This wonderful birth story was sent in by Bruna, who came to my weekly pregnancy yoga classes in Dartford. Bruna was planning a home birth and faced plenty of obstacles throughout pregnancy and then more obstacles when she went into labour! Luckily Bruna was fully informed and prepared to push back against the pressure to get the birth that was right for her.
Hi, inspired by the birth story you posted, I wanted to share mine too!
My first birth was at Darent Valley Hospital. I had an induction, epidural and felt I just went with what doctors said (was not in the birth centre as it wasn’t available) and during Covid so was staying in hospital on my own at nights. I think this made me want something different second time around. First baby weighed 5lb11oz and was born at 37 weeks (never flagged as a small baby).
For my second pregnancy, the baby was flagged as being small. I was referred to the fetal medicine ward in Medway Hospital due to our baby measure being below the 5th centile – noted in the 20th week scan(at DVH) we’ve then gone through scans every 3-4 weeks. This left us thinking we couldn’t have the home birth we had hoped for and that this pregnancy wasn’t going to be straight forward.
The baby was too small to start with and we felt the ob -gyn and midwives were often pushing for a hospital delivery even though it was ultimately our choice. One even suggested going for an induction at 38 weeks or a planned c-section which was the opposite of what I expected and despite all scans showing a consistent growth and no other concerns raised. After weeks of waiting and several extra checks to make sure all was per guidelines (CTG, iron levels, bloods etc), I was approved for a home birth – on week 37 I had already hired the birth pool in hope I was going to get to use it.
By 38 weeks the midwife came to check our house and drop the list of what we needed. If it wasn’t for much insistence I would not have been referred to the home birth team. At 38+3 in the afternoon I started to feel the signs of early labour. We started to time the surges and wait until there was a established pattern, with lots of low lights, birth ball exercises, breathing techniques, audios and positive birth stories on.
We made it until the next evening when we finally started to get surges every 5 minutes lasting about 35 seconds – a little bit short but it was time to call the midwife! I got through the hospital team and again they have suggested I come for a CTG after questioning if I felt the baby movements – I wasn’t sure as the contractions took over. I insisted in getting the birth team to check my progress first and so they came out. I was only 1 cm dilated so they had to go, and to be safe I went to Darenth Valley to get the baby monitored. There they did the CTG.
After about 45 minutes they discharged me, which was a relief as I was afraid of starting a snowball of interventions. I got back home late that Tuesday and continued my session of bath, breathing, counter pressure, positive affirmations and TENS machine. At 6.30am I had reached my limit in bearing the surges and called again. The home birth team had to cover for short staff in hospital and the new shift would only start at 8.30am – two hours from now! I contemplated seriously just heading to the hospital at that point, but with my partners support I decided to wait. The midwives arrived 9.30am and I was 5cm. They decided to wait until 11.30 to see how I was going to progress and by the time they were leaving my waters broke! It was the sign we needed…11 minutes later our beautiful baby girl was born. No time to get in the pool or nothing. She weighed 6lb6oz and was perfect. I feel like if it wasn’t for the hypnobirthing, research and pregnancy yoga I would never have felt confident enough to go all the way and follow my birth plan.
Learning how to listen to my body and my baby, getting to see birth through a different perspective – not fearing it- and understanding my options was fundamental to achieving a completely natural birth experience and I am so happy and proud. I thank you for helping me to see this side and my doula and partner that were an amazing support too! See you in the baby & mum yoga classes soon!
