Welcoming Harry with love, not fear

I am so excited to share our birthing story with you. Looking back on the day our little man arrived, I feel so proud of what my body was able to do. Completing your hypnobirthing course made me feel confident as we approached our birthing day and now I am amazed at how strong I felt both physically and mentally during labour and post birth.

On Tuesday morning I woke with a period like cramp and said to David that this might be the start of labour! We both laughed it off, he went to work and I got ready for the day. I had to go to the shops to get a few things done and then was meeting my mum and sister for lunch. During this time I continued to have period like cramps and didn’t think to much of it.

At lunch I mentioned these cramps to my mum and she thought it could be the start of labour and that I should be timing them. When I went home I begun timing them and they were not consistent ranging from 40 - 14 minutes apart. I decided that it wasn’t labour and stopped timing them.

David arrived home and I told him about the cramps, we had our dinner and went off to bed. I couldn’t sleep and felt as though the cramps were happening more frequently, so at 2:00am we put on a movie and David started timing the cramps again. During the movie they became more regular ranging from 10 - 7 minutes apart, there were a few cramps that I had to focus on my breathing, but mostly they would come and go with ease. After the movie finished, I went to the bathroom and noticed I had a birth show.

At this point we contacted our midwife and told her that I had had a birth show and that the surges were 6-8 minutes apart. The midwife said that we could stay at home longer or if we wanted to head in they were ready for us to arrive. I decided that we should head in, I wasn’t convinced that this was labour and I wanted someone to confirm that our baby was actually on its way.

During the car ride to the hospital, we had the birthing affirmations playing and I had 4 more surges, which were becoming more intense and I was having to really focus on my breathing. We arrived at the hospital and as I was walking down the hallway I felt my membranes release.

In the birthing suite, the midwife asked me to hop on the bed for an examination which I refused to do as I felt the need to start breathing my baby down. David informed the nurse I wanted a water birth, but I no longer felt like getting in the water. I was helped by David to get on the bed into a kneeling position and started to breath my baby down. David asked the midwife if things were moving quickly, which she replied with “have a look, we can see the baby’s head.”. David put on the Rainbow Relaxation for me to listen to and he begun the light touch massage. I wasn’t enjoying the massage and asked David to do it with a cold wet flannel and not his hands which was much more effective. I had prepared some posters with the birthing affirmations, although things were moving very quickly and we did not have time to put them up. As I was breathing my baby down I was staring at a particular spot on the wall thinking it was the perfect spot for one of my posters.

My main birthing preference was to receive our baby myself. After being at the hospital for only 45 minutes, the midwife guided me in receiving our little surprise gender baby boy, Harry. It was the most empowering moment of my life, birthing my baby with no medical intervention, in a calm and loving environment. The nurses estimated that the labour length was approximately 4.45 hours, a very speedy labour!

Little Harry was immediately skin on skin with me and he begun feeding shortly after. Unfortunately I had a third degree tear and needed to go to theatre. I handed Harry over to David, who knew the importance of skin on skin and spent the next few hours cuddling our little boy. I had expressed some colostrum, which David was able to feed to Harry, whilst I was gone.

Throughout the whole labour both David and I felt confident and prepared. We are so grateful that we completed the hypnobirthing course, as we were able to welcome our baby into the world without fear, but with love. Watching the videos of other couples giving birth during our sessions showed me that having a calm birth was possible and that is how I visualised bringing our baby into the world.

Thanks again from the both of us.

Congratulations Kait, David and Harry and thank you so much for sharing your birthing story xx