Hayley’s positive birth of Adaline.
It is true to say that not all births will go smoothly. However, if you are well prepared both you and your birth partner will be able to roll with any changes and remain focussed throughout the birth. Hayley and her birth partner worked so well together and her birth story is wonderful to read. Over to Hayley…
Hello - it has been a whirlwind few days but I’m excited to share my birthing story I love reading others - I found them so helpful before my own so hopefully this helps other soon to be Mummy’s to!
I feel like I had a really positive labour, but I will put a trigger warning as whilst mine was a positive labour, there is talk of pain and a few not so straightforward events!
On Thursday I woke up at 2:39am with my first surge. My latent stage actually had fairly regular surges (I was expecting a little more time between them at least) but I had surges every 5-10mins, lasting about 30-60secs. The surges were manageable as in I could walk/talk through them, and although they were fairly long - they weren’t consistent so I could have a few 30second ones, followed by some 60seconds, then some 45seconds etc.
I rang my maternity ward at around 8am mostly because I was so set on my water birth I wanted to let then know things were happening haha! They obviously told me to stay at home keep doing what I was doing.
By 12:30 midday things were feeling a little more intense so I rang again and asked if we could come in as I wanted to check how I was progressing. For me I knew this was what I needed to hear, even if I was only 1cm and got sent home - I needed to know! We made our way to the hospital bypassing my parent’s to drop off our furbaby - and we slowly made our way to the hospital. It was around 1:30pm when they assessed me and I was only 2cms - so we came back home and I had a hot bath.
Surges continued to get more regular in timing, and more intense and at 2:45pm I had waters go and my show. I rang the maternity ward again and this was where I got frustrated as we couldn’t work out if my bloody show was too much blood or not - as I had expected it to be a bit more mucus like and less fresh red blood. They kept asking my if it was like a period or fresh blood, and I said well it is like my period blood (my period always starts with fresh red blood like blood you’d get from a cut) They said if it’s like a period then it’s ok - if it is fresh red blood like from a cut then that’s not ok.
I decided to just stay it out back home a bit more as I could feel little one moving lots, and I didn’t want to go to the hospital to be sent back again as it was about an hour long round trip. By 4:45pm my surges went up a notch. We rang the hospital for a third time, as my surges were now over a minute each one and coming 3 and a half mins apart consistently.
This whole time I had been listening to the full Better Birth Stories: Hypnobirthing & Positive Birth mp3’s and using the Basic Breath, with my husband massaging my lower back as the surges got more intense.
Hospital still said as it’s my first and still early I was still in early stages, but something told me I needed to be going in. They said it was up to me so I decided I would get my things etc and head up as we were getting close to rush hour traffic which would double our journey time!
We got to the hospital at around 5:30/6pm where they assessed me - I was 3cms (so only 1cm more than the hospital visit 4hrs earlier. As I was assessed, I had another surge and the midwife said although I was 3cms, my cervix was paper thin and going nice and wide. They gave me the option of staying in or going home as 3cms to 10cms could still be a while - but I was happy in hospital - I felt safe there so I was happy my labour would progress.
From now onwards, my surges were a lot more intense, with pretty much only 30seconds rest in between them! All I could do was breath the basic breath to get through them, and I found being on all fours was much much easier for the pain. I also found moving positions from time to time helped. I needed the dark so they turned off all the lights, and my husband held my hand and did the gentle touch (he was amazing throughout this and I recommend your birthing partner watches the relevant videos on this course with you as my husband is terrified of blood etc and he was a superstar!)
My next assessment was after 7pm where I asked my husband to get the midwife, and she came and checked and I was suddenly 7cms (so had dilated 4cms in around an hour). She was very calm in the room, then my husband saw through the crack in the curtain that once she was out our cubicle, she started to run as I was so desperate for the pool and they take ages to fill!
The pool was being filled, they were ready to move me from the labour ward to the birthing centre - went to get me to walk and decided that moving me on the bed was the best option!
Here I had a midwife change - she was a lovely midwife! Very encouraging, she kept the lights low for me etc. Surges kept coming, the pool wasn’t ready and suddenly I started feeling the need to push. I actually preferred needing to push with the surges, it felt like something was happening and I actually found it less painful! Mostly it was just tiring as I hadn’t had much let up from the surges.
My midwife told me to go with it, she was amazing and helping me use the surge to help baby down - and this is where I found visualising my baby working his or her way down the birth canal was really useful. This continued and finally the pool was ready just about in time as it was close to crowning time so to speak. I was in the pool for all of 10mins, the head just about crowned (but did the rock back in that can happen) and I had a bleed, so I had to get back out the pool so they could monitor blood loss. Here I just focused on surges/pushing and my midwife, but my poor husband was more aware of everything and he still didn’t let on how nervous he was. He followed my midwife’s lead as well! Reaffirming her praise to me, encouraging me, the gentle touch, holding my hand etc. I wasn’t aware but another person came into the room to say the emergency c-section team were scrubbing up ready so my poor husband started to think the worst. I was oblivious to this and focused on my midwife and I just followed her instructions and at 8:52pm our daughter made her entrance to the world
I did end up giving birth on my back (slightly tilted to the side) but I did it - no pain relief, not the water birth that I had banged on about all day to them but I did it! I ended up with more blood loss than they liked (about 750ml) so they advised I had the injection to help the placenta. I was happy to do that - they then gave me a second injection a little later as I was still bleeding more than they’d have liked - I was fine, still completely with it etc so although it wasn’t the norm, I was fine and didn’t perceive this to be traumatic at all. I did have some tearing, a 2nd degree, but I was stiched up and I am 6days post labour and everything feels fine and is healing really well (a bit more sensitive than normal, but a small(ish) human just came out of there!
I did require overnight monitoring for the blood loss, but we were home the next day and our little bubble of love is still going strong!
All in all, I went from 3cms at around 5:30 - 6pm, to our baby girl in my arms at 8:52pm, which is apparently quite fast. I truly believe that the Better Birth Stories Online Hypnobirthing Course helped me stay focused - I didn’t feel any anxiety, and I knew I could trust my gut instinct (coming in even though I was told it was too early, not going home the second time when they suggested etc!)
I also loved that the birthing centre had affirmation posters on the walls saying the same things on them as the course mp3 downloads! Although I didn’t notice this until post delivery haha!
If I could pass on one bit of advise, I think it would be - encourage birthing partners to do some of the hypnobirthing with you. The information in Melanie’s videos were invaluable to my husband and helped keep him focused even though he was completely panicking inside.
We aren’t putting our daughters face on the internet (I want her to be able to choose when she gets older) but Adaline was born at 8lb 9oz (lovely little chunck) and here she is enjoying tummy time on Daddy’s tummy!
Sorry for the length - and well done if you stuck out my ramblings this far xx
Want to learn hypnobirthing with us?
Don’t forget that we have a full Online Antenatal Hypnobirthing Class that you can follow in your own time anywhere around the world. It is only £39/$49.
The Online Hypnobirthing Course
We also teach antenatal hypnobirthing classes in London in person with our One Day Group Hypnobirthing Class.
In-person Antental Hypnobirthing Group Class
If you’d rather prepare for your labour and birth solo with Melanie you can do so in the privacy of your own home in person if you live in London or via the Zoom platform wherever you are around the globe.
Private Antenatal Hypnobirthing Classes