Thanks to Shona for sharing this beautiful birth story with us. I’m so please you got to use the pool, accessibility of pools with induction varies greatly, so check what’s available locally.
For the most part, my pregnancy was normal, healthy and low risk. All scans had been perfect and my midwife was happy with all my stats at every appointment.
At 34 weeks I went to a routine midwife appointment and found that my bump was not measuring as big as it should have been. My midwife wasn’t too worried but booked me in for a growth scan just to be on the safe side. I attended a scan the following week and baby’s measurements marked in my file ready to review 2 weeks later.
The day before I was 37 weeks my second growth scan showed static growth of my baby’s legs and abdominal, head was so far engaged that a measurement could not be obtained. The doctor advised that to ensure my baby was safe they would be bringing me back in the next day to be induced. This was not part of my plan! Especially as we were due to complete on our house move the next day, and I am a total control freak!
I used hypnobirthing techniques that evening to calm my nerves and spoke to my own wonderful hypnobirthing instructor about all aspects of being induced. I was fully prepared for what was to come and ready to go into battle!
I was given 4 Prostagladin pessaries from Thursday evening across to Saturday morning. Eventually by the lunchtime on Saturday my surges began and I was left alone by the midwives to see how I got on without any more medical intervention. A sad state of affairs and one we hear so much of these days, but the birthing centre was almost at capacity and they simply didn’t have the number of midwives needed to oversee all the patients, so it was better for them to not have me in labour just yet!
By Saturday at 6pm a midwife visited to release my waters. Within minutes I felt my surges intensify and I asked my husband to dig out the TENS machine. I listened to my MP3’s and calm birth playlist during this time. Focusing on my breathing and moving around the room as I needed to. The lights were low and I could really focus on remaining calm. I even felt like I was falling asleep in between my contractions. I had lavender pillow mist and my favourite essential oil Geranium which were really relaxing.
We expected to be seen again 2 hours later to asses if I needed the Syntocinon drip but as they were so busy they just didn’t have the resources. We ended up being alone in our room for 4 hours before I finally asked them if they could come and examine me to find out what the next step was, purely as my surges seemed to be building and were very frequent. I think we were as surprised as the midwife to find I was 7cm dilated! We were lucky enough to learn that a birthing pool was free and they expertly set the room up with low lighting and had my music playing in time for me getting in. The warm water was amazing!
During every surge I just followed my body completely, towards the final stages when I was really breathing down I had to ask if I was doing it right as my midwife wasn’t saying a word (My husband tells me they were giving him the thumbs up all the time though!) Amazingly I was able to stop and talk and even crack a few jokes in between surges!
Our beautiful baby girl Lois Aluna was born at 1.25am on Sunday 27th November, she was just so calm and chilled. She had her eyes open and was looking up at us both in awe. We stayed in the water for about 15 mins while the cord stopped pulsating, I think I said ‘hello baby’ a million times. Lois however didn’t make a single peep!
