My Positive Birth Story – Hypnobirth Experience!

9 weeks and 5 days postpartum, and I’m finally ready to share the details of one of the hardest but best days of my life. Without further a do, here goes my birth story!

Prefer video? Be sure to watch my YouTube video (below), where you’ll also catch a clip or two of me in labour!

At Home

On January 22nd (3 days before my due date) at 5:31 am, I woke up to a very uncomfortable cramping sensation in my stomach. I had watched enough labour and delivery videos, to know that period-like cramps are an indication of the onset of labour for many women, but I dismissed the cramp, went for the usual trip to the toilet, (gosh I don’t miss those!), and then tried to force myself back to sleep.

A few minutes later the cramp returned, and a few minutes after that it returned again, alongside the sensation to use the bathroom a second time in less than 20 minutes. It was at this point that I had noticed that I had also lost my mucus plug!

I waddled quickly back to the bedroom, and told hubby what had happened, but tried to reserve my excitement for fear of it being a false alarm, so we stayed in bed and tried to go back to sleep.

Cue contraction app.

I began to log each contraction from around 6:00am, right up until 2:00pm when we left for the hospital – they were very consistent the entire time, and came every 5 to 6 minutes lasting approximately 45 seconds.

Series of events between 6:00am and 2:00pm

• Told hubby he should still go to work because I was worried I may be in labour for a very long time as a first time mum
• Changed my mind after a pretty awful contraction and told hubby there’d be no work for him today!
• Forced myself to have something for breakfast to keep my energy levels up
• Called the midwife to say I wouldn’t be able to make it to my last midwife appointment which was on the same day
• Had a shower (I couldn’t stand it and found the water to be very irritating – my birth plan and hopes for a water birth out of the window!)
• Attempted to sit on my birth ball to help with the pain – nope couldn’t stand that either!
• Sat on the sofa; where I felt the most comfortable, and breathed through the contractions (hypnobirth: in for 4 and out for 8!), untill I could no longer bear the pain and it was time to go to the hospital.
  

(Link to the amazing & affordable hypnobirthing course I took}

At the Hospital

At approximately 2:30pm we arrived at the hospital, and to my horror the car park was full. Hubby suggested he drop me off at the hospital entrance but I refused, there was no way I wanted to experience a contraction without him by my side. Besides, he was on fan duty,  and I genuinely thought I would pass out if the fan wasn’t blowing in my face every time a contraction started!

So, we parked at the supermarket next door, and paused through each contraction as we walked to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, I was seen to straight away, and so happy to know that my decision to hold out for as long as possible at home was not in vain… I was 4 to 5 centimeters dilated, and would not be sent home.

After being checked (2.48pm), I was sent to the delivery suite where I changed into a hospital gown, and continued to breathe through my contractions whilst listening to my labour and delivery playlist. My midwives (who were amazing by the way), tried to convince me to take gas & air, but I declined for a fear of it making me nauseous which I already was. At 6:00pm when the pain felt so unbearable, I knew I needed some extra help, and took the gas an air.

At 8:00pm I had the urge to use the bathroom and was disconnected from the gas and air machine. As humour would have it, whilst trying to use the bathroom as quickly as possible before another contraction came, one came anyway! HOWEVER, this is where things got very interesting… there was barely any pain! My midwives looked at me in shock and immediately asked me to get back on the bed, so that they could check how far dilated I was.

Drumroll please…. I was 10cm!

Time to start pushing!

Between 8:00pm and 9:58pm I used every last bit of energy in me, to try to push baby girl out, but couldn’t (during this time my waters broke). As I had been pushing for so long, the doctor and midwives advised that they give( my syntocinon, a synthetic form of oxytocin which would help crank my contractions all the way up, and it did that’s exactly what it did!

Everything went from zero to 100 in a matter of minutes, my breathing went out of the window, and I was howling like a mad woman, but before I knew it I had pushed her head out, and at 10:08pm our beautiful baby girl was born!

6.6lb of pure perfection… Chloe Morayo Kolade