Lily’s birth was the most empowering, transformative and amazing experience

After a very long posterior (34 hours) and traumatic first birth with my first born, I was adamant to get the water birth I dreamed of and I have hypnobirthing and my amazing support team to thank for it.

 

So here’s how my birth story went... I woke up on my due date feeling perfectly fine. It wasn’t till about 11:00am that I noticed some super mild period pain twinges. I ignored them and went about my day. By about 12:00pm midday they started feeling more crampy (still mild but slightly more painful) and I decided to time them. They were consistently coming and going every 3-5 mins and lasting 30-50 seconds. It was then I realised I might be in early labour.

 

By about 2:00pm I was having to breathe through my surges as they had picked up in intensity. I was most comfortable bending over the birth ball with the tens machine on. I had calming background music on, affirmations printed and scattered around me, special photos of my son put up next to me, my diffuser was on with clary sage, and the room was nice and dark with only candlelight and my salt lamp.

 

I had my husband with me giving me sips of coconut water and encouraging me, and my cousin who is a midwife who was doing lots of counter pressure on my back and hips during my surges. She also filmed most of the birth (which I am so thankful for) and she repeated affirmations to me the entire labour. The environment and my support team played a huge role in my ability to stay calm and in control. I laboured like this with consistent and pretty intense surges coming every few minutes until 3:30pm when I thought I’d use the bathroom. Standing up and then squatting intensified my surges ten fold! It was then I decided we better head to hospital. As soon as I stepped into the garage I suddenly had the urge to push. This part was not fun. I spent the whole car ride involuntarily pushing but at the same time trying to hold it because I was terrified of delivering on the side of the road. Luckily we made it to the hospital in record time.

 

We arrived at 4:00pm, I crawled out of the car, waters broke as soon as I stepped into emergency. The midwives literally sprinted wheeling me up to the birth suite. The whole time I was pushing on the wheelchair and a couple of times had to jump off because I thought she was going to come out! When I got in birth suite I had a couple of intense pushing surges where for the first time I said “I can’t do this”. Adrenalin had taken over at this point but one of the midwives grabbed me and really grounded me telling me to come back to my breath. I did and then before I knew it the midwives said the bath was ready and I could jump in!

 

I had 2 surges in the bath and then could feel her head come out. It was by far the best feeling of the entire labour. On the next surge, I pushed and the rest of her body slipped out. I pulled her up onto my chest and was overcome with joy I DID IT! She was born just 13 minutes after arriving at the hospital! In total an active labour of just over 2 hours.

 

Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay in the water for very long because it just so happened that the umbilical cord was very short and it snapped in half as I pulled her out. The bath quickly filled with blood so I hopped out pretty much straight away and they clamped both ends of the cord. I had a few minutes of skin to skin in the bed with Lily but because they weren’t sure how much blood was actually lost, the decision was made to monitor her in special care as there was a chance she may have been anemic and needed a blood transfusion. Thankfully she didn’t and she was perfectly fine.

 

Although there were a few twists and turns that I certainly didn’t anticipate, I can still say that Lily’s birth was the most empowering, transformative and amazing experience. Hypnobirthing helped me to remain calm, confident and in control.

I hope this story helps those of you who are yet to give birth the confidence that you can do it! Xxxx