This week’s birth story comes from a lovely couple Michelle and Patrick who attended a TCBS Hypnobirthing course with Liz Stanford the owner of The Calm Birth School.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful story with is!

 

“Pregnant with my third child after having fertility treatment (following secondary infertility, my other 2 children were conceived naturally). I wanted to feel prepared for the birth, as much of our journey had been about getting and staying pregnant. I also had a lot more anxiety with this pregnancy. With my other 2 children I hadn’t done any hypnobirthing or even antenatal birthing classes. I had recognised that the positive difference in my experiences when having fertility treatment was when my mind was in a calmer state and my body more relaxed so following a recommendation to try hypnobirthing it felt like a perfect way to manage and relieve my anxiety for birthing my most awaited baby.

Throughout my pregnancy my baby boy had been measuring off the centile range and as they expected him to be a big baby had booked me in to be induced at 40 weeks. I had been induced before with my first baby so knew what to expect but was hoping that I would go into labour naturally. Following a sweep, reflexology appointment and lots of home remedies to try to help kick start labour the day arrived and we went to the hospital at 8 am on Saturday morning to be induced. It was particularly busy day on the ward and as a result we were told that they wouldn’t be able to start me on any form of induction until after lunchtime. We decided to go home for a bit and spend some time with our children and watch the rugby World Cup final – silver lining for my husband!

Arriving back to hospital at lunchtime I was examined ready for induction at which point I was told that I had already started myself and was 3 cm. We were so pleased!

We left the ward and went for a walk, found quieter staircases in the hospital for lots of crab walking up the stairs to try and help move things along. After going for some dinner, we went back onto the ward and where I started to feel some tightening which we started to time on our app and used the birthing ball. We played dominoes to pass the time and drank lots of water. At 10 pm I decided to try to get some sleep, as I lay on the bed and closed my eyes, I heard a ‘pop’ sound and weird sensation which made me jump off the bed and ask my husband to get the midwife. The feeling and sound was so unexpected and strange that I had my first panic, it took a while to locate the midwife. I had a full wobble at this point and realised I was shaking.

I calmed myself down by listening to my affirmations, my friend and hypnobirthing teacher had been texting me reminding me if I was calm, baby would be calm. Focusing on all this I managed to get myself back on track! The midwife listened in to the baby and all was fine, explaining that it was my waters that had gone. There was no gush of water but a slow trickle and as I had been slowly bleeding all day (following the sweep) I hadn’t realised it was my waters.

After this, things got moving, we were moved down to the labour ward and I was checked again where I was told I was 8 cm and given gas and air. I was unable to have a water birth room but accepted this immediately, reconnecting with my affirmations about accepting any changes to my birth preferences. My husband took control of the room, lowered the lights, put our music on, pictures of the children out and took his position of rubbing my back. We worked as a team throughout the night, he regularly reminded me to change positions, got me plenty to drink and kept my energy up with the occasional jelly baby!  The midwife left us to manage our space and commented on how calm she found the room. I breathed through my surges until morning.

By 8.30 am on Sunday morning I had twice attempted to push baby out following strong urges to push and the midwife had expected me to have delivered by now as each time I had pushed for a considerable amount of time, she therefore asked for the doctor to review where we were at. The doctor came in and scanned me to tell me that the baby was back to back and this is why I hadn’t yet delivered (also explaining why I had so much relief from my husband massaging my back). As I was tired my surges were getting weaker, they advised me to go on a drip. The room changed quite a bit at this point, feeling tired and losing control of our space I got a little emotional. My husband talked me back out of this, reassuring me that our baby was fine and how close we were to meeting him. I was out on the drip to increase the frequency of my surges and accepted this.

Feeling more positive I worked with the midwives and doctors. I could feel my baby trying to turn position as he came down the birth path. As his head started to appear the doctor got ready to do an episiotomy to assist me, she also prepared us for a ventouse assisted delivery if I didn’t deliver within the next few surges. With lots of encouragement from my husband I managed to birth our baby, he arrived at 10.20 am with no episiotomy or assisted delivery (the doctor had attempted to use the suction cap, but it fell off). I felt so proud of my body and of how we had worked together as a team for the safe arrival of our beautiful baby boy.

This birth was so different to my previous ones, I am so grateful that I did hypnobirthing and used all of the techniques for a positive birth for such a special baby. The role my husband took on was completely different, he felt that he had a role, purpose and talked about feeling hypnotic throughout the night himself. We were both so pleased that we invested the time in preparing for this birth. It didn’t all go to plan, but I am so proud of us and can only see positives in my birth story which I am delighted to share with others.

Wishing everyone a positive, happy and calm experience”.

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