Shirin’s 9 Day Labour Positive Birth Story

Preparing for my birth

After a recommendation for The Positive Birth Company course from a family member at 12 weeks, my husband and I got into prep mode and spent every weekend watching the course videos, making notes and practising the techniques. We found it so empowering to gain this knowledge about the physiological and instinctive nature of birth and would tell all our friends excitedly about what we’d learned. I’d listen to the tracks every day and used the Freya app early on to practise breathing and receive the beautiful affirmations.

Early on we decided a home birth was our preference and we were so encouraged when we shared this with our midwife who had home births herself and was a big supporter of this. We bought a birth pool and set the space up in our home to have a practice run and give ourselves chance to visualise this happening. I was fortunate to have a very low risk pregnancy. Baby had been head down and in position from 25 weeks and had started to engage from 30 weeks which gave me hope she would remain in a good place for birth.

I’d experienced a lot of Braxton Hicks from 24 weeks and these got more frequent and intense towards the end of my pregnancy. I saw this as good practice for the techniques I had learned.

The beginning of labour

On 20th December I woke up at 2am with intense cramps and knew these were different to the Braxton Hicks I had been experiencing. I lay in bed and focused on my breathing. As the morning went on I felt the surges get stronger in intensity and around 15 minutes apart. I decided to continue with my plans for the day and go to the shops with my mum, but as we were out and walking around I knew they were getting closer together so I started to time them and realised they were lasting about 1 minute and coming every 7 minutes or so. I headed home and decided to do hip swivels on my birth ball and practise my breathing.

At around 4:45pm I reached 3 in 10 on the Freya app and we both got very excited about the possibility that this was it! When we got home, my husband started to pump up the birth pool and called the triage line. The triage line was really helpful, but informed us that there wasn’t enough staff to support a home birth on this shift. They advised we pack a bag up and head to the midwife led unit in the hospital where they’d be waiting to welcome us and would put their best efforts into making the experience as close to a home birth as possible. I was a little bit disappointed to hear this but we knew this was a possibility and I quickly reminded myself how important it was that we were being supported by a great team regardless of setting.

We arrived at the midwife led unit and were greeted by a lovely midwife who started to do some monitoring just before a shift change. The room we’d been allocated was lovely and calm. They’d already put out tea lights and warmed the birthing pool for us. The new midwife after the shift change offered to do a VE which I accepted to see what stage I was at. The VE showed that I wasn’t yet dilating. The midwife advised it was best to head home and be in our own space so I was fully relaxed and could continue with my labouring. We left the hospital and did just that.

The next morning I had a routine midwife appointment so decided to go along as normal and check if anything had changed from the night before. I was so encouraged when I found out my cervix was soft and I had started to dilate to 1cm. Baby’s head was fully in the pelvis now and was sitting right on my cervix, which I hoped would really help me to dilate. I certainly wasn’t expecting a long latent labour but over the next few days I learned to practice patience.

“My labour started on 20th December and my baby was born on 29th December -9 full days of powerful surges.”

I went back into hospital on 24th and 27th for monitoring to check baby was still ok. At 1am on 27th, after some monitoring and another VE I discovered I hadn’t dilated any further and had reached the point where I was physically tired. At this point, I was offered an induction which was a 24 hour pessary to try and encourage the cervix to open more so they could attempt to break my waters and get things moving. I discussed with my husband and decided this was worth trying.

We came back into the hospital at 4pm for my induction and I had to stay on the ward overnight due to the distance we live from the hospital. I quickly found my surges got more intense. I was over-contracting and struggling to walk, but I maintained that moving and staying upright, forward and open was best for me. It was at this stage I decided to take paracetamol to help with the discomfort I was experiencing.

The next morning my husband returned to the ward and fitted my tens machine. I had been holding off using this until I really needed it, but what a relief it was. We went back down to the induction room late afternoon to see what progress had happened, but I was sadly still no further dilated. I was disheartened to find the induction hadn’t worked despite knowing they were not successful every time. My body had been working overtime the last 24 hours in particular and I was starting to feel exhausted. I was offered a 6-hour pessary to try again, but we decided at this point to decline. The midwife again was so supportive and encouraging.

After a good meal, I decided to speak to the team about opting for a C-section. We discussed different routes for a vaginal birth. I decided a C-section would give me the best chance to welcome my baby into the world whilst still being alert and present for it. We knew we’d be further down the list so were given the chance to go home for a couple of hours rest and return early morning for my blood work and to meet the doctor and anaesthetist.

On 29th December, we had a long day of waiting around whilst my surges continued to come on thick. wasn’t allowed to eat or drink and we didn’t have any idea how long our wait would be but I stayed focussed on sending positive waves to my baby. The Freya app sent me my daily affirmation which on this day was “I welcome my baby with love and confidence” - just what I needed to see.

Late afternoon as we got called to prep for theatre I made one final toilet trip and finally, my mucus plug came out…. typical! But I saw this as a sign that my baby was ready to come now. We got our birth playlist on and the team were enjoying the tunes as we were getting prepared. I really felt like it was a celebration in that room after a long 9 days and all that discomfort and tiredness was gone.

It turns out baby had wedged her head right into my pelvis so needed some forceps to get out also. Baby was born at 19:19 and we had delayed cord clamping and immediate skin to skin for the rest of the surgery. It was so beautiful holding her little body on my chest.