My Mum and sisters had thrown me a lovely surprise baby shower in the day, so by the evening I was really looking forward to a good nights sleep... 4 years later and I still haven't had that good night's sleep!
My waters broke when I was in bed at around 1am and I had my first surge very quickly after. I wasn't really sure if it was my waters at first, until they kept coming with every surge. They were coming quite regularly, lasting about a minute, and 5 minutes apart. Two hours later they were 3 minutes apart, so we called the hospital for advice and they suggested that we came in. I was comfortable at home, using the birth ball and tens machine, but took the hospitals advice and went in. We had an examination and was only 1cm dilated so returned home.. When we got home we decided to focus on how I feel instead of worrying about the timings of the surges. I got in the bath, we turned off all the lights, was listening to our birthing playlist of music, and I focused on my up breathing and just tried to let everything go. I was in the bath for about 2 hours before my partner suggested we went back to the hospital, I really didn’t want to get turned away again and wanted to stay home for as long as possible but the surges were becoming more intense. I was comfortable in the bath, I was in my own little bubble, and really didn’t want to get in the car. But we did, and I used the TENs machine again, but this time it wasn’t really making much of a difference. On the way to hospital I was worried that they were going to say that were only a few cm, and if so I was ready to accept anything that they offered me! The car journey was definitely the worst part, I did not enjoy sitting down, well I was hovering, I couldn’t rest on the seat as it was too uncomfortable. When we got to hospital the midwife didn’t take us seriously at first, and asked to do another examination. After laying on my back, which was so uncomfortable, the midwife said she didn’t need to do an examination she could see I was fully dilated, which was a massive relief, I knew I wasn’t far from meeting our baby.
We were in the mid-wife led unit attached to Southend hospital, and were lucky enough to be in the room with the birthing pool, so was in as soon as it was deep and warm enough. I was so relieved to be back in water again, that was where I was most comfortable. I could switch off from everything else going on around me and go back into my own little bubble. After a while I reached down and could feel the top of the baby’s head, and could feel that he/she had hair. The midwives asked for me to get out of the pool so they could examine me, and after that I didn’t want to go back in again. There was a mattress on the floor, which is where we gave birth at 7:56am. We used gas and air for the final stages, but now I do regret that a little. I don’t feel that it made much of a difference, other than making my memories a bit hazy. His head came out first, and after a couple of surges he was born. My husband told me that we had a baby boy and cut his cord. Whilst we were having cuddles on the mattress with our new son, the surges continued, and after about 15 minutes the placenta was birthed. We were really lucky and were able to stay in the same room for quite some time, just my husband, my son and I, with the midwives popping in every now and then. The midwives suggested that we may be discharged that afternoon and we couldn’t wait to take our son home. Our son had tongue-tie so feeding was challenging initially, and the midwives were really supportive. They were able to arrange an appointment for it to be cut the very next day as they were aware of a clinic running in the hospital, and booked us in. Due to jaundice we ended up staying in hospital for 5 days. At times it was really challenging, and we just wanted to be home, but the midwives were really amazing. I was petrified of birth, and whether or not I was ready to give birth was a factor in deciding whether we were ready for children…. but by the time we were full term I was excited to give birth, and felt confident that we had tools to use to help us, these definitely helped when I was in the bath at home. I enjoyed being in my own bubble in the bath and didn’t want to leave. Next time I would definitely consider a home birth!
The coping tools and techniques that I had learnt through hypnobirthing definitely got me through those 3 hours after being sent home, and I don't know how things would have progressed without them, or what I would have done without them!
If you'd like to learn more about coping tools and techniques for birth have a look at what's included on my one-day small group Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Course.
