At 10pm on the 25th of January 2021 my waters broke and I knew we were on! It was obvious that it was my waters but it wasn’t a huge massive gush but enough to soak my undies and knew it wasn’t wee! At 8pm that night I thought I’d felt a small contraction but I didn’t really know what it felt like so shrugged it off because I hadn’t felt anything more between 8 and 10pm... although a few days leading up to it I had mild cramping like a very dull period pain, more so in the afternoons and quite frequently during the day of the 25th.

At around 11pm I felt the tightening and wave like motion that contractions are described as and knew it was go time. I started to feel them quite regularly from then on but it was more like a mild/dull period cramp but started light, got a little tighter for 10 seconds and then dulled off. I didn’t get any sleep from there on though not because I was in pain but I was just wide awake and just so excited it was finally happening. I tried to rest as much as possible and I just laid in bed listening to my hypnobirthing tracks and was just in a really deep relaxation. I made Cam go to sleep so he had energy for when it really was go time.

He attached the TENS machine to me and I used it for a little bit but felt like it was making my back spasm when laying down and didn’t love the feeling so I took it off and had a long warm shower which felt really nice. I wasn’t in pain at all, just felt a bit uncomfortable during a contraction but I was just breathing through each one and focusing on riding the wave like we were taught in hypnobirthing.

Cam called the hospital at about 6am because my contractions were getting close and because my waters had broken I was somewhat on the clock as hospital protocol is to give you antibiotics (with your consent) at 18hrs after your waters have broken as baby is at a higher risk of infection from there on apparently. The midwife just told us to stay at home and continue doing what I was doing because I was really calm, relaxed and not really in any pain and that she would let my midwife know when she was officially on call.

By about 8am I definitely felt the contractions getting stronger but I was just breathing through them and I still didn’t find them painful more so just uncomfortable.. but I got Cam to put the TENS machine back on at about 5am and I think this helped a lot with not feeling pain as such (I then didn’t take it off for hours and absolutely loved it)! I messaged my Midwife at about 9am and asked if I could come into the hospital about 11:30 to be checked if things hadn’t ramped up by then but she lived 5mins away and was still at home so she said she’d come to me and check rather than going to hospital and possibly be sent home.

She came to me about 11am and by this stage my contractions were 3-4mins apart lasting about 1min-1:20ish which is what they’d ideally like you to be before coming in to hospital. When my midwife arrived, I was so calm and content and the first thing she said with a laugh was she didn’t think I was ready for hospital because I was too chatty and must’ve still been in really early labour despite the contractions and timing. Anyway she did some obs and then did an internal check and she was like oh wow okay your 4-5cm dilated and the head is fully engaged and your cervix? (I can’t remember if that’s the right part) is thinned and exactly how it needs to be for birth.

Ideally she would’ve liked me to stay home longer because of how well I was coping but I wanted to get comfortable in the hospital room and make it my environment before things got too intense and because I was over 4cm dilated she said I could come in thankfully! We waited another hour and left home at 12, was at the hospital about 12:30 and got settled into the room. We dulled the lights, put on relaxation music and a diffuser with lavender in it. Once settled, I basically just sat on the side of the bed with Cam sitting behind me, holding me from behind with a firm cuddle around my belly which seemed to help quite a lot. He reminded me to relax my face and shoulders so I wouldn’t tense up with each contraction which helped! I loved the gym ball at home but the one in the hospital was too small and flat unfortunately but the side of the bed was good for me.

The contractions started to get more intense (not even sure on times at this stage) and were longer and closer together and I asked if my midwife could do another internal check as I felt like I had progressed a fair bit. I was a good 7cm which surprised my midwife because of how calm (and quiet) I was and I was still just breathing through the contractions rather than screaming or sounding like I was in pain... at this stage it was probably around 3pm and according to the hospital policy I needed to have a drip put in with antibiotics at 4pm because it had been 18hrs since my waters broke but I was really hesitant on dosing baby up with antibiotics as a precaution when their little tummies are so sensitive already and I felt like I was relatively close to having her so I asked if I could wait another 2hrs before having any antibiotics which was fine.

I finally took the tens machine off and jumped in the shower as the contractions were ramping up but the shower was soooo good and I hardly felt my contractions at all.. I wasn’t sure if they had stopped or if I was just in heaven with the hot water so then I decided to get in the bath which I wasn’t planning on using because I hate the feeling of being wrinkly after being in there for too long.

So after about 20mins in the shower I jumped in the bath which felt pretty good but my contractions were getting intense by then and I was becoming more vocal rather than just breathing through each contraction. At one stage I just felt like I needed to push out a big poop and I was starting to feel more tightening more so in my bum so I pretty much started to push in the bath and I was sure I was going to end up having a water birth at this stage but then after maybe half an hour or 40mina I was getting SO hot and uncomfortable and my back was getting sore so I tried to change positions into all 4s whilst in the bath but it just wasn’t feeling right so I got out of the bath and up onto the bed on all 4s, with the bed in an almost 90degree angle and used the bed head to lean on with my arms and straight away I just reaaaalllly felt the need to push and thought it was go time (which is kinda was). I was pushing for about 50mins including when I was in the bath and I was so tired and my back was getting really sore and the contractions and pushing were quite intense. My midwife had thought the head was right there which is why she let me lead the pushing and didn’t want to interfere but then because things weren’t progressing and I was getting so tired and uncomfortable she did another internal check (she was avoiding internal checks as much as possible to limit the risk of infection and everything and not interfere) and then she realised that my front membranes still hadn’t broken (which she noticed when she checked me at home) and she also realised there was also a small part of my cervix blocking the way, which looked like the top of her head when she looked in the bath but turned out it wasn’t but her head was right behind whatever this thing was. So my midwife broke the last of my waters (it was my back waters that had broken initially) and stuck her fingers in, pushed the bit of cervix aside and at the same time I did a big push and bam the head came down so much lower but it was such an intense and painful but satisfying sensation. From there on it was 30mins of pushing and this was super dooper intense but I knew we were so close and just kept going with the thought that with every push, my baby was one step closer and then all of a sudden, out comes her head and with a few more pushes, bubs was out and I picked her up, brought her between my legs and rolled over onto my back and it was the most amazing feeling ever! She didn’t cry at all but was obviously breathing and was so peaceful and alert, she just looked around with her eyes wide open and it was just the most amazing experience ever. We left the cord attached and 10minutes later I naturally birthed the placenta too with one push which felt so gross and weird but was so easy after pushing out a baby! Apparently my placenta was really quite large and very interesting/unique as the cord was located on the side (called a marginal insertion) but had intertwined with the membranes and wasn’t a “standard” placenta (to the point where my midwife and student midwife studied it for a little while).

When the cord stopped pulsing, Cam cut it whilst I did skin to skin and then we were left to enjoy our precious baby for quite awhile whilst everything was cleaned up and all the rest! I had no signs of tearing or anything but had a fair amount of blood loss, thankfully my haemoglobin levels weren’t too low but I just needed to take iron tablets and that was that! The most amazing birthing experience I could’ve ever dreamed of

We had the most amazing experience and I definitely thank you and hypnobirthing for that! I think it helped SO much particularly just with the mindset, my husbands support and knowing exactly how he could help along with the relaxation and hypno tracks which I listened to religiously leading up to my birth! For a while there I couldn’t go to sleep without listening to a track! My midwife was amazed at how well I coped to the point where she told me I should have 6 children and all home births next time haha!

I think having informed knowledge and the right to say no or question certain things really helped with my mindset and not being as stressed around making decisions related to our birth.

I would 100% recommend Hypnobirthing with Megan but I do think the individual needs to already be in the right kind of mindset for it to be useful or worthwhile.

Thank you again,

Georgia, Cameron & Charlie

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