This week’s birth story comes from the gorgeous couple who attended a TCBS Hypnobirthing Course with Laura Clarke of The Birth Cloud covering Solihull, West Midlands, UK.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful birth story of your gorgeous Luca!
Luca was born on the 17th November, 1 week ahead of his due date, after 46 hours of labour. Thanks to Laura the whole experience was really positive, despite nothing went according to our plan.
I started having my first contractions on Tuesday morning that felt like a dull period pain. I didn’t think much of it, since it was my first pregnancy and everyone told me I’m more than likely go over my due date. The pain kept coming in waves and a few hours later I decided to call my community midwife for advice, who told me I’m most likely in the early stages of labour. My husband came home from work, we’ve set up our living room to make it more cosy and help that oxytocin flowing.
By the evening my contractions were pretty constant and after phoning the birth centre, we went to get checked, hoping that baby boy will arrive soon. When they examined me, I was only 2 cm. After what we’ve learnt from Laura, I knew I had to stay positive, and things can progress quite quickly. I went home, took a Paracetamol, hoping it will help me sleep, but it didn’t. Wednesday was pretty much the same with the pain intensifying. My husband hugged me and applied pressure to my lower back every time I had a contraction and tried to keep me relaxed.
After I had a bath to try to ease the pain, we phoned the birth centre again who advised us to go in.
I told my husband on the way that we will only leave the hospital with the baby in the car seat. They examined me again and I was only 3 cm dilated 24 hours after the first check. It was disappointing, but despite I wanted an unmedicated pool birth, I asked for pain killers to help me rest and hoping to progress the labour. After giving us a few options and time to decide which one we think would be the best, I went with Pethidine and they took me to the induction ward to keep me monitored while the medication was working.
As I couldn’t eat or drink from the pain all day, by this time I was really dehydrated, so the nurses tried to help me to avoid being on IV and lose out on my chance for a pool birth in the birth centre. Unfortunately, my husband had to leave an hour after I got the painkiller, so for the rest of the time on the ward I had to try to sleep and press my lower back myself every time I had a contraction. I was in a lot of pain, but once the 4 hours was up, I was suddenly 9.5 cms. They wheeled me to the labour ward as I had to be put on IV in the end and my husband came back to be by my side.
Our midwife was brilliant, she read our birth plan straight away, asked a few questions to clarify she understood everything correctly and offered me gas and air as that was the only option on my plan, I was considering to help me through labour, but after a few puffs it made me pretty sick.
By this time, I was pretty exhausted and even though I knew I should keep moving around to help with the labour, I only had energy to lie down on my back which wasn’t optimal.
Since my water didn’t break and it was already 5 am on Thursday, they asked if I would reconsider my preference and have them break my water. They told me all the pros and cons which thanks to Laura we were already familiar with, so it helped us make a quicker decision. They broke my water at 05:45 am but still nothing was happening for over half an hour.
At this point the midwife asked me to go to the toilet as my bladder was partially blocking the birth canal. As soon as I stood up from the bed and got to the bathroom I hit transition, which was the worst pain I felt throughout my entire labour.
When I managed to get out, I wanted to lie down again, but the midwife didn’t let me and advised to kneel up on the bed and rest on the headboard so gravity can do its work and help me to start pushing and have a natural delivery, just like my next option on my birth plan.
Once I felt the urge to push, I lost track of time, but after about 15 minutes of pushing baby boy arrived at 06:51 am, perfect and healthy, and started breastfeeding as soon as they put him on my chest for skin to skin.
We have so much to thank Laura for. She prepared us for every scenario, answered all our questions and gave us confidence to make the best decision we can if we ever need to.
My birth didn’t go according to my plans and hopes, but I wouldn’t do anything differently. Maybe I would force myself to move around more and cut it shorter. But I’m really happy with my birth experience, and I’m super grateful for all the support from Laura, the midwifes, the hospital staff and most importantly my Husband. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him by my side.
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