Positive water birth - Baby Emmie

Bryony and Ali's story Our journey with hypnobirthing started when I was recommended a book to read about it. I took so much from the book I made my partner Ali read it after I had finished it, and following on from that we decided to sign up for hypnobirthing classes with Claire.

We’d been advised to have an induction at 39 weeks as our IVF pregnancy automatically

flagged as high risk. Using our BRAIN skills we discussed this with our consultant, balancing up my risk averse nature with a desire to have a spontaneous birth and made a plan to have a sweep at 39.5 weeks, with an induction booked in for the day after my due date. This was the first instance where we benefited from the classes, feeling empowered to have this discussion and make a decision which sat right for us.

As my due date approached I went in for my sweep, which was a really positive experience, and was doing as much as I could to bring on labour myself - eating dates, drinking raspberry leaf tea and walking sideways up the stairs. So when I headed to bed the night before my induction I felt a bit disappointed knowing I wouldn’t get the spontaneous birth experience however, feeling positive that I’d made the decision that worked for me as I was starting to feel anxious about monitoring baby's movements. I repacked my hospital bag in preparation for spending a week in hospital and keeping myself occupied through the induction process.

Just after midnight that night I felt my first contraction, then 15 minutes later another. Not knowing how long it may take for my labour to ramp up I didn’t wake Ali to let him be fully rested and, instead took myself downstairs to lay on the sofa watching films breathing through each contraction and trying to snooze between.

When Ali woke up we called triage who advised we should still attend our induction appointment at lunchtime. I spent the time trying to stay distracted and mobile - bouncing on the birth ball, walking to the corner shop and making flapjack (Ali did most of this). Then we headed into FVRH where we agreed to go through all the monitoring checks before making a decision of what to do next. At this point my contractions were about 7 minutes apart and we found I was 4cm dilated. The midwife advised that we could either be admitted and they would look to admit me to labour ward the next day to break my water or we could go home to see what happens. I had a slight fear here that the labour would go on for days, so we made a plan to go home but if

nothing happened to call back and proceed with the induction.

By the time we got home things were ramping up again and I was getting bad back pain. Ali put on the calming playlist and I used a mixture of the bath and the TENS machine (not at the same time!) to get through the next few hours. I was getting to the point where I was starting to struggle and luckily Ali told me our birth app said I was now in established labour, so we headed back to FVRH at around 6pm that evening. I was so thankful for the heated seats in the car helping with my back pain (alongside the TENS), and managed to get mini naps in between my contractions (now about 4 minutes apart).

Luckily as we’d already been in that day and I was over 4cm dilated we were admitted directly to the AMU. This was a real benefit of having Ali feel confident as a birth partner, knowing my preferences, where I was already considering an epidural so I could get a snooze in, he knew I would regret going directly down that route and would try Plan A first.

I had another vaginal exam and was 7cm dilated. Following this my water went pop. As soon as it was full I got in the pool, which was a real saviour for my back pain. Ali set the scene in the room with lights & music, then held my gas & air, fan, cold flannel, water bottle & snacks - how many hands does he have?!

Things quickly progressed and at around 8pm I reached the down phase of labour. From here things took longer than expected so I happily accepted coaching from the midwife, as detailed in my birth plan, and Emmie arrived at 9:16pm.

As we were getting out the pool my placenta fell out, leaving the pool area looking like a murder scene. Then we had plenty of skin to skin before I got my stitches and Ali got to have skin to skin time too.

We had such a positive birth experience welcoming Emmie to the world. We felt prepared to meet any changes in direction the birth may take, knew how to breathe through contractions and how to stay calm. Attending the classes meant we were both confident.