Birth story - Sarah and baby beatrix

Because we were due so close to Christmas we really wanted to plan a home birth, it meant observations would be at home and we wouldn’t have to go anywhere unless there was an emergency etc.

This got me looking into ways of staying relaxed and focused without panicking that I needed to be in a hospital. That’s when I found hypnobirthing and the digital package! We decided not to find out the sex of the baby and have a little surprise at the end.

Our house has been going under major renovation for the past 12 months, and even at 37 weeks when the pool was delivered we said the house wasn’t ready enough for a home birth.

I stayed very active in the final stages of pregnancy. I wanted the house to be complete as possible. A week before my due date we stripped down the living room. Ready to wall paper strip, Plaster, Paint, and have new carpet laid. The room finally felt ‘ready’ 2 days before contractions started.

Contractions started at home about 4.15am on Christmas Day. I thought I had trapped wind or eaten too much, the pains didn’t seem period pain, more like need a poo pain. But after realising I couldn’t go to the toilet, I decided to time the surges, they were 5-7 minutes apart from the beginning. I started my up breathing with each one.

My partner inflated the pool in our living room.

By 10am my partner was very concerned how far I would have dilated and whether to go out for Christmas dinner or not. He was thinking not, but wanted someone to check me over. We called the birthing centre who sent out a midwife within an hour. We were told I was 1cm and to carry on our day.

During surges I opened Christmas presents and went to my MIL’s for Christmas dinner. We tried to make the most out of the day we could.

In the evening the surges had got stronger but seemed the same time in between, we called the midwife out again about midnight who checked on dilation but I was only 2-3cm. I knew I was in for the long haul now! She told us to try and sleep so I had as much energy at possible, however because I was dozing then being woken up by a surge, I wasn’t able to concentrate on the calming, relaxing up breathing to control a surge. This made me very uneasy and I did get upset. So I decided to get up, I put the candles on in our living room, Oliver started to fill the pool with hot water as we didn’t know how long this would take.

By about 3am I was checked again, I was 3/4cm dilated. I still hadn’t reached established labour 24 hours later! I was trying to concentrate on my breathing rather than think about the time it was taking, but it did get very frustrating.

At this point I did feel like it was never going to end and the thoughts in my head went from ‘every surge gets me closer to my baby’ to ‘I feel like I’m never ever going to see my baby naturally’. I actually begged this midwife for gas and air because I started to think ‘failure to progress’ and I wasn’t calming down from it. She eventually gave in.

At 8am the midwives changed over and this seemed to give me the pick me up I needed. She was the most lovely and attentive lady, who had only given birth 15 months ago herself.

My surges were coming thick and fast, they felt back to back, at 2.30pm I was checked again and was told I had finally reached 10cm! The relief flooded through me.

I had originally said I didn’t want coached pushing, however, when it came to the time. And how tired we all were. I asked her to help me. An hour later and we got to meet our little girl.

In myself I was determined I was going to have a natural labour, I was also not going to hear the words ‘failure to progress’. Oliver has told me so many times since how proud he is of me and how well I coped with labour. I put this down to the digital pack - thank you so much!

I did stay on gas and air until the pushing stage. I used 7 portable canisters!