The birth didn’t go completely as planned but was still incredible and joyful. I ended up being induced at 41+1 weeks and had a 16hr labour with an epidural for the final 6hrs as unfortunately I had only dilated to 5cm after 10hrs of contracting after my membranes were artificially ruptured. The breathing, rhythmic breath and visualisation along with listening to the CD’s and music that I love really helped to get through the labour pains.
I can’t say that it was a pain free labour but it was a calm and quiet environment for the whole labour including the birth. The syntocinon drip made my contractions increase incredibly fast and within 4hrs I was having one every minute and had only progressed to 5cm by the 10hr mark, by this stage baby had not turned into the right position and was getting distressed and I was not getting a break at all in between contractions to rest and build strength so I was advised by the midwife to have an epidural to help me rest and be able to dilate more and decrease the stress that the baby was going through. I was reluctant to go down that path but had another 8hrs or so before even getting to the transition stage. So I agreed and have to say that I am glad I did as it gave me rest and brought the contractions back under control and within 5hrs I had fully dilated and baby had moved into the perfect position.
Eventually I gave birth at 10:42pm on Tuesday 23rd March to our James who weighed 3.755kg. The midwives and Doctors were all very supportive of our decisions and our boy was safely born into a wonderful calm, exciting and joyful environment which was the most important thing for Jake and I and we both believe that if I didn’t have to be induced artificially then with all the skills we learnt from you we would have had a fairly low pain labour.
Jake and my mum tell me that throughout the whole labour I was very calm and focused wonderfully on my breathing and apart from groaning like a lion while I was pushing I remained very quiet and calm throughout the whole labour. I kept telling myself “Lose lips, lose lips” and “I’m going to be huge” these words made everything so much easier and I would have to say that they are the reason why I did not tear along with the amazing gentle hands of my husband Jake when he helped pull James out.
We cannot express enough in words our gratitude for teaching us all the skills to make our birthing experience the best day of our lives and having it be a calm stress free experience. Even though things didn’t go completely to plan we were able to go with the flow of what my body and our baby were telling us to do and were completely happy with whatever the journey was going to be as long as we were safe.
Thank You so much!!!!!!!!!!
All our love and best wishes,
Bridget, Jake and James