Amy's Positive Induction Birth Story

Amy shares her positive induction story of the birth of her second little girl, showing how fiercely she advocated for herself & her baby to make sure this birth was different to her first.

After the birth of my first daughter, Rosie, I always knew that next time would be different…I’d got to 10cms with Rosie and then ended up in theatre with forceps and still to this day, I’m totally unsure why.

When we found out we were pregnant in August, I began straight away recapping on the previous hynobirthing techniques I had completed with an online course I did (COVID). I wanted to feel ready and prepared for any eventuality. We attended Emily’s full day hypnobirthing course in January and this gave us all the tools we needed to be ready. Once our little girl was in bed each night, we’d practise different techniques that Emily showed us, as well as the breathing.

At 33 weeks, I attended a growth scan. I wasn’t actually sure why this was booked at 23 weeks, but decided to go as it would be nice to see the baby! I already felt huge by this point, so I wasn’t surprised when they told me that the baby was measuring big, so big they were off the scale and then some more.. The consultant wanted to induce me at 37 + 5 days, but I wouldn’t agree as I explained the figures could be out and used lots of information provided by Emily to support my argument. We agreed on a repeat scan at 36 weeks, which of course showed an even bigger baby. By this point, the baby was fully engaged, we used our BRAIN and decided that we knew scans were inaccurate, we wouldn’t be going for the induction she booked at 38+3!

We spoke to our close friend and midwife, and she helped us decide on how to go forward. We decided to have sweeps from 38 weeks and moved the induction to 38+6 and a meeting with a consultant to discuss out of guidance inductions. I wanted the option of a pool and wireless monitoring, I wanted to go to the birth centre if I didn’t need the oxytocin drip and sweeps at 38 weeks, everything was agreed by the consultant. The perfect birth plan A, B, C and D were written, ready for every outcome and Emily kindly checked this over and offered a few tweaks for us.

I had three sweeps from 38 weeks, the first two showed absolutely nothing was happening, I left each appointment so disheartened but at my third, I was 1 maybe 2cms. I was excited, as I had decided if nothing had changed by the 3rd I was cancelling the induction. That night I barely slept, knowing that tomorrow I’d be going to the hospital for an induction and meeting our new baby was close.

In the morning, we called the birth centre like we were told, thinking we’d be going at 10, we were shocked to hear come at 4pm. Instead, we refocused, we got to spend one last day with our little girl, off we went to Little Lancashire Village with our best friends, my husband went to work. Whilst at LLV, I started to feel uncomfortable, I went to the bathroom and realised I had lost my mucus plug, something was happening. I was in two minds what to do, I was convinced by now I was going to go into labour any day. I spoke to my husband and he felt we should go and see what they think and maybe try the pessary. I knew he was feeling anxious now and agreed.

We took Rosie to my in laws and had one final cuddle as a little family of 4 (including our dog, Pepper). Then set off over to Burnley, singing along to our favourite playlist. We were taken to the induction bay, an environment that I’d just not considered. It was grim, I had a cry and explained I was not comfortable labouring on this bay, I wanted to go home. Luckily, I was given a side room as one had just become available.

We had a pessery fitted around 6 o’clock and went off for a walk. We picked up some snacks from Tesco, sat in the warm Spring sun and then headed back to our room. We watched Notting Hill and played cards for the rest of the evening, I noticed I have began to have some niggles, that were totally manageable! I used the birth comb to breath through them and moved around the room comfortably. My husband applied pressure when needed. At 2am, I took some paracetamol, I was disappointed that everything stopped, which the midwife explained it might have been that it was just my cervix getting ready to go but not contractions. I focused on getting some sleep.

At 7am, I woke up feeling a bit deflated that I didn’t have a baby yet. My husband was amazing at reminding me to remain positive, encouraged me to eat, have a shower and then go for a walk. At 8.45, as I was getting out the shower, my waters popped exactly like they do in films, literally gushing out onto the floor covering everything! I couldn’t stop laughing, I was so pleased that something was happening. Almost immediately, I started having some irregular contractions, they did make me stop but manageable, I told my husband to quickly ring my sister and also our friend who were coming to support in the birth, they both immediately set off.

At 9.10, contractions were coming thick and fast. My husband was amazing at using the different techniques we had practised and counting my breathing, which I found so helpful to focus on.

Our lovely midwife Carly had popped on a monitor when my waters had popped, suddenly another midwife came in and said the heart rate was dropping too much after each contraction and I needed to go to the birth suite. I argued I was happy to go there, but I wanted wireless monitoring and a pool, she said it wasn’t possible as they don’t have them over in the birth suite. I knew that wasn’t the case, the consultant that signed off on my birth centre birth plan had said there was, my husband knew this too and advocated that is what we wanted, the midwife was not happy and stormed out. Carly came back and gave us a little pat on our backs for standing our ground and said we would need to go to the birth suite but she had got us a birth pool and wireless monitoring ready. She did a quick examination and I was 6cm, a wheel chair arrived and off we went towards the birth suite.

As we were heading to the birth suite, and our room, a lovely midwife came towards me, explaining she had started filling the pool, but by this point I knew it was too late, I started laughing that it was too late and I had the ‘ring of fire’ this baby was coming now. It was at this point, I realised the midwife, Katie, also delivered my first baby. Once in the room, some gas and air was chucked towards me, as Oliver and Katie lifted me onto the bed. Oliver now admits he thought I was being a bit dramatic that I could feel the head, but was shocked to see that the baby’s head was right there! By now, my body had took over, I could feel it pushing for me and pushed alongside to encourage the rest of the baby out. Once her head was out, I suddenly felt I needed a drink and demanded a drink, one big gulp of Lucozade and one final push and our baby arrived at 9.53am, just as our friend arrived at 9.55, my sister arrived at 10.26!

We looked and discovered we had another baby girl, our little Poppy! We left the cord in place until it stopped pulsating, in which Poppy latched straight on to the boob, a totally different experience to my first. The placenta took a bit longer to arrive than expected, I could sense the midwife was beginning to get a bit twitchy, as I had had the injection, I only had 30 minutes before intervention was needed. She advised I did the biggest push I could, in which I did and it came away exactly 30 minutes after Poppy!

Overall, we had a truly positive birth experience this time round, even though I was worried an induction would derail this. We used all the techniques recommended by Emily and was able to advocate for ourselves throughout. I’m so grateful for all the love and support given by Emily.

Poppy Emily Grace Taylor : 8lb 6oz (not a big baby).