“Theo Birth Story
I had such a positive birth experience with my daughter, that with my second baby, I wanted the exact same experience and therefore we did a hypnobirthing refresher with Janet, as it had been nearly 4 years since my daughters birth.
I’m so glad I did, as this pregnancy didn’t seem to be as straightforward and I was sent for numerous growth scans and dopplers to check my placenta as baby was deemed to be ‘too small’.
As you can imagine, this was very stressful and put my hypnobirthing techniques to good use from early on! I also went to Janet for reflexology at 41 weeks to help relax me, and get the oxytocin flowing, as well as getting some extra advice and support, which was priceless!
At 41 + 1 I went for another growth scan in which was told the baby was measuring at 7lbs 13, but there wasn’t a lot of fluid around my placenta, and so I was offered an induction. I had been having back pain for 2 days and so I had a feeling Labour was imminent, so I declined the induction but asked to be examined instead.
At the examination I was 3cm dilated, and so my husband and I decided to carry on with our day. We went for lunch and picked our daughter up from school, playing outside when we got home, and then my contractions started. They were manageable at first and so my husband just timed them and I used my up breathing every time a surge came. We put our daughter to bed that evening as usual, and then I ran a bath.
During the bath, my surges ramped up and became more intense & closer together and so we rang Helme Chase to give them the heads up. I wasn’t ready to go in yet, and so continued to Labour at home. I put on a funny movie to increase my oxytocin levels, lit some candles and used my birth ball in the living room. At 11pm we decided to go to bed to try & get some rest and I dozed between surges. By 12:30, they were very intense and 3 in 10 minutes abs so I asked my husband to call his parents to come & watch our daughter and we rang Helme Chase to let them know we were heading in.
We arrived at 1:30am to a very low lit & calm birth suite and as I entered, my waters broke. This was very exciting as I didn’t see my waters break with my first birth. We put on some music, Mumford & Sons which is what I had been listening to in the car, and I walked around and continued to labour for a while longer until I decided to get into the pool.
Once I was in the pool, the relief was immediate. I stayed in the pool for a little while, but then felt the need to move around and so I decided to get out. The midwives were perfect, and left me to birth and trust my instincts, only coming over to check the baby’s heart rate intermittently.
After a while the intensity became too much and so I returned to the pool. It was at this point that I started to transition and I knew it wouldn’t be long and so I asked for some gas & air. My body knew it was time to push, and so I changed to down breathing at this point, and at 6:55am Theodore William was born in the water where I was able to get him and put him on my chest for some skin on skin straight away.
We had asked for optimal cord clamping and so waited until it had stopped pulsing completely before my husband cut the cord. I was very tired after being up for 24 hours and so opted for the injection to help me birth my placenta so I could concentrate on establishing breast feeding with my baby. I was so happy and relieved that my baby had arrived safely, and I was over the moon that I had managed to birth him at Helme Chase before they closed for 6 months! It was another positive birth experience and I can’t thank the midwives enough.”