Our Community Blog

I absolutely love my birth story even though things definitely didn’t end up going quite to plan - or to my preferences as hypnobirthing taught me!

In the lead up to labour, my husband and I did an online hypnobirthing course (two or three times over) provided by a UK organisation called The Positive Birth Company. The course was really affordable and we both enjoyed our learning and brainstorming our birth preferences.

I was 41 weeks pregnant on Monday the 21st of October. For the week beforehand I had been adopting many of the suggested tips and tricks that my midwife, 'Babies born October 2024 - Australia' Facebook group, and the Internet at large had for me! These included:

- eating dates (I ate about 2 large medjool dates a day)
- raspberry leaf tea (1 cup a day)
- clary sage oil on pulse points & belly, pillowcase at night, and in the bath
- nipple stimulation using hands
- curb walking
- Miles circuit
- sex
- acupressure points
- reflexology

On the Wednesday before I had a stretch & sweep, and was losing my mucus plug for several days afterwards, and had two bloody shows with maybe 3 days in between.

On the Friday before, I had reflexology (foot massage) with a shopping centre masseuse. On the Sunday I confirmed with my midwife that it was okay to use an electronic breast pump to try and induce labour, and I did this that night on the lowest setting for 5 minutes each breast. On the Monday I had labour induction acupuncture, with the "TENS-like" machine attached to the 4 needles inserted to my lower back to stimulate the uterus. I had my first period-like cramp/contraction from about 9pm that night.

I knew how important it was to try and keep my cool and avoid getting too excited, so my husband and I went to bed, and I was mostly able to sleep through my contractions which thankfully didn’t subside. By about 9am on the Tuesday morning, the contractions were starting to get a little more intense and I was more able to use the Freya app to feel the beginning and end of each contraction, but they didn't have an obvious rhythm yet. I messaged my midwife at around the same time to let her know I was in early labour.

I had grand plans to set up my birth space a lot more than I did (all we really had done was set up the birth pool), but when labour began, I was too focused on keeping calm and preserving energy than to begin setting up candles, affirmation cards etc! My husband set the candles up at some stage but wasn't sure what else I wanted done, which included putting YouTube on the TV with my relaxing instrumental videos, and following along with the Freya app meditations and such, but that all went out the window on the day! I did have the Freya app open but wasn't actually following along with the meditations; I just listened to the lovely English accent coming from the app, and focused on my "up-breathing" during contractions and resting between. My husband put my Spotify 'calming instrumental covers' playlist on the wireless speaker. He continued to offer me water and an electrolyte drink between contractions - I didn't drink much during labour altogether though, and ate only half a banana all day until my baby was born. My midwife also gave me a couple of spoons of honey to provide quick energy fixes in labour.

At about 11am I asked my husband to call our midwife as again things were intensifying and I was needing to lean on a bench or get on all fours and sway to get through contractions. Sometime between 9 and 11 I put on my TENS machine. Our midwife said she would come to our place at about 1pm as she could obviously tell that things were on an upward trajectory but clearly birth wasn't imminent.

Our midwife suggested going for a walk to try and encourage the contractions to become more regular which we did (with my TENS machine on). I had quite a bit of pelvic pain and had to hold my knickers/pants away from my pelvis while walking, but overall it was very doable! She also suggested labouring in the shower while waiting for her to arrive, which I did but really didn't like it! Again I just wanted to be on all fours or leaning on a benchtop. Plus, space in the shower was lacking, and I didn’t want to lean on the glass wall of the shower. I remember trying bouncing onbmy fitness ball, but this was also uncomfortable due to the pressure in my pelvis.

I think it wasn't too long after our midwife arrived that she suggested to my husband to begin filling up the birth pool. As many including myself say, time just runs away from you in labour, but I semi-recall it taking a while for the pool to fill. In the meantime I was finding it most comfortable labouring while lying on my side or again on all fours. I remember thinking how I couldn't be bothered getting into the pool, it seemed like a lot of effort etc, but of course once I was in it was so amazing. I love baths generally, so labouring in the pool was great. I used a birth comb in each hand to also have that gate control theory effect on my contraction discomfort.

I was complaining of lower back pain. As my baby was anterior presentation I was clearly not experiencing the back labour of a posterior baby, but even still, I was really uncomfortable and struggling! At one point my midwife gave a strong lower back massage which was incredible. I accepted her offer for four sterile water intradermal injections into my lower back, which helped a little but perhaps mainly as a distraction and as a new type of discomfort to focus on! They really do feel like wasp stings - even though I haven't been stung by one before.

I was beginning to feel very hot a while after getting in the pool and so my midwife and husband were offering me ice cold facewashers on my head and back, and ice to suck/chew.

It was probably around 6pm when I was almost fully dilated and yet still my waters hadn't broken. My midwife had mentioned a few times that my "membranes were bulging" but not breaking. She was able to break them for me while I remained in the birth pool. I think in the end my hindwaters were still intact or something though, and baby was still taking a while to progress down into the vaginal canal. I was told they could see my baby's hair, but baby wasn't past the cervix yet. It was around this time that I also suddenly felt very nauseous and had a vomit.

Throughout my labour my midwifery student was very lovely in giving me reassurance and kind words, helping to keep me comfortable, helping to hold my legs when I was labouring and trying to push baby out on the couch, and doing doppler ultrasounds. I asked her and the other student to take as many photos and videos as they could if they were happy to, which they did and we are so grateful for.

For a while I was trying to "breathe my baby out" as is taught in hypnobirthing. Two problems with this for me: 1. Baby wasn't advancing, and 2. I essentially kept 'up breathing' instead of transitioning to down breathing anyway!! I was told by my midwife that unfortunately I was going to need to push as if "doing a big poo".

I had a cervical lip too and at about 8pm two more midwives came for change of shift, one of whom helped to push the lip aside to try to encourage baby down. I remember this being pretty uncomfortable but of course it would be as it is done during contractions too! Unfortunately this wasn't successful. By around 9.30pm the deciison was made to call for an ambulance, but with the hope I could possibly deliver before then. Again, unfortunately this wasn't to be. My husband was told that baby's head was a bit "skee whif" and not totally positioned straight towards the canal, making it very hard (?impossible) for baby to move down or for me to push baby out without intervention. The ambulance arrived and a few contractions later I wasn't any closer, so onto the barouche it was and I was taken the 8 or so minutes to the hospital and straight to Birthing & Assessment Suite. I had to lie on my side on the ambulance stretcher due to my contractions, which I remember being uncomfortable, but I actually found the drive to the hospital to be very bumpy in the ambulance!

On arrival I moved onto the bed and the first thing I did ask my midwife for gas! I had always said to myself that if I ended up in hospital I was going to take advantage of the access to pain relief, starting (and hopefully ending) with using the gas. After another vaginal exam where the doctor held the cervical lip aside for a contraction or two, with me again trying to push, I was soon told by the doctors that an instrumental delivery - Ventouse - would be required. To assist with the Ventouse delivery I also required the Syntocinon drip to encourage more regular and strong contractions. In the meantime I was also given a pudendal nerve block and told I'd need an episiotomy to also assist with the Ventouse delivery. As I had not been planning or researching much about my birth going down this road, I was unsure if this all meant I still had to push! The doctor said yes, I would still be participating in the delivery by pushing!

I'm unsure what time I actually arrived to the hospital and suite, and so unsure what time the interventions began to the time that my baby was born, but at 10:43pm our beautiful baby girl arrived. My husband was in a state of disbelief as he had convinced himself we were having a boy. We did delayed cord clamping and my husband cut the cord after several minutes. Meanwhile, I was the first (after the doctor) to hold our daughter and bring her to my chest from between my legs. As had been my plan, I allowed her to perform the breast crawl and attempt at latching herself, which she did, with a tiny bit of direction. We had our precious golden hour together. During the golden hour, I was given the intramuscular injection to deliver the placenta as I was told unfortunately this wouldn't be able to be a physiplogical birth either due to the interventions I'd had. We were shown my placenta which was amazing. As one of the midwives had come innthe ambulance with me, her car was still at our place, so when she had finished her work, she took the placenta in a plastic sealed bucket home to our doorstep so we could freeze it when we got home to then bury it and plant a tree above it (we haven't got around to this just yet - my daughter is 2 weeks old today!).

I was given some IV antibiotics after the birth as my baby had opened their bowels (meconium) in utero. We were also recommended to stay in hospital the night given it was late at night which we fully agreed with!

After the birth and our golden hour, I realised I still had the TENS machine on! My husband helped to take that off and my midwife assisted me to have a lovely slow shower while my husband and daughter had some skin-to-skin time together.

Altogether it was a magical and surreal experience. I was happy to have had mentally prepared, even if just a little, for the fact that birth can happen in various ways, and the best laid plans can go awry. Even though my plans for a physiological home birth were derailed right at the end, I am proud of myself for having the bulk of my labour at home, in a peaceful, familiar and comfortable environment, and the way I wanted it to be. We are incredibly grateful for the amazing public health services we have access to and for each of the health professionals who helped us both during labour and childbirth. I don't feel traumatised by things going a different direction and had full faith in the team caring for me when interventions were required. I am also very grateful to Birthmother for keeping me comfortable during my home labour with access to a birth pool and TENS machine!!

Thank you,

Ash