Throughout my pregnancy with Ruben the thing that consumed and stressed me most was thinking about when/where I’d go into labour. With Bodhi it really didn’t matter when he decided to come, I had no other commitments to sort out. This time I had to factor in who could have Bodhi when the time came for me to have the baby. I strongly considered having a home birth due to the fact I wouldn’t have to worry so much about child care for Bodhi but also because I so desperately wanted to have another water birth. My water birth with Bodhi was so lovely and labour was so much more manageable submerged in warm water. I was given the ok to have a home birth but ultimately decided against it because of the fees involved in hiring/buying a pool (£130 non returnable whether you use it or not) and because of the potential to transfer to hospital if I were to haemorrhage again.
Jack and I attended hypnobirthing classes when I was pregnant with Bodhi and what I learnt in those classes led me to enjoy a smooth labour and natural birth with just cocodomol for pain relief. I wanted to give this baby the same calm entrance into the world and enjoy another straight forward labour and birth. I looked back over notes I had from the classes and from about 7 months pregnant started going to bed listening to the affirmation tracks also learnt through hypnobirthing. In addition to this I attended a weekly pregnancy yoga class from 17 weeks pregnant which was a lovely way to keep me mobile, alleviate some aches & pains and connect with my baby and learn some tips and tricks for labour.
As my due date approached I started experiencing a lot of signs that my body was ready and every day kept wondering is this it?! I woke up on my due date with very mild contractions that were 15-20 minutes apart, they went on all day. It was very much like how my labour started with Bodhi, I expected another day of this but also I knew people had said it’s a lot quicker second time around so was a bit on edge. Things didn’t change until that evening. Jack had gone to bed but I couldn’t sleep through the contractions; they’d started to creep a little bit closer together and were strong enough to keep me from sleeping so I stayed up bouncing on my ball and watching tv. By 1am I needed to change things up and decided to have a shower which is where I ended up staying for an hour. I knew the contractions were intensifying but the water provided relief and distraction. By the time I got out around 2am I was so tired and decided to try and rest in our spare room. By this point the birth breathing that I had practiced at my pregnancy yoga classes was really coming into use to help me breathe through each contraction. Certain postures that id learnt in yoga were also helping me through; hip rotations on all fours and adapted downward dog were all featuring! Contractions were still about 6-8 minutes apart at this point. As it neared 3am I woke Jack up feeling like I’d hit a wall and in need of some company and support. From here is when things sped up; I suddenly had 3 contractions all lasting almost 2 minutes and only about 3 minutes apart. We called the hospital and I had a further 2 contractions on the phone and they advised us to make our way in. We called jacks parents to come to watch Bodhi, they were with us in 15 minutes which was just as well as the contractions continued to come thick and fast. The 15 minute drive to hospital was hellish but we arrived at 4am and were met by 2 midwives at the start of a seemingly never ending corridor. As we walked the length of the corridor i had to keep stopping to breathe through more contractions. I had no idea how far along I was but kept telling myself that I might not be that far along; I just didn’t want to get my hopes up in case I still had a way to go. When we finally reached the birthing room the midwives did some standard checks on heart rate and blood pressure and also put in a canula just as a precaution in case I were to lose blood like last time. They were aware that I wanted a water birth as we’d let them know on the phone so they had it ready and said I could get in. They did offer to check how far dilated I was but I declined to know as didn’t want to feel deflated if it still had a lot more work to do. I got into the birth pool at 4:30am and the relief was instant, warm and weightless I was able to move around and settled on all fours. Before I knew it my body had decided it was time to start pushing. Hypnobirthing teaches you that your body knows how to give birth and to trust it to do what it needs to; you don’t need to be told when to push your body will do it for you and that’s been so true in both of my labours, something just changes and my breathing changed and that’s how Jack and the midwives knew that i was at that stage. I was surprised that I was at the pushing stage so soon but just went with it. The midwives were encouraging and jack reigned me in when I had a moment of panic at the crowning stage. You’re told small little pushes and I knew to follow that advice so as not to do some serious tearing but the whole sensation is so uncomfortable I just wanted it over as soon as possible. Jack calmed me down so I paid attention to my breathing and before I knew it the baby was out and being passed through my legs under the water for me to reach down and pull up on to my chest for that first cuddle. Oh the relief!! Relief that he was here and fine, relief that labour was over and relief that I’d never have to go through that again! Despite not having any pain relief and preaching that it’s all in the breathing labour is still hard and uncomfortable and an intensity like nothing else. I can completely understand why women opt for drugs to help them through labour and don’t judge them for it!
I enjoyed cuddles with Ruben in the water for 10 minutes and then got out to deliver the placenta. This time I’d agreed to have the injection to encourage the placenta to come because with Bodhi I’d left it to nature and ended up losing a lot of blood because of it. The midwives had to empty my bladder with a catheter and did have to encourage my uterus to contract but it did and placenta was out smoothly. No stitches required (wahoo!) so we were left to enjoy tea, toast, cuddles and share the news with our families.
Ruben Ellis Britton arrived on 18th April at 5:02am weighing 7lb 12oz.
We were moved to our own private room at the hospital where we stayed for the day before we were allowed to head home at 3pm with our 10 hour old baby boy.
I feel very lucky that I have had 2 births go exactly to plan and that I haven’t experienced any stress or complications. I think preparation and knowledge is key which is why I am such an advocate for hyonobirthing. I would encourage any pregnant woman to explore it to gain a better understanding of how the body gives birth and how you can help yourself mentally and physically prepare for and endure labour and face it without dread or fear and instead with excitement and focus. I appreciate some women won’t give labour much thought and are happy to have intervention and take all the drugs available. Personally I didn’t want that experience and didn’t want to feel out of control or set myself up for potential complications which is why I went down the hypnobirthing route. All of that said it doesn’t matter how you welcome your baby into the world it will be special and unique and something you will never forget.
Ash the mum 