Grainne’s Positive Birth Story
Love reading positive birth stories? You’re in the right place! This birth story is with first time mum Grainne who delivered her baby girl, Cara, at 40 weeks and 2 days following a quick delivery with no examinations.
?Positive birth Story? Baby Cara born at 40+2 weighing 7lbs 13.
⭐️ FTM – 36yrs⭐️ Water birth⭐️ Gas and air ⭐️ Quick delivery – no examinations
I almost didn’t write my birth story but I remember how much reading them helped me, especially the positive ones so I hope some others might find my story reassuring! Relatively straightforward pregnancy bar low Papp-A for which I was taking aspirin and had extra growth scans, all of which were fine. As per the course was eating dates daily and drinking raspberry tea, which I really believe contributed to our quick delivery! Was also exercising daily, usually an hr walk, down to 30-40mins towards the last week or so, and some gentle conditioning exercises, I was keen to do as much as possible to get baby moving!
At 40+2 I did a few squats in the morning and went for a walk with my husband on his lunch. After our walk I noticed a very small leaking of fluid which I really wasn’t sure if it was waters or not around 2.30. At about 5pm I started to feel period type pains and realised things were starting! We had dinner and thinking I was in for a long night of contractions I suggested to my husband that we go for a lie down about 7pm to get some rest.
Things ramped up very quickly however and by 9pm they were lasting a minute and 2 mins apart. It was intense but I was using my breathing techniques which helped. I took some paracetamol but was sick so didn’t get any benefit from these. I phoned the hospital for advice as I thought it would be much too early to go in and didn’t want to do the car journey twice if we got sent home but they advised me to come in to be assessed and they started filling the water bath.
We got to the hospital at 9.45pm by which point my contractions were on top of each other and very intense. I still thought it was too early and I might be sent home, as a first time mum I was expecting a longer labour so I didn’t recognise this as the transition phase when I said to my husband I don’t think I can do this if it’s this intense already! I got in the pool at half ten which was lovely, at that point I asked about pain relief and was given gas and air which did help take the edge off the pain and also helped regulate my deep breathing, loved it!
I soon felt like I needed to push and I asked the midwife if I could thinking she would need to check how dilated I was (had not had a single examination since we arrived) but she said if I feel like pushing just push! I did think at some points I wasn’t going to able to get her out but only 40mins later our beautiful daughter was born at 11.57pm. It was all so calm and natural from start to finish we couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
My husband cut the cord and we had skin to skin and our first breastfeed as we waited for the placenta, however ended up with the injection as it hadn’t come at almost 1hr, it did make me sick but not bad at all. I then went to get stitched as I had a second degree tear whilst my husband had skin to skin. I was very worried about tearing but can honestly say it’s not as painful as It sounds, had gas and air and local anaesthetic for the stitches and didn’t feel a thing!
This course definitely helped me to prepare and to stay calm and confident throughout, our midwives commented on my breathing techniques and said they really enjoyed our birth experience! Thank you Beth! Xx
Click the link 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.
