Birth Story by Kirstin, Hypnobirthing mum
I was induced at 42 weeks as I had early labour on and off for 4 days beforehand that wouldn’t turn into actual labour.
Our birth started on the 14th Feb where I had 2 lots of gels in the afternoon/night. I had intense contractions (aka surges) all night (and got no sleep) but Ven set up our room with nice candles and I just listened to my calming music and hypnobirthing tracks, focusing on my breathing all night and taking the surges one at a time.
My waters were broken at 9am as they were concerned there may be meconium because I was 42 weeks. I was allowed half an hour to be free in the room before they checked. Once they did check, they found a lot of meconium so a water birth was out of the question. I had to get constant CTG monitoring strapped to my tummy to ensure bubs was okay throughout and went straight on the Oxytocin drip to speed things along.
I was hoping to be more mobile but ended up restricted to a corner of the room. I was calmly prepared to meet whatever my turn my birthing may take so these things really didn’t effect me! Ven set up the room with a citrus essential oil in the diffuser, calming music and tea lights.
I laboured 6 hours (to 3cm) with no drugs just
cruising between standing over the bed and sitting on the exercise ball. I focused intensely on my surge breathing and relaxation breaths between surges. Ven did acupressure, light touch and massage to help me through the surges.
Then I lost my cool and breath and needed to refocus. I asked for gas/air which was just what I needed and sat on the exercise ball next to the bed, focusing on deep inhales with surges and collapsing onto the bed between surges, my eyes closed as I rode the head spin. I also asked Ven to play the hypnobirthing affirmations track which he replayed every 20mins for 3 hours straight! I focused on repeating the affirmations in my head during surges and blocked everything else out. Ven also did counter-pressure on my lower back for the duration of every single surge and light touch in between. And I found it so helpful!
The whole time so far baby had been coping beautifully with the labour and there were no concerns for her.
Then everything changed dramatically! The midwife had been on her shift for 12 hours already so she had to swap out, a new one came in and as this happened, my body started wanting to push with the contractions. I was told I was not dilated enough to push and kept collapsing as I was fighting so hard against that urge.
I lost my breathing and my focus and was overcome by the intensity. I thrashed about the bed, unable to find any position I was comfortable in and unable to be calmed by Ven or the midwife. I asked for another vaginal exam to check progress and upon finding out I was only 4cm, requested an epidural even though I planned on not having one. I thought there was no way I go another few hours like this!
Bubs grew increasingly stressed and we both turned from a relatively low risk birth to a very high risk birth in a matter of minutes. I started bleeding a lot, shaking profusely and thrashing about more, so the room flooded with people… obstetricians, loads more midwives, pediatric teams etc.
They were almost going to call emergency C section because her heart rate was dangerously low when an obstetrician suddenly noticed the baby’s head. I transitioned from 4 to 10cm in under 20 minutes and the epidural didn’t even arrive in time! I pushed her out with no pain relief and the obstetrician did a small episiotomy with no numbing due to the urgency.
She went straight to the pediatricians once born as she had ingested a lot of meconium and wasn’t able to breathe by herself. She was also considered very little for my gestation and they were concerned about that too.
I laid on the bed watching them try to stabilise her for 40 mins as I got stitched up and Ven spoke to her and held her little hands. When they couldn’t stabilise her, they gave her to me for 1 minute then she was whisked off to NICU and Ven went with her.
Once she was taken away, I had a postpartum hemorrhage over the following hours. The obstetrician tried to clear out what may be causing it, but I had lost 700ml of blood. The midwife told me I was one more big bleed off being rushed to theatre for a spinal and uterus evacuation (vacuuming it out to ensure no clots/membranes).
As this was going on, NICU staff requested colostrum for baby and I doubted that I would produce any after the stressful ending and her being taken from me. The midwife hand expressed for me and got 6ml out to send up to bubs. Amazingly enough, this also stopped the bleeding and I avoided going to theatre!
At 2pm the next day I finally had drips and catheters out and my blood loss cleared so I was able to go see our little baby. She was in an incubator and had been on CPAP, getting lots of checks and scans and antibiotics.
She had come off CPAP and been breathing by herself well so the midwife was keen to get her out of the incubator and onto me to see if she would be interested in feeding. And she sure was which was a great sign!
She had a few feeds that day, one more lot of antibiotics and was cleared of any concerns they had about her size. She then came back to the ward with us for our last night in hospital. She fed and pooped like a champion for us so the next day once she was dramatically improved and I was cleared of any further hemorrhaging and iron/hemoglobin levels we were discharged.
The birth was quite different to what we were planning but I thoroughly believe all the hypnobirthing techniques helped me and Ven keep calm and positive in the lead up to, during and after the birth (minus the last hour of the birth which was out of our control!).
I still had a great birth experience even of it was a lot to process! I am proud of myself for getting through it with just hypnobirthing techniques and gas/air as well as Ven’s incredible support. The lead up to birth and work we put in the months prior to going to the hospital made all the difference for our mindset and belief in ourselves and once we’re ready to have the next bubba, you can bet we’ll be doing hypnobirthing all over again.
A huge thank you to Kate. You helped me change my mindset to prepare for the induction and inspired and empowered me, believing in me and what I could do!
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