In this post I’m sharing one of my own births, which I haven’t actually done before, I share snippets with clients and talk about it sometimes, but this is from an email I sent to my hypnobirthing teachers very soon after the birth. Technically I have birth in Angus, but my pregnancy was in Aberdeen!
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A couple of days before my due date I went to bed early – not something uncommon! About 9pm I had a tightening in my stomach which I had had before but this caught my breath, I dismissed it as I couldn’t believe that I would have a baby before my due date (my first was 10days late). The tightenings continued into the night and even though they were quite regular I didn’t really believe anything was happening this early on. So I continued to sleep in between times, using the golden thread breath and counting down, relaxing from head to toe.
I had strange popping noises in the back of my pelvis, similar to cracking knuckles when I would turn over in bed as if everything was moving about – it truly was an odd sensation! I got up to the loo about 3am and had a small amount of bleeding. A little after 5am I woke my husband up and told him I think I might be in labour, the contractions were about 8 minutes apart at this time. I sent a text to my friend who was coming to look after my eldest to tell her I might be in labour and then my husband called her again shortly afterwards to ask her to come and pick my son up ASAP.
I made the decision to go to Montrose, rather than Aberdeen Maternity Hospital at this stage, there was a risk that if my blood pressure was high when I got there they wouldn’t be able to keep me there and I would end up at AMH but I was sure it was worth the risk! My husband called them and they said to wait until contractions were about 4-5mins apart then head in.
My son was collected at about 6am and then we headed down to Montrose. I would say around this time I thought I really was in labour as I wanted to be on all fours during contractions. The drive to Montrose was interesting – I wasn’t really bothered by the contractions in the car which were about 2-3 mins apart but because I wasn’t looking out of the window, I got quite travel sick! Thankfully I wasn’t actually sick and we made it to Montrose without any drama. I was quite happy between times talking with my husband and thinking about how nice it would be to get into a nice warm bath – or birthing pool!
At Montrose my blood pressure was a bit high, they gave me a bit of time to relax before taking it again, everything slowed down for a bit but once I got settled started up again. After it was checked again everything was fine, so I went through to the pool room and got in the pool about 7:30. There was a shift change so the new midwife, Lorna came to introduce herself.
Getting into the warm water was amazing, I can’t imagine anywhere better to give birth! It was so easy to relax and forget you were even in a hospital. I felt really well and chatted with my husband, Lorna and a student midwife, Zoe, between contractions. My blood pressure settled down to a good value and everything went well.
During contractions I focused on making a long low sound, as I did in my first birth too, making all of my body limp and only focusing on the sound.
I started getting really hot in the face and used a cold facecloth against my forehead. I didn’t realise it at the time, but as things got a little more intense I also kept the facecloth over my eyes during contractions without even thinking about it. I reached a point where I almost fell asleep and my head was nodding – I nearly fell asleep in the pool! With hindsight this was probably transition and I think this would have been when I was fully dilated, but I was never examined at all during the birth so can only guess. The midwife did mention getting out to go the the loo a little while before but I couldn’t bear to get out of the water when I tried to stand.
After the sleepy feeling I had two strong surges where I almost wanted to stand up from being on all fours, then my daughter was born, my waters broke as her head came out. I remember during the first surge losing control slightly and almost panicking – I started to make a higher pitched noise and I remembered in hypnobirthing my teacher talking about lower pitched noises and having more control and I managed to get back into a relaxed state for the second surge which really helped. I lifted her out of the water and fed her straight away. The student midwife was amazed at how quickly she latched on. She was born at 11:16 – I couldn’t believe how quickly and easily it had happened.
We had delayed cord clamping which I was really happy about. We stayed in the pool for a couple of hours afterwards, then my husband cut her cord. I decided to get out and sit on the birthing stool to deliver the placenta as nothing was happening in the pool. This seemed to do the trick and I delivered the placenta about 13:30.
I had just two stitches this time which was an improvement and felt really well. We called our families to tell them and realised she hadn’t even been weighed yet to tell them the weight! We had lunch – I was starving. While I had a shower she was weighed and checked over, another 9lb baby!
We stayed for a couple of hours and had tea and cake before heading home – via the chippy on the way home for a fish supper. I had an early night and was tucked up in my own bed with Penny about 7pm.
We had a wonderful experience at Montrose and I wish more people could experience it!