When a baby is born so are two parents, welcome to the world Ada.... I love this birth story and hope you do too. It’s a brilliant example of how hypnobirthing is for any kind of birth, it’s not all about home, water or drug free.
Here it is in Emily’s own words: “Firstly a huge thank you to you for everything - the knowledge and background you gave both of us around labour and birth was truly invaluable and I felt so much more confident about it all knowing that MY choices were paramount, and not just to be swept along in the system because of various protocols.
So our lovely Ada Jane was born on 1st October which was technically 41 weeks + 5 days. I went to the 40 week appointment knowing they would probably push for a sweep, but the midwife was actually very relaxed and I was keen to let things happen naturally so declined it (after learning that was totally within my right!). As you know we also thought the due date was 5 days too early anyway, but they booked us in to the hospital on the 1st Oct to talk about an induction, even though I had made it clear I wasn't planning on going down that route. Anyway, she arrived that day, so obviously had her own plans!
It was all very quick in the end. Got my first contraction at 7am Tues morning, thought I'd have a load of time at home to relax, have a bath, chill out a bit as we had planned for early labour, but by 9.30am they were 3 contractions in 5 mins. I kept thinking Holt had got the timings wrong, but they ramped up really quickly! So we headed into the hospital with the trusty TENS machine which took the edge off a bit, but it wasn't that fun having multiple contractions in the car/car park/walk to the entrance/lift/reception area!
They took me straight through to the assessment room, and checked my cervix - I made it clear to them I didn't want to know the specific number of centimetres so she did it and then basically said they wouldn't be able to admit me, even though by that point I was contracting REALLY close together and was sick a couple of times. Went really primal and stripped off my bottom half and for every surge just was getting down on the floor as low as possible on my hands and knees - I had most of the pain in my lower back interestingly and the pain was actually worse than I was expecting, but I think that was a lot to do with them increasing SO rapidly, so my body didn't have a chance to get used to them!
Not going to lie, got a bit stressed when they said they were thinking of sending me home at that point as the surges were way worse than I was thinking they were going to be, but again Ada Jane had her own plans and at that point my waters broke and there was meconium in the waters (fun fact, I thought it would be 'tinged with green' like the books said. No no, dark green sludgey stuff...so gross) so they had to start monitoring me. so transferred me up to the labour ward with some gas and air.
Then the contractions basically started to come constantly, 1 min long, 15 secs rest. Turns out I went from 2cm to 6cm in 1hr and 45 mins, so ended up asking for an epidural but it didn't work. That was probably the hardest bit mentally, as I was expecting the pain to go and it didn't - they were all saying 'you should just feel pressure and I'm going NOPE IT'S ALMOST CONSTANT PAIN' so the woman came back and it turned out it hadn't gone in properly so they redid it. Put a load more drugs in then turned out it was also unplugged at my shoulder SO took quite a few hours to get sorted which was brutal as no break between the contractions. I was aware enough of when I was beginning to panic and would tell Holt who did an amazing job of talking me back round and trying to relax me.
Once the epidural was in and working, the rest of the birth was amazing. Holt and I were cuddled up in bed, the lights were low, there was just one midwife in the room and we had our playlist playing. I had a break to recover and when I was fully dilated got into all fours leaning over the back of the bed and pushed her out in 4 contractions!! She arrived at 8.52pm, weighed 7lbs 3 and came out very chilled and relaxed. I lifted her up between my legs and cuddled her straight away and we relaxed together while we waited for the cord to stop pulsing. The midwives were amazing and we talked through my birth preferences up front and they were really on board. I had a secondary tear so a few stitches but could be far worse! The birth was such a great experience that I even got some photos!!
I think it was the fundamentals that really helped me - calling it birth preferences rather than a plan, knowing all the options and knowing what was necessary vs protocol, knowing I could influence my environment even when it wasn't the water birth/home from home suit etc.
So THANK YOU, we (but especially me!) are incredibly grateful.”
Want to know more about what Emily & Holt learned on my course? Tap the contact me button.. and I still have one space left on this weekends course, which you can book directly on the courses page ..... could this be your story?
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