It took me a while to share my birth story publicly, perhaps because I have felt sometimes that people might not take me seriously as a Hypnobirthing teacher because I didn’t have the dreamy waterbirth at home that we often see when we hear about Hypnobirthing, I worried that people wouldn’t trust in me… but I know that my experience was one of so many people, and most importantly, it was an empowering one, and I put that all down to the birth prep I did.
It was my birth experience that gave me even more confidence & faith in Hypnobirthing and the importance of birth preparation; and what made me what to shout about it to anyone who’d listen. It showed me that birth didn’t have to be feared, and taught me to trust in my own strength. Something every woman deserves.
I was in latent labour for a longgg time, there was a lot of “is it happening. is it not?” moments, and we went from thinking she was coming early to her actually arriving 15days “overdue”. I had been in for monitoring a couple of times towards the end of pregnancy just due to some changes in her movements, every time I was offered an induction and every time I chose to turn it down. In the end, my husband & I made the informed decision to book an induction for 42 weeks, hoping/believing I’d go into labour naturally by then. And I did!!
I rang the antenatal ward to let them know I was in labour & asked whether I still needed to come in (something I’d change in hindsight), they said I should and so we headed over to the hospital, filled with excitement that next time we walked through the door of our house, our little girl would be with us. The midwife popped a monitor on me & confirmed I was in labour, and so it was just a case of waiting now, but I was told I had to stay there (again, something I’d change in hindsight... I would definitely choose to go home if I was in the same situation again).
My waters broke naturally at about 8pm that night (in a spectacular movie style manner). I’d planned on giving birth on the birth centre however, I was told there were no pool rooms available. I had made it clear in my birth plan & when speaking to the midwives that It was really important to me to have access to a birth pool, so I was given a pool room on the labour ward but was supported with a birth centre midwife, who was amazing.
After a couple of failed attempts, a consultant broke my forewaters (I couldn’t believe there was anything left in there! and again, this is something I would opt-out of if I were in the same situation again) in a hope of moving things along a little quicker…
I was then given space and time to labour in our lovely birth room, lights dimmed, candles on, music playing. I genuinely look back at those labouring hours so fondly, I was coping really well using my breathing techniques & I was so excited to meet our little girl 🥰
Fast forward a few hours and I’d just been for a wee, as I came out of the loo our midwife wanted to get a better trace on babies heart (I had continuous monitoring but luckily a mobile belt so I could move around freely & use the water too) as she thought it was perhaps picking mine heartrate instead of hers. A couple of minutes later our room was full of medical staff as Lyra's heartrate remained low a little longer than they'd like. Despite this rush of panic from the team, I was surprisingly calm, which I put down to the breathing techniques I had learnt from Hypnobirthing, and our amazing midwife, Abbey. An FSE (fetal scalp electrode) was fitted to get a better trace on Lyra’s heart rate which soon came back to a normal rate.
At that point, I was advised that we should think about stimulating my contractions with the oxytocin drip or go for a c-section as they were a little worried about the baby. I asked for more time whilst me & my husband made the best decision for us & our baby, using our BRAIN tool. We were chased a few times for a decision from the consultants but I trusted my instincts that baby and me were ok, I knew that her heartrate was being monitored very closely and I was comfortable that we had time to make a fully informed decision.
After a LONG discussion, and a slightly teary phone call to my mum at 05:00 (can anyone make a decision without their mum?!) we chose to go for a caesarean. Although I felt sad that it wasn’t going to be the birth I’d hoped for, I was so calm & felt very much in control. Our midwife, Abbey, stayed with us despite her shift ending and made sure our birth plan was followed as much as possible (we’d created a plan for all types of birth, including caesarean - something I hugely recommend).
Lyra arrived a little after 07:00 on a rainy November morning, healthy & safe after a really empowering caesarean birth ❤
Em x

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