Sarah and David attended my online group hypnobirthing course in May to prepare for the birth of their twins. Below Sarah shares her amazing birth story!
21.09.22
4am- I woke with cramping pains & my mucus plug releasing. Id had cramps for weeks so tried not get too excited. Deep down I knew it was time though. My mind & body were exhausted with nausea & the general strain of carrying twins for almost 38 weeks. It was time to meet them!
By 8am we had Amelia up & ready, had eaten breakfast together, built a play dough tower & readied my parents for babysitting duties. I was having around 2-3 low intensity surges every 10 minutes by this point.
When Amelia left the strength of the surges intensified. Once I knew she was happy & settled with my parents, I relaxed more & things really started to flow. I was coping well using up breathing & the wave comb but felt things might change quickly so we called our doula, Jen from @glasgow_birth ! We agreed that Jen would come to the house to help decide the best point to go to hospital.
I bounced on my ball, went for a walk, watched random stuff on tv, snacked on homemade energy balls & chatted to David & Jen but somehow things slowed, almost to a halt. I got frustrated & crazy emotional thinking about the time away from Amelia. I had totally lost my calm & rhythm so I went for a sleep then retreated to the twins nursery, a space I love.
When Jen came to check on me she made some suggestions, including nipple twiddling 😳. Hey presto, I got some mega surges that became longer & super regular. Within an hour or so we decided it was time to head to hospital 😬. I put on the TENS machine incase I needed it on the journey, listened to @alexisffrench & off we went…
The first intervention in labour is leaving the house 🥴 but oxytocin remained high as my surges continued to build.
Walking into the hospital was slow. I stopped & swayed with my arms around david with each surge. Arriving in maternity assessment I was thrilled at how quiet it was & lucky to find @alibali78 on shift. She looked after us during the birth of our first, Amelia. She’s an advocate of hypnobirthing & was incredibly supportive throughout. Ali had read our birth preferences so there was no pressure for a VE or pain relief. Instead she gained consent to listen to the babies heart rates then monitored us & listened to my sounds changing etc. Questions were answered by David & Jen so I stayed very much in the zone.
We moved to labour ward after an hour & were directed to an incredible room with birth pool, suspension strap (rebozo), floor mats, birth balls, birth stool & NO BED. Perfect! We had agreed to use telemetry ahead of time so midwives worked to position the straps to hear the heartbeats. I don’t know if it was my shape or inability to stand still that meant the bands just wouldn’t stay in place. We discussed options & eventually agreed to a foetal scalp monitor for twin 1 as there was concern about the heart rate. I was gutted as knew this would mean my waters being released & things probably becoming extremely uncomfortable quickly. Despite this, I stayed focussed & felt in control of the situation with David & Jen by my side. We discussed everything & understood the pros/cons before agreeing to proceed. The consultant agreed to perform this whilst I was upright/on all 4s so she literally crawled around underneath me 👍🏽
I was told that I was only a few cm’s dilated but note that this is not an accurate measure of stage in labour so try not turn to intervention straight away if you choose to be examined (in my case, Poppy was born within the hour).
Honestly, breaking my waters & attaching the monitor was crappy. Within what felt like seconds, the intensity became almost unbearable. I begged David & Jen to organise an epidural. Transition! They both knew it so pacified me. Then low & behold I felt the urge to push 😬
Kneeling on a wet slippy floor, gripping onto David, I was led by my surges to birth Poppy. It was incredibly intense but kind of magical. There was no forced pushing, just following my bodies queues 🙌
Her cord was short but I was able to lift her, sit upright, hold her in close & wait for the cord to turn white/stop pulsating. It was bliss but short lived as the surges quickly started again. The cord was cut & David took over skin to skin.
The next part is blurry but involved another scalp monitor being attached as there was concern for the heart rate of twin 2. Again, not ideal but the benefits outweighed the risks.
Within minutes of it being attached my body was doing its thing again, helping push Ernest into the world. It was quicker than with Poppy & just as intense. 47 minutes after Poppy arrived earthside, Ernest joined her. Like before, the midwives passed him through my legs for me to hold. David & I sat in absolute wonder holding our babies, allowing them to latch & waiting for Ernest’s cord to turn white.
I can honestly say that I am in awe of what my body did & feel infinitely better than I did after my first labour which ended on my back with coached forced pushing.
Overall it was such a positive experience. A great team, good planning, training, education & unwavering confidence & belief in my own mind & body made it all possible. While this allowed me to influence the positive bits, more importantly it enabled me to cope with & reframe the not so great bits like what came next …
We wanted a physiological 3rd stage so declined an injection of syntocinon (synthetic oxytocin), commonly given to assist the the uterine muscles to contract to expel the placenta. We were advised that this also helps to prevent haemorrhage in twin labour but decided against it (see previous posts about why).
We sat enjoying cuddles with the twins for around 20mins before I needed to stand to birth the placenta. It was huge & not surprisingly followed by A LOT of blood. The kind that gets people worried & the kind that made me feel really grim. Nevertheless we moved to a room that had a bed in it. I climbed in with the twins & was left with my babies latched & feeding well for an hour or so ❤️
Unlike the blissful euphoric feelings after I birthed Amelia, this time I couldn’t shake how sick & dizzy I felt. I assumed this was just normal following an incredibly intense labour so when the midwife suggested a shower, I hoped that this would help improve how I was feeling so jumped at the chance. Within seconds of standing up I knew something wasn’t right. I couldn’t see or hear & fainted. Long story short, blood was pooling & clotting in my uterus after shedding the placenta 🥴
I required a BCE (bimanual clot evacuation) & a syntocinon drip to breakdown & expel the clots. This was truly excruciating (physically & emotionally). In hindsight it was really interesting experiencing the effects of synthetic oxytocin. It’s normal that after birth some cramping/ surge type pains are experienced as the uterus contracts back down. I was aware that this might be quite intense after twins & it was before the drip but the pain I experienced once syntocinon was administered was awful. Almost like non stop, very extreme surges for 2 hours 😳😬. Fortunately the twins slept soundly while this was happening & the clot removal was successful 👍🏽
Honestly, despite this, we had an immensely positive birth experience. Hypnobirthing was central to my ability to cope.
Having the right people around me David and Jen was even more critical.
Best advice if you’re pregnant…get clued up, look after your body & surround yourself with the best people!
❤️❤️