Birth story - Elizabeth and baby Marnie

What we learnt, thanks to the digital pack ,was useful for us a week before Marnie arrived.

In the middle of the night, we headed to the hospital, unsure whether my waters were leaking. I was told my hindwaters had broken, even though none of the tests proved it and I was strongly advised to have an induction that night. I refused as I didn't feel like we were ready to make that decision and applied the B.R.A.I.N acronym. Long story short, we signed a waiver and decided to let things happen naturally.

On that Wednesday I started having period pains and spent the next few days relaxing. At 2am on Friday I started having surges. Already 10min apart, I used the Freya app to track their progress and the up breathing to get through the surges. I also used a Tens machine which helped immensely. This lasted roughly 24 hours by which point I felt ready to go into the birth centre. Low and behold, I was 4cm dilated and admitted immediately. It all went pretty fast after that, as I started using gas and air. Marnie was back to back so my poor husband had to massage my back for 4 hours until Marnie arrived in the birthing pool at 7:45am.

The whole experience was incredible. It felt animalistic, raw, beautiful. Not easy, but the knowledge we gained from the PBC made us feel prepared, confident and helped us have the natural birth we dreamed of!