Our incredible births story today comes from Fiona Summers who spent 5 days in labour before welcoming baby Martha into the world.
“Nearly 3 months on and I’m finally putting pen to paper (so to speak) to share my birth story… It’s a long one!! My official “guess date” was 24th July but I was utterly convinced I would go over my due date. I had even practiced in my head on numerous occasions how I would politely decline an induction and gave myself a new guess date of 6th August! So when my surges started a week early it all came as a bit of a surprise!!
They started on the Monday whilst I was still at work (I planned to be there up until my due date!!). The surges were manageable so I breathed through them and worked the rest of the day knowing it would be my last for quite some time!! The surges became more intense but weren’t regular, so I stayed at home (baked the baby’s birthday cake, went for walks and had lots of baths) until Wednesday evening! At which point I wanted to go into hospital to check progress even though my instinct told me it wasn’t time, I wanted some reassurance.
The midwives at the hospital were great and after an examination told me that I was only one centimeter. Even though that’s what I expected them to say I was disappointed as it had been two days already and I’d barely slept! Whilst I was there my waters broke in the corridor with a massive gush (just like you see in the movies!!). The midwives gave me a bed in the birth center and told me to sleep. The following morning I had another examination and was still only one centimeter!!! I was devastated when they sent me home but that’s when my Calm Birth School breathing and affirmations really kicked in.
I got home and spent pretty much all day in the bath listening to the MP3s and breathing. By 4pm my surges were coming regularly so we went off to the hospital again. I was delighted when they told me I was 4cm, even more so when they handed me the gas and air!! We settled in to the most amazing room in the birth center overlooking Westminster and Big Ben. The midwife gave me an aromatherapy massage. I was silent during my contractions and completely calm and in control. At 8cm I got in the pool, it was all going so brilliantly, I had made it, I was about to have the “perfect birth”.
Then suddenly after I had been pushing for over an hour everything stopped. The next hour or so is a bit of a blur but the Dr came to see me and told me that as my waters had been gone for such a long time they needed to hurry things along and would need to induce me and I agreed. They offered me some pain relief (my BRAIN had gone completely out of the window by this point and in my mind they were going to hand me a couple of nurofen!!) luckily my sister’s BRAIN was still intact and asked what they meant and they said an epidural. I had come so far and could see the end in sight that I declined. The induction drip kicked in and my surges came thick and fast, again I pushed but it wasn’t happening quickly enough so I agreed to a ventouse delivery to help the baby out.
Martha Susie Summers was finally born on Friday 24th July after nearly 5 days of labour!! It didn’t happen quite how I hoped it would and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done (mostly due to such a long latent stage and lack of sleep) but thanks to the calm birth school and the techniques I learned I was calm and in control throughout. Since then I’ve been having the time of my life with my calm and happy baby!! Thank you Suzy Ashworth and Hollie E de Cruz!!!!”
To see how you can create your own calm birth please sign up here: www.thecalmbirthschool.com/freehypnobirthing-2016
