I was excited but calm and so happy I trusted our decisions and my body!

 

My waters broke on Monday 1st March at 39 weeks +1 which I was so relieved about as I had horrible back pain and was getting impatient.  I had been drinking raspberry leaf tea, eating dates, expressing, bouncing on an exercise ball and spending time on all 4's to try encourage labour to start. 

 

We went into hospital and whilst they were monitoring me, the baby's heart rate became high and they began preparing me for a caesarean section.  Just as I was about to be wheeled into theatre baby's heart rate went back to normal and the decision was made to continue monitoring me.  I was on the CTG machine for around 7 hours while they were getting the right reading on our baby's heart.  During this time I was having mild surges and wasn't able to move freely due to the CTG machine.  Before we were able to go home a doctor told us that I would be induced the following morning.  It wasn't explained to me that I would have a choice if I wanted to go ahead with an induction or not.  The doctor said that there may be a risk of infection because of my waters breaking and that was the reason I was booked in for an induction. 

 

We went home and I was overwhelmed, tired and scared. Being induced was something I really didn't want to do.  I rang the hospital first thing in the morning and spoke with a midwife. I told them I did not want to be induced and they let me know that I didn't have to go ahead with it if I did not want to.  We then went to the hospital as planned. I spent time with a midwife who gave me information on the risk of infection, which was very low as I had agreed to take antibiotics.  The midwife also gave me information on the hospital policy that recommends an induction when membranes are ruptured and you haven't started active labour within around 24 hours.  The midwives were so supportive and told me that they would support any decision I made.  After some time Jason and I decided that I would not go ahead with an induction and would wait until my labour progressed naturally. 

 

We then met with the doctors to let them know we did not want to go ahead with the induction. There were 5 doctors and 2 nurses that met with us. I was tired and overwhelmed. It was a very hard discussion and I felt the doctors did not support our decision but after making the decision to not go ahead with the induction I felt SO much better and more relaxed. 

 

After some more monitoring at hospital, we went home. I spent the afternoon walking around the backyard, listening to relaxing music over the exercise ball, smelling clary sage oil and using the tens machine on my back. Jason was massaging and putting pressure on my lower back as I experienced each surge. 

 

It hit early evening and I felt like I couldn't continue with the surges at home and wanted pain relief, they were intense lasting about a minute and a half but only occurring every 5 minutes or so. Therefore, we didn't think I had progressed that far. We then went into hospital. 

 

I got into the hospital and went into the birthing suite, it was dark and calm.  The midwives were using hypnobirthing language as per my birthing preferences. I then felt the urge to push so they checked how dilated I was. I happened to be fully dilated and Jason was even able to see our baby's head.  This changed my mind frame and I relaxed into labour. I was excited but calm and so happy I trusted our decisions and my body!  I spent the next 2 to 3 hours over the exercise ball, listening to relaxing music and bearing down when I felt the urge too. I was surprised when Jason let me know it was 2 to 3 hours as it felt much shorter.  I kept telling myself to relax my jaw and the rest of my body, to go floppy. I also took myself to the ocean in my mind, like the Surge of the Sea hypnobirthing track.   It was the most incredible experience. Between pushing, I was able to rest. I felt so calm and positive and did not feel much 'pain' at all. 

 

Baby Milana was born at 12.03am on the 3rd March healthy and well.  We had several hours of skin to skin and I felt so high on adrenalin and energised. That feeling and energy lasted weeks! 

 

I am so grateful we did the hypnobirthing course, it helped us both to get on the same page as to what we wanted from our birth and how we wanted to bring our baby into the world.  It really gave us the best start to our parenting journey together. 

 

Thank you so much for your birthing program. 

 

Lauren X