Rebecca came to my weekly pregnancy yoga classes in Dartford as part of her preparation for a calm, natural birth. Towards the end of her pregnancy she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and asked me for some support about what her options were. Here is her story, the birth of Chester
I just wanted to email to let you know Chester Wilkinson entered the world on Friday 12th and to also say a big thank you for all the yoga classes, I am sad they have come to an end!
As you know in the final few weeks of my pregnancy, I found out I had gestational diabetes and I was also being told that my baby was going to be big. This caused me a lot of anxiety and unwanted stress, but I truly believe that because of your yoga classes and the knowledge you shared, you gave me the confidence to advocate for myself. The hospital wanted to induce at 38 weeks and then again at 39+2, but I declined both of these as it didn’t feel right for me.
I decided to go ahead with the induction at 39+5 after doing a lot of research and I felt at peace that my birth might be slightly different from what I originally expected.
I listened to your MP3s in the lead up to put me in the right frame of mind and was induced on the Wednesday. I started to get contractions through the night, with these really ramping up by Thursday afternoon. I found it difficult to go through this on the ward as it wasn’t private and a little bit of a mental battle to stay in the zone, but I knew how important it was to stay positive and calm and I was really supported by my partner through this.
I was moved onto the delivery suite Thursday evening where I had my waters broken. After a couple of hours things then took a bit of a scary turn. Baby’s heart rate suddenly dropped and the midwife’s pressed the crash bell. I was rushed into theatre and it looked like I was about to have an emergency c section. Fortunately, his heart rate recovered once we were in the room, but I was told that the reason his heart rate had dropped was because he had got tangled up in his cord and there was a risk this could happen again.
I had to decide if I wanted to continue to labour or if I wanted to have a c section. I took a moment with my partner to discuss the risks and benefits and decided I wanted to go ahead with the c section. Chester came into the world at 1:37am, weighing 8lbs 5 oz.
I know this isn’t a story of a calm and straightforward birth, but I do feel like your classes prepared me to be able to make decisions that were right for me and to adapt when things didn’t go the way I imagined. The most important thing to me is that my baby is here safe and healthy.
Hopefully I will see you soon and mum and baby yoga once I have healed.