Long story…
I want to start by thanking this group of Mama’s for all your positive induction stories, without this group I honestly don’t think I would have had such an empowering and positive induction experience!
We found out we were pregnant just before the first lockdown in March after returning from travelling the world for 6 months prior and we were so excited! I suffered extreme morning sickness for the first 13 weeks which was pretty awful and lost 5KG! Once the sickness subsided I began to really enjoy the pregnancy journey!
At my 20 week scan (I attended all NHS scans alone due to covid) they picked up an indication of talipes in her left foot, we were referred to the foetal medical expert for some further checks to make sure this was an isolated issue and they confirmed it was and she just needed to be checked at birth and likely need physio when she was born.
At 34 weeks I was referred for a growth scan as she seemed to be measuring small based on fundal measurement. The scan showed she looked to be under 95th percentile. I then had bi-weekly scans to track her growth and at this point was told I wouldn’t be able to have the home birth I had planned for and really wanted.
At the 38 week growth scan they recommended to deliver her early via induction due to lack of growth and restricted blood flow to placenta. After many discussions with consultants and midwives and using BRAIN we decided to accept induction and booked in for 38+4. I had 2 sweeps before hand and after the second sweep was 1cm dilated, so had hoped it wouldn’t take too long to get into natural labour and prayed it would happen before induction day!
I was very anxious about induction as I wanted as natural delivery as possible with limited pain relief and interventions and it was so far from the home water birth I had really hoped for. Despite this, I used the next few days to re-watch the induction videos from the positive companies digital hypnobirthing course, and also read as many positive induction stories as possible from this group! I knew how important it would be to get my own natural oxytocin flowing to work with the drip and be as mobile as possible throughout the process (UFO) so I prepared my birth bag with everything I wanted to transform the labour ward delivery room into a relaxing spa like environment thinking about all 5 senses, this included LED candles, fairy lights, clary sage oil, aromatherapy room spray, lots of my favourite snacks, my birth ball, and my laptop with my hypnobirthing playlist. 
The day of my induction came and my husband dropped me off onto the antenatal ward (he had to leave until I could be transferred to labour ward due to covid restrictions).
I had the 6 hour pessary inserted at 12pm and then ended up being on continuous monitoring for 4 hours as babies heart rate was unstable after the pessary. At this point I requested wireless monitoring for when I was transferred to labour ward as I knew I did not want to be lying on the bed throughout my labour and needed to be as mobile as possible, they could not promise this but said they would try their best when the time came for me to transfer! At around 6pm the pessary seemed to be working and I was getting regular tightenings (feeling them in my lower back), however the pessary did then cause me to hyper stimulate so the doctor said I wouldn’t be able to have a second pessary at this point. Luckily when they did the next examination 4 hours later I was 2cm which is what they need to be able to break my waters which meant I could transfer to labour ward when there was an available bed, so no further pessary was needed!
The next morning at 7am a room became available for me on labour ward so I called my husband to set off to the hospital!
The tightenings had subsided and I managed to have some toast and juice, and even shower, wash and dry my hair before my husband arrived! I asked the midwife about having the continuous monitoring, she had never used this before and they only had one on the labour ward and luckily it was available in a different room, so they moved me to that room. My husband arrived and set up the room which looked amazing! The hospital provided a star light projector and a diffuser which made the room so beautiful alongside all my candles, fairy lights, oils and relaxing birth playlist! All the midwifes and doctors kept commenting on what an amazing transformation we had done to the room!
My assigned midwife was brilliant, she read through my birth plan (which I had adapted for the induction) and really supported my wishes, advocating on my behalf to the consultants for certain wishes, ie. extra time between my waters breaking to being put on the drip as I wanted to see if I could get myself into natural labour to avoid the drip if possible. Consultants finally agreed to 4 hours post my waters breaking before they put me on the drip, again we used BRAIN here as consultants were advising me to move to the drip within an hour of breaking my waters.
At 12pm my waters were broken, and I then had until 4pm before moving to the drip (if I wasn’t contracting regularly 4 x in every 10 mins by then). Unfortunately by 4pm I was contracting 3 x in 10 mins so I was put on the dreaded drip. The drip caused my contractions to intensify quite quickly and I started to use the up breathing alongside my tens machine which provided amazing relief (I was quite shocked how well the tens machine worked!). I was told from the beginning I wouldn’t be able to use the birthing pool (and I was in the only room on labour ward with a pool!) however the senior midwife on duty confirmed the wireless monitoring does work in water and as long as I don’t deliver my baby in water they would be happy for me to use it for pain relief!) This made me so excited that I could have the water birth I dreamed of even if I couldn’t deliver in the water! However once my contractions were coming quite intensely I asked for gas and air along side my tens machine and had found I was coping well and in the zone with the combination of bouncing on my birth ball with gas and air and my tens that I didn’t want to disrupt that and decided against using the pool.
Around 7pm I felt my body change and knew these were downward contractions, I was not due to be examined until 9pm and I was only 2cm at my last examination before the drip, so was really hoping I had made good progress!
I got onto all fours on the bed in an upright position as I started to feel my body pushing down so started to do my downward breathing with each contraction. At 9pm I had my examination and I was 8cm! I was so relieved that my body was doing what it was supposed to and I felt like I was so close to meeting our daughter at this point which really motivated me and gave me more mental strength to continue without further pain relief! (Little did I know at this point that I was still nearly 4 hours off meeting her!)
I found the pushing phase the most challenging and tiring as I was struggling to use the gas and air now due to being quite out of breath and extremely hot! (If there is one thing I recommend which I wish I had packed, it’s a hand held fan and water spray!) my husband was running back and forth to the toilet to get damp cold paper towels between contractions! I thought with every push I was going to meet her on the next contraction, and kept asking the midwife how long left (I think this was the transitional phase, but I am so glad she didn’t mention it might be a few more hours as I definitely think I would have asked for an epidural if I had known!)
I had started uncontrollably “mooing” which I had read about but was such a weird experience that I felt I couldn’t control. I was planning to continue to “breathe the baby out” and had asked not to be coached to push, however the best piece of advice was when the midwife coached me to hold the energy inside rather than making the mooing noise and push with that energy. I felt like the breathing was prolonging the pushing phase so took her advice on board and the pushing felt like I was really helping her move down the birth canal.
At around 10pm I knew I was close as felt the ring of fire with every downward contraction and the midwife and my husband could start to see the head crowing. A consultant doctor came in and said he wanted to examine me to ensure I was 10cm, this was very disruptive and I was really not happy about having to be examined when I was in the full throws of delivering her, but my husband used BRAIN on my behalf and advised it was the best thing to make sure I was delivering her safely and not at risk of rupturing anything. He confirmed I was 10cm and within 30 mins my beautiful baby daughter was born at 10:50pm. I had a second degree tear which they stitched up whilst I had my golden hour with Ayla and she breastfed (I honestly wouldn’t have known I had torn at the time due to all the oxytocin and overwhelming experience of meeting my daughter!! They left me and my husband together with our daughter for a good 3 hours in the room allowing him to bond with skin to skin (and me to have a little power nap!!) before transferring me to postnatal ward when he then had to leave and return in the morning.
She also weighed 6lbs 10oz!!! So was in fact not at all small for gestation and growth scans had predicted she was 5lbs 8oz, so there is a big margin for error on those!
Even though I decided to accept the induction (whilst it probably wasn’t needed in retrospect) I still had the most amazing and positive birth experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world! I am so thankful for the positive birth companies digital hypnobirthing course and all the tools it gave me to prepare and for this Facebook group of amazing positive induction stories. It just goes to show, even when your birth plan goes out of the window, you can really have a positive experience when you own your environment and are well informed of your choices and options available to you!
