Thank you Rachel for sharing your wonderful birth story with us:)
“Hi all, on 7 June I had a baby boy called Archie. I may have rose tinted glasses but I enjoyed the labour thanks I think to all the hypnobirthing prep -thank you Suzy!
Surges started at 3am but I was able to keep sleeping on and off through them (which I hadn’t thought would be possible). I asked my partner to stay home from work and we had a lovely morning together walking in the park and hanging out at the house writing out some of the affirmations. I had my second sweep booked for that day (I was 41+2) and was advised to keep the appointment.
The midwife said I was more than likely in labour and her one piece of advice was don’t go to hospital too early – she said stay at home for two hours at 3 contractions in ten minutes which was far longer than others had said. She said first time mums often get sent home for not being far along enough and I needed to avoid that. With that in mind we went home.
Surges started getting really strong around 6/7 pm. Instead of keeping ‘active’ all I wanted to do was lie on sofa so I lay there doing the breathing with dusk gathering in the quiet and my partner held my hand. It was very trippy and time kind of vanished. I’d forget where I was until a surge brought me back. After a few hours my partner suggested we go to hospital and at that point I realised I’d started bleeding.
We went to hospital and they told me I was already 7cm dilated so good we didn’t leave it much longer! We couldn’t go to midwife led suite because the baby was distressed and his heart rate was falling and not recovering. They started talking about an emergency c section (which I was apparently quite keen on by that point!), and I thought of Suzy’s voice – I calmly meet whatever turns my birthing takes. But when they went to check on the baby he was almost out!
I did need to be cut and a little use of ventouse at the end but I like to think I mostly breathed him out:). Archie was born 1.5 hours after arriving at hospital. I felt excited rather than scared when labour started and calm throughout and I can’t thank the Calm Birth School enough, it was an incredible experience. Rachel xx”
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