I was 39 + 4 eagerly awaiting the arrival of our first baby. I had been getting practice surges for a couple of weeks prior, tightening's and mild cramping that usually went away by the morning.
My partner was on a late shift and arrived home at midnight, he was able to get 30 mins sleep before I woke him to tell him my surges were getting stronger. He suggested I get into bed and try to get some sleep. I felt like I needed to walk around. I quietly breathed through my surges and was still able to talk. We called my private midwife at 2am to let her know and she also suggested to rest.
I attempted to lay down in a warm bath with some essential oils but my body was telling me I needed to walk. My surges became more intense, my partner gave me light touch massage and used my grounding anchor point and reminded me to breath. He put on our birthing affirmation playlist, turned on the fairy lights and diffused some essential oils to keep me relaxed.
Just before 4am I had a bloody show so I made the decision to head to hospital. We arrived to hospital at 4:15am and were placed in an assessment bay, I consented to a CTG monitor as long as I was able to walk around, I was determined not to lay in the bed. I was offered a cervical check which I declined as it was not able to be performed while I was standing. The Midwife from the hospital suggested we stay in the assessment area for monitoring. I walked around and slow danced with my partner and moaned through my surges. While listening to our hypnobirthing affirmations my partner encouraged me to breath.
My body knew this baby was coming so I asked to be moved into a birth suite and my partner contacted our midwife and asked her to come in.
We were moved to the birth suite just before 5am my partner quickly set up our music/affirmations. At 5:15 I had a strong urge to open my bowels, the midwife told me my waters were likely going to break. My partner removed my pants and sure enough with the next surge my waters broke. It was identified that there was meconium in my waters, I heard the Midwife say to make sure there was a Dr available to assess. This made me nervous but I tried to remember our affirmations and calmly face what ever turn my birth takes.
I climbed up onto the bed on all fours and asked for the bed head to be adjusted straight upright so I could rest my arms and head over the top. My partner handed me my wooden comb to use for pain relief and coached me through my breathing. Not long after our private midwife arrived and within 30 mins of my waters releasing Theo’s head was born!
It was a strong desire of mine to have either myself or my partner receive our baby as he was born. In the moment I to told my partner I wanted him to receive Theo as I was exhausted. My partner was able to take some photos of Theo’s head out while we waited for my next contraction to birth his body. He calmly talked to me and reassured me that our baby was ok and that he was almost out. My midwife continued to do light touch massage and talked me through my breathing.
Theo was born at 5:48am completely relaxed, happy and healthy after an extremely short 1.5 hour active labour! He was passed to me through my legs and we enjoyed uninterrupted skin to skin time for a couple of hours. We delayed cord clamping for 1 hour while Theo breast fed. I birthed his placenta without any interventions. We were able to head home at 10am with follow up from our private midwife that evening.
Our birth was very empowering for us, we felt in control of all of our decisions. Hypnobirthing gave us the skills and tools we needed to have a calm and confident natural physiological birth.
I especially found the course invaluable for my partner. He was much more confident after completing it and was able to advocate for me, keep me grounded and create and protect the safe space I needed to go within.
We are so glad we did this course with Jess, we highly recommend her teachings.
Incredible Mama Emily, and Dad Darian
Hypnobirthing Practitioner Mother Moon Hypnobirthing