Birth story - Bryony and baby boy

Not what we expected by any stretch of the imagination, but hypno-birthing (what I had time to practice of it) meant that I’m looking back on my potentially traumatic delivery this morning with happiness and pride.

All the way through this pregnancy, I was very keen on the idea of a hypno-birthing water birth and my local birthing centre. I never dreamed that baby would have a completely different mind of his own!

On Sunday morning, 31 weeks and 4 days, my waters broke. When I went into MAU, they assured me it wasn’t my waters, but just very watery discharge - I returned home feeling very uncomfortable and reticent about their decisions. So a few hours later, with no sign of things improving, I called again and they asked me back.

Within 10 minutes, they determined that yes - my waters were leaking a lot. They started me on antibiotics, gave me a steroid shot for baby’s lungs “in case delivery [was] imminent”, and decided to keep me in over night for observations.

Perhaps naively, I assumed that everything would be fine and I would be put on bed rest for a weeks, to leave baby a little more time to cook! Well...baby had other ideas.

Around 1am this morning, I started getting surges. These increased in power until around 4am, where the pressure was becoming increasingly difficult to manage - even after accepting diamorphine (something I had originally thought I would avoid entirely!).

By 7/8am, the midwives were getting a little concerned, as baby’s heart rate seemed to be decreasing with every surge I had - and so, it was decided very suddenly that I was in need of an emergency Caesarean section. I was rushed down a corridor, swarmed by tens of people all asking me hundreds of different questions, trying to undress me and prep me for surgery as quickly as possible.

As a naturally anxious person, I knew this had the potential to become a hugely traumatic experience for me. But something within the hypno-birthing principles that I’d been reading about drowned out all of that; I remained completely calm and in control.

Whilst it was, by no means, the birth I had hoped and dreamed for - I am at peace with what happened, and just beyond thankful that our baby boy is on minimal support in NICU. They’ve even said we may get cuddles as soon as tomorrow 😍💙