Katrina and Michael’s Powerful and Empowering 3.5 Hour Birth

Birth Story by Katrina, Hypnobirthing Mum

“While we never set out for a natural birth, I am so grateful – and still processing – every part of our birth and how we brought our little man, Lenny, into the world on the 22 November 2021. We never had a set plan (healthiest and safest way), but I can say we did it as calm as possible, and thankful to have experienced a very short, powerful and empowering 3.5 hour birth.”

Here’s our story!

The start

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t start to go a little stir crazy once I passed the 40 week mark. We’d battled a short cervix throughout pregnancy so I was expecting to go early, and never thought we’d be pushing 41 weeks. I was still sleeping well and overall, was feeling good, but SO ready to meet our rainbow baby. I hoped to avoid induction as I knew it gave me the best chance at an intervention-free birth. I’d been experiencing on and off period pain over the past two weeks and looking back, it was definitely my body doing its thing and preparing for birth. I knew I needed to relax and trust the process. My body and my baby, they know exactly what they’re doing!

I woke to a ‘show’ at 40+3, but with no pain or any other signs of labour in sight, my husband, Michael, and I went along to my cousin’s 18th birthday pool party. Looking back now, I was definitely in early labour that day! We had an early dinner and jumped into bed before I woke for the toilet at midnight. I saw my mucus plug and it was as if seeing the mucus plug set my surges into motion. They started to come hard and fast – almost instantly!

At this stage, I didn’t wake Michael as I knew it could subside and the best thing to do was to get back into bed. I remembered Kate from Positively Hypnobirthing saying to make sure you eat something, so I made myself toast with peanut butter and started packing the car. The surges were building in intensity so I started the timer on my baby app which tracked them at three minutes apart. This was all within 20 minutes! I called the hospital and the midwife said to stay home as they may slowdown, but living 45 minutes away from the hospital my instincts told me to get in the car and go. We were also so excited to finally meet our baby! Eeeee!

We said goodbye to our dogs and fiddled with the tens machine on the drive to the hospital. The tens machine was a great relief. We arrived at the hospital at 1.00am and by now my surges were still frequent and strong. Our midwife, Taylor, did an examination between surges and I was 5cm dilated with baby’s head already very low and engaged. Taylor asked what our birth plan was and I let her know we were trained in hypnobirthing and that my only preference was to be told when pain relief was no longer an option. An epidural was not out of the question if I needed it. Taylor was amazing and provided recommendations throughout the labour while quietly checking baby’s heart rate and my pulse. Lenny was doing amazing and happy the whole way through labour. Bless his cotton socks!

My birth support was Michael and my sister, Brie, which was the best decision I made. Brie arrived an hour after we got to the hospital and together, her and Michael provided the most amazing support, from holding my hand to making sure I kept drinking water.

The labour

For the first hour I was on the ball with gas, the tens machine cranked at the highest level and Michael providing a soft touch massage. When the surges got more intense, we jumped into the hot shower with Michael putting the hose over my back and front. We were able to have the water quite hot which felt amazing. Between the gas and the hot water, I found this to be the best pain relief and this is where we laboured until it came time to push! Michael and Brie kept taking it in turns on the shower hose, while the other held my hand between surges and made sure I kept drinking water. This was such a saviour! My sister still laughs that there were multiple times where I tried to drink water from the gas hose.

I surprised myself with wanting silence in the room which meant I didn’t use any hypnobirthing affirmations. What I did use from the hypno toolbox was visualisation! Every time I had a surge, I visualised being at my happy places (favourite beach, swimming in the ocean, and walking my dogs). This took my mind elsewhere which I found to be a really important thing. I also tried to keep my body floppy and moving as much as possible. I used the ball for this, rolling my back into Michael and forward again. Really big, long movements. After 1.5 hours in the shower, I got the urge to push. It’s so true – you literally get the urge and mother nature does her thing! At this stage, my pain was intense but I was holding up okay, had my eyes closed and getting a good break between surges. I started asking for pain relief but my birth team kept reminding me how close we were and that I could do it.

Baby time!

We moved from the shower to the hospital bed where I leant over alternating between standing and the squatty potty. That’s when my water broke all over Michael’s feet – ha! From there, it was go time! Baby was on his way! Taylor got me up over the head of the bed where I had Michael and Brie on either side providing words of support, holding my hand, reminding me to relax between surges and helping me with my breathing. My body did the rest through surges with some assisted pushing and wild sounds coming from my mouth. I even bent down and felt his head as he was crowning. Baby’s hand came out at the same time as his head which became a second degree tear and while I had hoped to avoid it, I did feel the ring of fire. After another ten minutes and with one final surge, I felt him literally ‘slide’ out. He was here!

I still can’t believe how the pain immediately leaves your body as soon as your baby is in your arms. Our amazing obstetrician didn’t arrive in time for the delivery, but our midwife Taylor did such an amazing job. My sister read out the time he was born (4.59am) and the fact her and Michael assisted with the birth will always be so special. Once Lenny was born, he was placed on my chest for his first latch and skin to skin. I was given syntocinon in my thigh to deliver the placenta which happened very fast and was painless. To be honest, I don’t remember the placenta even being birthed. Dr Tina then arrived to stitch up my second degree tear. We were able to enjoy plenty of time together before Lenny was weighed. We were all very tired, and when Lenny fell asleep (babies tend to have a big sleep after birth) I had a shower and we made our way up to the maternity ward.

We are so glad we did Kate’s hypnobirthing class. It provided us with tools that I used throughout pregnancy, such as the hypno tracks that brought me back to a positive mindset if I started to feel overwhelmed or anxious about the birth. We also used the rebozo techniques daily when baby turned into a posterior position at 39 weeks. Not only did this help get him back into a better position for birth (he birthed on a slight angle), it also felt amazing on a heavily pregnant belly.

Thank you, Kate, for sharing all your birthing wisdom with us! We definitely could not have confidently navigated such a fast and intense birth if we didn’t attend your course.

Thank you to the team at Gold Coast Private, in particular our wonderful midwife Taylor and obstetrician Dr Tina for their care.

And to my husband and sister – both total rockstars. I should rent them out as a birth team!

I’ll always remember the day our Lenny boy came flying into the world at sunrise!