Right so birth story 😃 So I was induced at 3:10pm in the maternity ward at Lancaster on Thursday afternoon, and my contractions started at 1:20am that morning. They came on quite quickly and about an hour a half later my waters broke. I was then examined and had the pessary removed and I was 3cm dilated already which was excellent! The contractions then were getting very intense, I was beginning to really struggle with them. I tried standing, lying down, squatting, on all fours – nothing was helping. I was beginning to lose it to be honest!
At this point I closed my eyes and I don’t think I opened them again until she was born. Seriously. They then transferred me down to the delivery suite, at about 3:30am, where I was offered gas and air, and holy moly that changed everything. I breathed through every contraction and stayed in the zone completely. I was able to properly relax in between and get my head back in the game. Just as hypnobirthing had taught me 🙌🏼 I then felt the urge to start pushing, it was totally out of my control!
The contractions changed and felt a lot more intense. At 5am ish I got taken to another room and got in the pool. I’m sooo glad I got to do that, the relief of the water was so welcome. I was pushing in there for a couple of hours and she was crowning but she wouldn’t come out! Her heart rate then began to rise and my temperature was increasing so they had to get me out and back on the bed.
I was very calm during this transition as I knew from our course things like this could happen. And I knew I was in good hands, I felt safe. I then continued to push on the bed for another hour and a half but I was getting tired and my contractions were slowing down and becoming shorter. At this point they got the doctor in as baby needed some assistance to be born, but again I wasn’t once frightened, I remained calm and in the zone. I had no idea who was in the room! She flew out when she did come out haha. So then, at 8:31am she was born and put on my chest and we both cried.
I was so in the zone and had my eyes closed the whole time, I honestly had no idea what was going on around me. I honestly can’t describe my state of mind. I’ve literally had to ask Luke all of this stuff 😂. The whole time Luke was using the anchors from our scripts, helping me breathe, doing soft touch, keeping me focused and being my absolute rock 💕
I am so proud and feel so empowered to have had an extremely positive experience. I was so prepared beforehand I never felt afraid or panicked when I needed help at the end.
I cannot recommend Janet and her Hypnobirthing course enough! It made my labour and birth everything I wanted it to be even though I was induced ❤️