I think I was probably one of the first mums in the area to be offered induction under the new guidelines at 40 weeks +7 days rather than the previous 40 weeks +12, and had it not been for my hypnobirthing sessions with Jade informing me of the pros and cons of induction as well as the fact that I had a choice in the matter, I absolutely would have been induced on what turned out to be baby’s birthing day.

My waters broke around 10am very undramatically and I felt nothing other than mild menstrual cramps for the first few hours. I had a shower and went about my day as usual, very relaxed and super excited I was going to meet my baby soon!

My husband came home from work around 1.30pm to say hello more than anything else as we felt things were moving reasonably slowly (it was also his birthday so he was particularly delighted at the prospect of sharing this with his son / daughter). Thankfully he did appear as things escalated rather quickly thereon in. Very suddenly I started feeling intense surges every few minutes. I was always planning to stay home as long as possible especially since we live so close to the hospital so I suggested running a bath and listening to affirmations. The surges were however rapidly becoming more frequent and increasing in intensity so before the bath was even half full my mum (strongly) suggested we head to the hospital. In retrospect I wish I had put on rainbow relaxation and affirmations at the first signs of surges rather than trying to keep them for when things ramped up as I feel we got a little caught out by just how fast everything happened. I feel I could have benefited more from listening to them through the early hours to get me into the mindset and perhaps help to be a little more relaxed than I was at this stage. 

The journey to the hospital has to be the longest 10 minutes of my life and basically consisted of me on all fours in the back of the car twisted through the seatbelt insisting that despite the fact I had planned as natural a birth as possible, I was going to have an epidural. I still can’t quite fathom how mums-to-be coming from further afield manage to sit safely in a car for the entire journey to hospital!

We arrived at the midwife unit around 3pm and upon examination I was 5cm dilated. I decided that I needed to be entirely naked for some reason?! and received gas and air which helped focus my breathing. We tried some light touch massage which I found enjoyable during pregnancy but not so much in labour. I found myself comfiest on all fours using the back of the bed for support through surges but we were finding it tricky to detect the heartbeat in this position so I moved to my back which I didn’t like at all but obviously wouldn’t protest for safety’s sake. I used some of the breathing and visualisation techniques we’d learned during our sessions although I did find it difficult to relax and stop myself from being so rigid with the surges now coming thick and fast.

I began to feel pressure and felt ready to breathe the baby down but our midwife advised that I wasn’t ready and (much to my shock) she wouldn’t do another exam for around 4 hours! Baby’s heart-rate then started to drop after each surge and upon further examination I had in fact progressed to 10cm. I tried to breathe the baby down but I wasn’t doing this very effectively and between the drop in baby’s heart-rate and signs of meconium in the fluids, we were whisked through to the labour ward where our little baby boy was born via ventouse at 6pm.

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.

He was quickly taken away to receive oxygen but brought back equally speedy to snuggle in for his first feed. I delivered the placenta following the injection, not part of my birthing plan but since the cord had already been clamped and baby was safely here it wasn’t top of the agenda. We both got to enjoy lots of lovely skin to skin, mesmerised by our little bundle of perfection.

Completing the hypnobirthing course with Jade really helped us both to keep (reasonably) calm throughout the whole experience and I felt in control of what was happening even when the doctors had to get involved. Jade not only introduced us to hypnobirthing but gave us quite an education in childbirth in general and we were actually amazed how uninformed we were previously considering what we were about to go through! I was always a bit apprehensive about giving birth but Jade really got me feeling excited after every session and answered all of our questions no matter how obvious or obscure they might be.

After our speedy labour I would definitely consider a home birth if we were lucky enough to have another baby and I would certainly do a refresher in hypnobirthing to hopefully make better use of the techniques second time round. There is a part of me that can’t help but wonder if I had listened to my body and trusted baby was ready to be birthed when I first thought, that we could have birthed unaided, but it’s all too easy to question yourself being a first time mum high on gas and air and in the hands of the professionals.

I can’t thank Jade enough and of course the midwives at ARI they were all truly amazing and helped us to have the natural positive birth that we had planned and hoped for.

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