Hi Hannah!
I just wanted to touch base and let you know we welcomed our baby boy earth side, on his due date, on the 4th September.
His name is Ezra, he weighed 7.8lbs and is 51.5cm long.
I have to say the experience was nothing like we had planned! I imagined LED candles, soothing music and touch, a bath or shower when we arrived at the hospital etc...
I woke having surges at 12.30am. I managed to stay in bed and breathe through them until around 2.30am. I then called my Mum to let her know what was happening, David didn't sleep a wink (I think he must have known something was going to happen!) Mum arrived to our house around 4am and at that stage I had to get up because the surges were getting stronger. I came to the lounge room and sat on the fit ball, breathing through surges as they came. In between surges I was talking and laughing with Mum as she made me food and drinks, David stayed in bed trying to get some sleep.
At 6.30am I decided to get in the shower, I was getting uncomfortable but still managing the surges. David sat outside the shower timing my surges which were getting longer and stronger and having a defined pattern (this moment was later called when I started active labour.) I stayed in the shower for about an hour or so then ended up back in the lounge room with my Mum and David.
I spoke with my midwife at 8am and was advised to just keep doing what I was doing and that they could come do a home visit and would be in touch soon to arrange it.
Just after 9.30am a trip to the toilet led me right in to my most intense surge, I heard/felt my waters break and knew it was time for the hospital.
We piled in the car (the trip is about 20 minutes for us) and I felt things change really quickly. My body began to shake and I knew I was in transition. We arrived at the hospital, found where I needed to be and as soon as I got out the wheel chair in the birthing suite I fell to a squatting position, my body took over and I began to push! My midwife did a check for me, I wanted to ensure I was fully dilated and things were in the right place as it all happened so quickly. My midwife discovered at this point that I had meconium in my waters so I had to be attached to monitors.
Bub began taking a while to recover after each surge. The Dr entered and started throwing around words like "episiotomy" "ventouse" "if this baby isn't out with this next contraction." I kept refusing her unless things were absolutely medically necessary, she grew frustrated and went and got a senior consultant. The senior consultant came in and shared that bubs had plenty of room, she didn't want to cut me but I really needed to get the baby out. She talked me through and I dug deep and with one final surge, less than an hour after I began pushing, our baby was earth side!
After the birth my placenta took a bit long to come out, after trying natural approaches I needed some assistance. It finally appeared but then I had a big bleed. A catheter, hormone IV, hormone injections and 900mls of blood later and the bleeding stopped. I was very close to being rushed to theatre but my midwives worked furiously to help that not be reality.
Once the madness calmed I was able to resume skin to skin with Ezra and the world stopped!
So although the experience was nothing like I had imagined or planned I was so very thankful for our hypnobirthing! It gave me the tools to labour as long as possible at home, have a drug free birth, manage my surges and give me a voice and the knowledge to make informed decisions for myself and our baby.
Thank you so very much for your class! We are so grateful we attended!
Birth story and photos shared with permission.