Birth Story by Georgia, Hypnobirthing Mum
“She was 4.570kg… I was in utter shock that I had just birthed an even bigger baby than my first and I didn’t have any tears and required no stitches… I wasn’t scared about birthing a big baby because I had so much faith in my body and knew if I’d done it once I could do it again.”
Our girl Elkie was born on the 28th of February at 40+2 weeks. This birth was completely different to my first born 18 months ago but was just as magical and empowering.
The day before Elkie was born I was experiencing a really uncomfortable feeling in my pelvis, a lot of pressure and I felt extremely sore. I had my 40 week appointment with my midwife, I was in the midwifery group practice (MGP) again and was so lucky to have the same midwife I had with Sunny. Everything felt good and we all had a feeling I’d have a baby that week.
That night I went to bed feeling extremely uncomfortable so I slept with ice packs on my pelvic area. I woke up in the morning and still felt uncomfortable so I put the tens machine on. My partner Matt asked if I thought I might be in labour but I wasn’t quite sure. I decided to turn the tens machine off so I could really feel what was going on with my body. After about 10 minutes I realised the discomfort I was feeling were most probably contractions and I thought I’d time them to see if they were coming regularly. They seemed to be coming every 6 minutes lasting about 40 seconds. They were very manageable.
I then rung my mum so she could come and get Sunny and then called our midwife to let her know things were happening. I continued to bounce on my birth ball and use the tens machine. Matt and I decided to put some hypnobirthing tracks on and watch a hypnobirthing water birth on YouTube.
At 9:50am I was laying on the couch when all of a sudden I felt this strong burst of something and to my surprise my waters had broken. I jumped off the couch so quickly and then the water came out, there was quite a bit and it was green so I knew there was meconium in my waters which meant no water birth. We called my midwife and she said to head straight in to the hospital.
By the time we left for the hospital at 10am my contractions were coming hard and fast! About every 2 minutes. We listened to hypnobirthing tracks on the way to the hospital and I was able to remain calm and breath through each one. We got to the hospital at 10:20am, left the car in the loading zone and headed straight up to the birth suite where our midwife met us.
My midwife did all of the necessary checks. Because of the meconium, I had to have my heart rate and baby’s heart rate monitored the whole time.
I used the shower but very very quickly I felt a lot of pressure and we decided that I would go back on the bed. I turned around on the bed and was on my knees holding onto the back of the bed. My body had started pushing. I didn’t realise I was so close to birthing my baby and thought I had a bit more time up my sleeve. There were not many contractions until my baby was born but the contractions were strong and intense and 2 pushes before my baby came out, I went through my transition phase and began to say I couldn’t do it anymore.
Matt was such an incredible support to me, telling me I could do it and repeating how close we were to meeting our baby. My midwife also was incredible helping me through each contraction and making sure I was breathing through each big contraction. There was a student midwife in the birth as well who offered me extra support. They had a warm compress on my perineum which helped me so much. Everyone in the room believed in me and didn’t stop encouraging me throughout the whole process.
As our baby’s head was crowing, my midwife told me to push like I was blowing out a candle and before I knew it baby’s head was out and her body followed very quickly after.
When my baby was born I was in shock of how fast she was born as I had no idea I was so close to birthing her when I first got on the bed. We didn’t know what we were having so this surprise was unbelievable. I had convinced myself I was having another boy throughout my whole pregnancy. Once baby was born I didn’t look to see what sex our baby was. My midwife finally whispered into my ear “you have your little girl” and I just cried in disbelief that I had a girl. I asked Matt if she was really a girl and he told me to have a look, so I finally looked and saw with my own eyes she was a beautiful baby girl. This feeling was so indescribable and the joy I felt was so overwhelming. I could not believe I had just birthed a beautiful baby girl.
Because of the meconium in my waters we had to have doctors come in and take a look at her. They were amazing and made sure she had no fluid inside her lungs and her breathing was stable.
While they were checking her I had hoped to have a physiological third stage and deliver the placenta naturally. I achieved this by birthing the placenta on the toilet. I was so proud of myself for birthing the placenta without the oxytocin and it just felt like the icing on the cake for a completely natural, drug free / no interventions birth.
After this I had beautiful skin to skin with my baby and we weighed her. She was 4.570kg and 54cm. I was in utter shock that I had just birthed an even bigger baby than my first and I didn’t have any tears and required no stitches. I never measured big throughout my pregnancy however I did expect to have a big baby because my first baby was big. I wasn’t scared about birthing a big baby because I had so much faith in my body and knew if I’d done it once I could do it again.
Matt and I used our knowledge from our hypnobirthing course with Kate and we manifested a positive birth from the day we found out we were pregnant. We were lucky enough to get into MGP again and have the same midwife we had with our first baby. This birth was completely different to Sunny’s but was just as beautiful. My births have both been so empowering and I believe it is because of the knowledge we got from Kate’s course, being supported by our amazing midwife and investing the time to prepare for our birth. We did spinning babies exercises to help baby move into the optimal position for birth and to help throughout the whole pregnancy relieve pressure from my hips and lower back.
Mindset, trust and education were key to our positive birth. The way baby and body work together is truly amazing and I am so grateful I was able to birth Elkie the way I did.
We absolutely loved Kate’s hypnobirthing course. Kate is so knowledgable about birth and provides so much insight. I feel excited and empowered to give birth after doing this course. Thank you Kate. I would definitely recommend Kate to anyone looking for a positive birth experience.
I love birth! Thank you so much for inspiring me from the very beginning x
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