So at around 10pm in the evening I got a few tightenings, they were 8 mins apart so I tried to get some sleep. 10 minutes later I woke up with very intense surges which were coming every 2 minutes all of a sudden! They were lasting 1.5-2 minutes for each one with a very small break in between. This is where my breathing was a life saver as it sort of overwhelmed me as this was not I expected it to start! Not for one minute did I feel scared though as I knew if they were intense and close together I was closer to meeting my baby and powerful surges are good and effective! We called the midwives and unfortunately no home birth team so we headed into hospital. I was checked on request as I explained this is happening very differently than I had expected and I was 3cm in an hour.
The next part was actually the most challenging, I remember thinking this is intense, we had the tens machine on and we used our breathing techniques, leaning on my partner for support and staying in upright and forward positions. I was really vocalising at this point and where I wasn’t getting a break longer than 1-2 minutes, the midwife asked to check me again and I agreed, I was 6cm from an hour of the last check! I was so happy it gave me the motivation to carry on. I got in the birth pool at this point and got the urge to bare down very soon after this. For around 2 hours I went with my body but not actively pushing, the water felt amazing and the breathing techniques really helped to ground me. As I was quite loud the midwives were trying to offer me pain relief where my partner advocated for me and quickly shot them down. I even said at one point between moaning ‘epidural! I don’t need an epidural’ 🤣
My waters went at 9cm in the water where we discovered baby had very thick meconium so I got out of the pool and started to really bare down from there uncontrollably. I pushed for around an hour going with my body and I used gas and air. Again It was very intense but I was thinking I’m doing it!
2 hours later I pushed for another 2 hours. I tried so many different positions as I was very mobile with the epidural, i asked for the lowest dose so I could still stand / get on all fours to push. They did try to encourage me onto my back but I said there’s no way I’m pushing on my back. We all agreed in a small meeting we would try to use forceps. Unfortunately baby boy really was wedged and we went for an emergency c-section. However I never felt panicked despite this being my worst fear before. I felt like I had made the decision rather than it was made for me.
Having had so much knowledge on birth and Labour I felt in control despite everything being out of my control! I was so proud of myself and felt empowered by how far I had made it, baby boy just wanted to come out of the sunroof and that’s okay. Without hypnobirthing there is no way I would have made it to 10cm naturally, and without having the knowledge of birth and to advocate for myself things would have gone very differently I’m sure of it. I would have been a panicked mess! Thank you Erin, I couldn’t have done it without the course 💖