My positive but traumatic birth story! I didn't think this could be a thing but here we are. My waters broke without any contractions after two days, so I went in for an induced labour via hormone drip to avoid the baby getting into danger with infection. For 10 hours I had a wonderful labour with no pain relief and using all my hypnobirthing techniques. The midwife pushed along my labour by upping my horomone drip which spiralled along the dilation and suddenly I was at 10cm and ready to push after nearly 20 hours labour. Here asked for an epidural due to exhaustion, I didn't find this painful at all, the first failed but the second worked for three hours, in these three hours I did three hours pushing. Unfortunately my baby had his arms above his head like superman, which no one knew at the time so it didn't matter what I was doing the baby was lodged and not coming out. The doctors gave me two options, a forceps delivery, or a c section. As scary as a turn of events was, which is common in labour, I felt in control the entire time. I felt calm, I used my breathing techinques and even in extreme pain felt like I knew everything was going to be fine. And IT WAS! My husband was my birthing partner and was fantastic, after Laura's classes we both felt so well equipped. I didn't manage my water birth but we both felt we succeeded in a difficult 31 hours of labour which ended up in a forceps delivery when our little boy entered the world. I would do it all again in a heartbeat to meet our baby again for the first time!

We went to bed approx midnight on Saturday 3rd June and I was finding it hard to settle with period like pains, woke Nizzy up at 1;30 and we came in the living room to just stretch and walk around a bit. We went to bed around 4am then I felt a pop and a gush and knew my waters had broken! So we called my mum and she came round straight away. We called labour line twice and told no midwives were available and that if I went to hospital there was a high chance we’d get sent home. So I spent majority of my labour at home, switching between sitting on the toilet and kneeling over the sofa in the living room. From the hypnobirthing class I remember how important breathing is and how much stronger of a painkiller it is than any medical painkillers. So I was focusing so intently on my breathing, also ensuring I wasn’t tensing anywhere coz floppy face floppy fanny lol! 

Eventually we called 999 as I was throwing up whilst contracting and shouting / screaming with the pain (at this point I’d only take 2 paracetamol which I ended up throwing up anyway!). The lady on the 999 call heard me shouting and advised my mum this may end in a home birth and to get towels down in case! The paramedics arrived with gas and air (life saver!) and I bit the bullet in one of my contraction gaps to run to the ambulance. I really didn’t want to be laid on my back at any point in my labour but I had to be to get to the hospital. When we arrived approx 7:15am I was lightly examined and told I was 8cm! Then I was basically left to it - midwives were barely in the room with me, just me mum and Nizzy which I loved. I think at one point a midwife checked baby’s heart rate which was fine and pressed on my belly for some check to which I told her ‘that’s enough now’ lol (I blame my rudeness on the gas and air!). I told the midwife I felt like pushing but then didn’t. I tried once to get onto my side as I remember from the class that a spooning position is good but I just physically couldn’t. Then at 9:39am with just mum and Nizzy in the room I did one huge push and there Eliyanah was on the end of the bed! Midwives heard my scream and came rushing in to catch her lol. 

One midwife said about putting a hat on her so I said no I just want skin to skin to interruptions. And by this point Nizzy had put some really calming love music on which just made me feel on such a high. We had the skin to skin then midwife said to Nizzy about cutting the cord, I asked if cord was white and she said yes but I  double checked with Nizzy and he said yes. And the delayed cord cut was influenced by the class! I wanted to do it anyway but didn’t realise the statistic you mentioned - 30% of the flow is cut when the cord is cut! Straight after Nizzy cut it I was offered the injection to birth placenta which I refused as wanted to birth it naturally. Whilst I was up and walking around to get it out nizzy was having skin to skin and mum was having cuddles. After 1 hour placenta still wasn’t out so midwife tugged a tiny bit on the cord then it came out. After lots of cuddles everything was fine for us to leave at 4:30pm to go home! Was the most surreal experience.  

I’m so glad I attended your class as you made it so clear that this is MY birth and midwives are only there to advise, not instruct. So I didn’t actually feel too rude or bad telling midwife to stop with one of the examinations, or that I didn’t want Eliyanah to wear a hat at first, or declining the placenta jab or about if the cord was white - this was my body and my choice. I am so proud of how focused I was on my breathing - I’ve been told I was pretty silent during the whole labour except when I was throwing up at home and for the one push lol. I’d definitely recommend women / couples to attend as it gave me so much confidence in my body and my rights! Thank you so so much xxx