Kate's Birth Story - Premature Labour, Hypnobirthing.

Hi Hannah! Our little man Levi Monte decided to join us early. He came at 36+2 weeks but almost came at 35+2 weeks.

On the Thursday of 35+2 weeks, we went for a walk in the morning and I started to feel what felt like contractions but wasn’t really sure if it was Braxton Hicks at the time, they kept coming and going then I decided to ring the hospital as it kept happening and some friends suggested CTG monitoring or a scan if I was unsure on his movement and due to being so sick. I rang the paging service at my hospital they said I needed to come in. Went to the hospital, they put me on the CTG and the nurse was like 'oh wow no you’re definitely having contractions'. Next minute the Dr comes in and requests to do a vaginal examination. At the time I didn’t even realise what that was and figured well they know best so okay, boy did I not realise what that meant for me and he says “oh wow you’re 2 cm dilated and you need to go to Lyell in an ambulance as you are having a baby today and considered high risk.” Both of us, white as a sheet of paper….I was like what does that mean given I want a water birth and they said that’s off the cards due to being premature and that I could no longer birth at my local hospital. I lost it in tears… but was reassured I could use my hypnobirthing techniques and go in the shower. 

We convinced them to let us drive there as they weren’t too regular at that point. Off to Lyell, no baby seat, no baby bag, no hospital bag - nothing prepared at this time of the journey So we go to the assessment unit at Lyell and they were basically like 'so what are you doing here?' They weren’t very convinced it was anything serious but said okay we will have a look. Then did a speculum check and said your cervix is closed. You’re not even dilated. They gave me pain relief which slowed the contractions down. They said we would like to send you home but the local hospital Dr is concerned and thinks you need to stay, and then they suggested that due to not having done a growth scan since 20 weeks that you look quite small. (Funny about that, only 35 weeks!). So we headed to the women’s ward where I was told to stay overnight and then had the growth scan showed he was 49% percentile and on track given how many weeks I was! Matt left about 8-9pm due to being on the ward and then of course the contractions kicked in. They gave me pain relief and said see if it slows down in an hour. A hour and half pass, and it was 3-4 contractions every 10 minutes. The nurse called for the Dr, and hour later they come in and at that point, I’m swaying on the bed and they were happening every 5 minutes. They did another speculum and said you’re definitely 2cm dilated and need to call Matt and go to the birthing ward. At this stage it’s 2am, and I call Matt to come back in. Matt had my affirmation boards, lights dimmed, music playing. For about an hour or two, they were regular and then all of a sudden they started dropping back every 10, 15, 30 minutes to then a hour. By 10am it wasn’t much and said you can stay on the ward for another night but I discharged myself and said I’d rather be in the comfort of my home. They said it could happen any day now or you might have contractions for a few weeks.. great… For a whole week, I was having contractions and timing them, but never got to an hour consistently.

It was then the eve of Wednesday the 10th of April, and it started to kick off around 6pm. I decided to have a bath for a while and it didn’t slow down and was happening every 3-5minutes, so around 9.30pm we called the hospital and said to head into the women’s ward. We get to the women's ward and they were like oh no she needs to go to birthing suite.. so off we go.. and confirmed I was 7cm dilated. The hypnobirthing made a huge difference. We had the lights dimmed, my affirmation boards, music and diffuser going. I used a fit ball with my yoga mat with the tens machine for a while but they were struggling to get a reading of his heart with the CTG monitor for about an hour, so Matt suggested I go in the shower. I was in the shower for about 4 hours and Matt suggested maybe coming out and trying something else. At that point I was 9-9.5cm dilated. 

From that point, my waters broke at 4-4.30am ish and it was on. My 1-1 midwife couldn’t be there due to being at Lyell but my nurse that evening was amazing, and really respected what was on my birth plan. I made sure Matt was the go-to guy and they really respected my wishes and he questioned anything they asked. I wanted to squat on the bed when having him but his heart rate kept dropping and they were quite concerned and explained why I had to be on my back. At this point there were what felt like a hundred people in the room, when I was in active labour and I decided to have the gas at this point. Due to being early and not having really done the perineal massage, teas or dates, they were worried I was going to tear. The dr suggested a cut and I thought they meant a c-section and was like no I don’t want a section and they then properly explained what the episiotomy was and why it was needed and I agreed to it. They advised he was distressed and that I was going to need to push. They said we understand this isn’t part of your birth plan, but we are worried about his heart rate being low for a long time. So I did and out he came at 5.29 am. I got the skin to skin contact I wanted with him, and they then had to give me a few puffs of oxygen just to be sure he was ok, I and had skin to skin time with him for an hour, hour and a half and so did Matt. 

Wow, it was a surreal experience. I honestly couldn’t have managed doing it with hypnobirthing. All the techniques and partner support elements, the massage/ trigger points - everything we used honestly made such a difference. It was crazy to hear from the midwives that they rarely see hypnobirthing techniques used and how much they respect and see the difference it makes to women in labour.

Here we are, 17 days with our gorgeous little man:Levi Monte 2.775 grams and 48cm long. We are absolutely besotted. I was lucky enough to go back to the ward with my son and not in NICU as they were happy with his weight and size. The ward experience wasn’t pleasant sharing rooms and getting so much different advice from different Drs and nurses which I found so overwhelming.

However we’re also lucky to get discharged while he was considered premature and we were on track for him to happily be discharged.  The staff were really amazing given how short staff they are. It made us quickly realise that we were empowered to make the decisions we felt were most important for our son and us as a family.  That the options are purely options, and we were to take them in our stride. Thank you again for your amazing support and all the course learnings. We were sad to miss the last class due to being sick, but having the ability to watch the recording (when not sick as a dog) was so helpful.

Birth story and photos shared with permission.