This was my 1st pregnancy and fortunately fantastic where my biggest issues were heartburn & sore feet! I had waited three years to fall pregnant naturally and loved being pregnant. I hoped to have a calm and positive birth so attended Jade Gordon’s course at Aberdeen HypnoBirthing when I was 24 weeks through my pregnancy and had been practising daily since. I also made good use of Milli Hill’s ‘The Positive Birth Book’ reading it several times so I knew what to expect and what my choices and rights were, regardless of the circumstances that arose during labour and birth.

I had my ‘show’ on the morning of Monday 25th September 2017, a week before my due date, but knowing that did not always mean birth was imminent, I continued with my plans for the week – attending aqua-natal yoga on Monday night, pregnancy yoga on Tuesday afternoon and then the NCT Bump Club event on Tuesday night. Heading to bed about midnight, I thought my bladder had leaked…. nope this was my waters breaking but not lots so I decided to get some rest. I woke at 3:30am, a bit hungry so got up and had some tea and toast, returned to bed then woke at 7:30am, now aware of my surges or contractions. I was determined to stay at home for as long as possible and found leaning over the birthing ball on my yoga mat the most comfortable place to be. I didn’t feel like eating & was glad I’d had listened to my hungry body in the middle of the night!

Two and a half hours later, my surges were regularly lasting over 1 minute and 5 minutes apart – time to phone Aberdeen Midwife Led Unit! When I called the midwife, Sophie, highlighted they were going on a break so could I hang off coming up for another half an hour? I felt this wasn’t a problem and continuing with my Hypnobirthing breathing techniques at home, my husband and I headed off to the hospital arriving just before 11am, having continued my breathing and listening to my Hypnobirthing Positive Affirmations during the car journey to keep me in the zone. We were met at the door by Sophie & passed on my Visual Birth Plan – a tool I used from ‘The Positive Birth Book’. We were taken through to our room and as the surges strengthened I found it best to be on my knees again, leaning on the end of the bed.

Sophie highlighted that she had a student midwife, Emily, in with her today and Emily had never witnessed a Hypnobirth before. Although I had ‘no students’ stated on my Birth Plan – at the time, it felt right to have both Sophie and Emily present so I agreed she could assist us too. As I hoped to use the birthing pool for pain relief, I was asked to be examined before entering – on doing so, Sophie had difficulty finding my cervix….I was already 8cm dilated! Wishing to maximise my oxytocin levels during labour, I provided battery-powered tealight candles and my Ipod & Speaker (so I could hear it over any running water!) playing the Hypnobirthing tracks and Emily went to set up the room with the Birthing Pool. Around 1pm, my husband and I entered the room with turtles decorating the walls, it felt serene and so relaxing the way it had been set up using the candles with the lights dimmed.

As I entered the water – I felt calm, I felt safe, I was here to meet my baby. As my surges came, my husband and Sophie encouraged me to breathe my baby down. Surrounded by water, when I felt cold my husband placed warm wet flannels on my body and when I got too hot he sprayed my face with my water spritzer and gave me a drink of cool water. I was in the zone and amazed how much pain relief water alone – in all its forms – could provide! I spent several hours in the pool and felt my baby moving down as I breathed down. Sophie showed me with a mirror – we could see the head and I didn’t have far to go! Unfortunately, after trying for another couple of hours – including time out of the pool in a few other positions, my baby was not moving further down as was stuck at an angle. We discussed that baby and myself were tiring and made the decision that an episiotomy was the best choice for us both. Now lying up on the bed, the doctor made a small incision.

On my next surge I breathed my baby down and out and Zack Douglas Henderson was born at 19:35 on Wednesday 27th of September, weighing 6lb 15oz. I spent the next few hours enjoying skin-to-skin contact with our new bundle of love! I had hoped to deliver the placenta naturally and after an hour to try, chose the injection so that the nurse could stitch me up. As the placenta came out, so did over a litre of my blood, which had been lying behind the placenta and I needed liquids to be intravenously replaced – this all happened with Zack lying on my chest. I did not care – my world and our family felt complete.

Too tired to latch onto the breast, Zack was initially syringe-fed my colostrum. We went through to the Ashgrove Ward about 1am and settled for the night. We continued to try and feed together but Zack had bruising and swelling on the back of his head from his angled position during labour and his little mouth found it difficult latching onto my large breasts. Keen to exclusively breastfeed, I highlighted to staff that I wished to stay in hospital until I was able to breastfeed my son and the midwives and doctors supported this. I was encouraged to hand-express my colostrum and the nurse would syringe-feed this to Zack. On the Thursday, a midwife helped me to get Zack latched on but he coughed up mucus at the same time as suckling and my breast had covered his nose so he struggled to breathe and turned a dusky colour – the midwife took him, patted his back and he returned to normal.

Zack struggled with his latch after that so I continued to use my expressed colostrum to syringe-feed then my expressed breastmilk to cup-feed Zack for two days. I persevered with trying to breastfeed and would buzz for help from the midwives when it was time to feed Zack. I used a little expressed milk from the cup to give Zack the energy to feed and then he started to feed from me whilst I lay on my side on the bed with his face to my breast – it was wonderful to see. I knew we could do it! For a couple of days we fed like this and as the swelling and bruising on Zack’s head improved, he was content to be held in other positions and we managed to successfully feed in the cradle hold. On our 5th day in hospital, Zack had fed for a full day off my breasts. I felt rested, after my blood loss, and felt confident that I would now be able to feed my son at home myself. We left the ward the following day, to start life together at home as a family! More than 6 months later – we are still exclusively breastfeeding together and it has been an amazing journey so far!

Thank you, Laura, for sharing your beautiful birth story!

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Jade x