“Hypnobirthing taught us that our birth can take any direction, and it gave us the tools to ask questions and be kept informed.”

Hello Kate!

So lovely to hear from you. I’ve been meaning to email you to tell you that our precious Humphrey entered the world on the 07/03 at 954pm. 3.8kg and 51cm long. He is a perfectly healthy baby and just absolutely beautiful.

My labour was very long, complicated and exhausting. I unfortunately had to be induced. It started on the Friday with the insertion of cervidil, which I had a reaction to. My uterus hyper stimulated for 4 hours non stop which was awful and useless. Thankfully at 230am Saturday morning my waters spontaneously broke and the contractions started almost immediately and they were very full on. As I had to be monitored the whole time we weren’t allowed in the birth centre so we went to the delivery suite. I was 2cm dilated when I got down there at about 330am. I tried different positions but ended up in the bath. At about 730am they were going to start the syntocinon drip, and the contractions were so full on I wasn’t coping. After the previous day’s episode, I was already exhausted. I asked for an epidural. I tried the gas first and then they rechecked me and I was still 2cm!! The epidural was put in at about 9am and provided instant relief, however I then had the shakes for the remainder of the birth.

My blood pressure and heart rate and temperature were all elevated. As the syntocinon started and the infusion was increasing, baby’s heart rate was dropping. The OBs were in and out all day and I had to move from side to side to help baby’s position and heart rate. They kept mentioning we may need to have a Caesarean.

I can’t remember what time, but I had gone from 4cm to 9cm within an hour! Which was great. And then I just stayed at 9cm for hours. And they weren’t sure what was stopping me from going to 10cm. They gave me 2 options - we go for c-section now or we wait 2 hours and see what happens but we can’t guarantee what will happen in 2 hours time as it may end up an emergency. They also said his position wasn’t ideal and they may have to use forceps as the ventouse wouldn’t work. I was completely exhausted by this stage and was ready for a c-section to just get it over with and preferred that over forceps. Matt and our amazing midwife made the decision for me to wait the 2 hours as it would’ve taken an hour to get me into theatre anyway as they had another case in there. They were also thinking we would have to go to theatre for pushing in case we needed to have an urgent Caesarean.

We had midwife change over at 8pm. The new midwife checked me and I was finally 10cm!! So... we started pushing. I’d just had a top up of epidural as I had a severe pain in my left hip from his position. The midwife put her fingers inside and I could just feel where I needed to push. We had some practice ones and then the two OBs and paediatrician came in. I was given 3-6 pushes and if he wasn’t coming we’d be off to theatre.

Apparently my pushing was amazing and he was coming out. When his head was out the OB told me to touch it! It was the most amazing feeling in the world and I just screamed, ‘Come on team! We got this!’ and the next push he was out. The OB let me catch him and pull him on my chest and reveal his gender! I am so grateful we had a vaginal birth and only a small 2nd degree tear. Then my placenta wouldn’t come out so I almost went to theatre for that but thankfully with extra medications it came out.

In the way of hypnobirthing - this was by far the complete opposite of what I would’ve liked. However - hypnobirthing taught Matt and I that our birth can take any direction and it gave us the tools to ask questions and be kept informed as to what was happening.

Throughout it all I was able to use my breath that we were taught to keep calm and get through each contraction as best as I could. Although I had an epidural I could still feel contractions which I liked.

We had dim lights the whole day - even at the end the team respected our wishes and kept lights to a minimum. We had fairy lights, a beautiful music playlist, affirmations, a diffuser. And everyone who entered our room on the ward pre and post delivery and in the delivery suite commented on how beautiful it was.

What a journey !!