Saturday week ago, 19th November our baby girl arrived at 5.18pm. She was two weeks early, weighing 3.2kg and 49.5cm long.
We had an amazing and very positive birth. My waters broke at about 8am that morning and contractions started not long after that at about 9am. It was Will's dad's 70th Birthday so we went there for breakfast as I didn't have to get to the hospital until about 2pm. Once my contractions became stronger we headed home and I started playing the hypo birthing tracks in bed. At about 1ish I felt like if we didn't get down the hill to the hospital we may end up having her at home.
Heading to the hospital was okay (got every red light) again I just kept playing the tracks, but contractions were getting stronger. Will dropped me off out the front and I was able to walk up to the Labor ward. The first midwife pretty much told me that she doubted I was even in labor. Until she did an internal and I was 6cm dilated! After that I hopped in the bath (we had asked for it when we called up about my waters and they moved some patients around to make it work). I spent the rest of the time in the bath with my headphones on listening to the tracks. I found the affirmations and surge of the sea worked best for me.
In the end we didn't worry about the light touch as I was in my zone and it was a bit awkward in the water. Poor Will I don't think he felt he could do much, but just having him there was enough (Note - to clarify, apparently Will did lots of light touch massage whilst I was in labor. I just can't remember it!). At some point my entire body felt like it was shaking and I had about three contractions that were almost unbearable (I'm assuming this was transition). After that I felt like I wanted to push so I moved from the bath to the bed. Initially I was having strong contractions to push, but as my Obstetrician was arriving they started to fade. My obstetrician was observing me and I think I freaked out a little bit and lost my confidence. At this point my obstetrician stepped in and coached me to keep pushing as my baby was right there. It worked, and my baby was born not long after that. Completely natural with no intervention. She was a total chiller the whole way through my labor, with a steady heart rate the entire time.
Apart from having to push with quite weak contractions the birth was amazing!! Thank you so much for working with us in developing so many hypnobirthing skills. It made birthing such an enjoyable experience, and one I want to do all over again (although not for a while).
Birth story shared with permission.
