Alice’s Birth Story

Positive birth story – Induction – FTM – 40+11

My induction was booked on November 3rd at 40+11 after 2 unsuccessful sweeps. The pessary was inserted at 11am and I was told they would check my cervix in 24 hours and see if any progress was made. I started watching some series while bouncing on my ball not expecting anything to happen for a while but I starting feeling tightenings around 3pm. By 6pm I was having constant intense contractions. They were lasting 5 minutes with almost no breaks in-between so I knew my uterus was over-stimulated. I managed to keep control and stay calm with breathing and visualisation (I really didn’t think that visualisation would be a thing that would work for me!). I visualised the sea, door frames, candles, balloons, inhaling calm and exhaling stress… can’t believe I remembered all those from the course and book I read! As it got more and more intense, I started the TENs machine on the lowest setting and it really helped me!

I got examined at 7pm and I was 3cm dilated and was transferred to labour ward at 8pm. They also removed the pessary at that point. As I was keen to keep going with the labour without interventions, I asked if they could wait before breaking my water to see if the contractions would keep going naturally… unfortunately that didn’t work out and they slowed down so my waters were broken at 9pm. I was weirdly anxious about them breaking my water… that’s when the gas and air came to the party! I did not expect gas and air to work so well! I was having a great time in-between contractions, I was singing, talking rubbish and laughing ? (and vomiting but let’s not go there, it only happened twice!). 

I started having the urge to push by 11pm. I remembered to stay upright and kept using my TENs machine (they were on constant boost mode for the last 2 hours) and gas & air. 

In the end, I ended up on my back, which I didn’t want but it was the only way I could cope. Then it all went a bit blurry where baby had his meconium inside me and my contractions slowed down. I knew I had to give everything with each contraction. Doctor was ready to do a ventouse delivery but it wasn’t needed in the end but still had to get an episiotomy (they scared me before but at that point I was just like “yes whatever, I want my baby” so try not to overthink it as it feels so different on the day). And then Léo was born at 1:35am on November 4th. What an amazing experience it was! I really didn’t think I’d be that person, but I did feel so proud of myself, empowered and I would do it again tomorrow!

I think what made the experience less stressful for me is that we were very open minded and were very aware of things not going to plan. We had a birth plan (water birth at a MLU) but I was mentally prepared for a different experience. Fairly early on in the labour, I was actually starting to talk about epidural as I wanted to enjoy the experience… but in the end the gas and air was enough for me. My advice would just be to go with the flow, use EBRAN and breathe… I still can’t believe how powerful breathing techniques are!

Good luck everyone, you’ll smash it ?

For more information about The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Know what you can do to stack the odds in your favour for the birth that you want. Videos, checklists, audios & a support group all created by a midwife to get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth.