baby and delivered the placenta naturally. I had a second-degree tear.

All was done without any pain killers, just up breathing and tens machine.

Our bodies truly are amazing, I highly recommend hypnobirthing as it helps you to trust that your baby and body knows exactly what to do when the time is right.