Here Chloe, Evelyn-Louise's Mama shares her birth story! I absolutely love hearing from my clients after birth and I was so pleased to hear that Richard found the course useful too! What a champion birth partner.
My contractions started around 11pm on Sunday night, I didn't wake Richard right away but he still ended up sleep talking, rubbing my back telling me, "breathe it in and out, remember what hypnobirthing said". Around 2:30am Richard woke up to me crying in bed, the early labour shocked and completely overwhelmed me. Richard jumps into action asking me who he can call, what I want him to do, etc. We timed my contractions whilst I had a bath & then moved on to bouncing on the birthing ball whilst Richard rubbed my back in between contractions and ensured our two cats were fed! We got to the birth centre at around 6am and I had my first check. I was 2cm dilated & the end of my cervix was flat. After a lot of walking/pacing I had some paracetamol & got into the birthing pool for relief. Another check at 12:30pm and I was 6cm dilated, the midwives began 1:1 care, gas & air time!
I don't actually know when my waters broke, but they want on their own! I'd been in active labour for an hour, and had had no sleep since labour had started in the early hours & was running so low on energy. I began to get overwhelmed by it all and broke down, Richard kept repeating "concentrate on your breathing, you've got this, we are all so proud of you.” Richard remembered all of Tacita's advice on supporting your partner during birth & I concentrated on my breaths during the contractions to try & stay as calm as possible.
I'd been pushing for an hour & 50 minutes, I was out of the pool & on the bed at this point, the midwives told me that if baby wasn't born in the next 10 minutes they'd have no choice but to take me to the delivery unit and give me a small cut to help baby out.
Something in my brain clicked then and I said, "No, this baby WILL be out then!" I put the gas and air aside & was offered the birthing stool, I sat on it and just pushed, no gas and air, just breathing and pushing. Next thing I know I hear "the head is out!” I took a big breath, and pushed again, as I do this I look down and see my baby being caught before hitting the floor. At 19:01pm our beautiful daughter, Evelyn-Louise, was born, 2 weeks and 1 day early, weighing a very healthy 8lb 2oz. I got onto the bed with Evelyn-Louise and had an injection to release the placenta. The first injection didn’t work, so I had a second. Still not budging. Richard cut the cord & I had lots of skin to skin & breast-fed whilst a Dr came down to see if he could deliver the placenta. He inserted a canula & pushed on my stomach whilst I too pushed, thankfully he managed to get my placenta out and I didn't need to go to theatre! I gave little lady to her Daddy & both he & Nana/my mum enjoyed lots of cuddles.
Thanks to Chloe, Richard and Evelyn-Louise for sharing their story. If you'd like to find out more about my hypnobirthing courses and antenatal support, sign up to a free 'Introduction to Hypnobirthing' Session now.