Lori had a spontaneous birth for her first baby, and was hoping for a natural birth at Darent Valley birth centre for baby number two. She came along to my pregnancy yoga classes in Dartford, as well as practicing hypnobirthing with my MP3s.
As my first baby was born 3 weeks early, my midwife all along told me this baby was more than likely to be early too. So we were playing the waiting game from 37 weeks onwards! With even the hospital bag in the car ready to go from then too.
So I was very shocked, uncomfortable and irritable by the time my due date came and the June heatwave had started!! I had a sweep booked at 40 weeks+2 and had a discussion around induction or elective c section – both filled me with anxiety and neither route I really wanted to take next. She booked me in for an induction for the following week.
As my first pregnancy led to a natural spontaneous labour and vaginal birth, I really hoped for the same again. After the sweep at 40weeks +2, I had another two days of pacing the house when the weather was 30 degrees and I was feeling rather tearful. Then finally.. thankfully…at 40+4 on Saturday 21st June at 7pm, I started getting period pains and some lower back pain – I remembered this from before in early labour and after the waiting game and apprehensive feelings, I started actually getting excited about contractions coming!!! Weird I know. So 10pm came and I felt the first one. It was all manageable and I was able to watch tv in between each one as they were about 5 minutes in between and I even had a shower. By 1am, they were coming in strong, fast and intense and we called the birth centre at darent valley. They told me to stay home for a little longer until contractions were even closer together. so I got to 3am Sunday and couldn’t do anything in between each contraction, they were so painful and coming in every 1 – 2 minutes.
When we got to Darent Valley birth centre, they checked and I was 3cm dilated but said baby was back to back so I needed to try and be on all fours to get bubba to turn. This is when my hypnobirthing mp3s came out and I tried poses from pregnancy yoga I attended on a Monday to keep me calm, focused on my breathing and trying to get baby to turn. I was then checked at 6am (3 hours later) and was very disheartened to hear I was only 4cm dilated so felt I had a long way to go. The contractions were very painful at this point and I only had a minute in between each one. I used a Tens machine and a little gas and air for when each contraction came. Then, midway through a cat cow yoga pose at 8am I felt a huge pop and my waters had broken. The midwives started filling the birth pool and the contractions were even more intense. I was now 8cm dilated and felt like I needed to push (or poo) each time a contraction came. The midwife told me to listen to my body so I was pushing slightly with each contraction. At this point, I did start losing some blood so I was no longer allowed in the pool as they wanted to keep an eye on it. I reached 10cm dilated and was advised to hold my legs in the air and put my chin to chest to push baby out. Bubba wasn’t making it easy as he was still in a less favourable position so an episiotomy was needed to finally get baby boy out at 10.15am on 22nd June. It was a magical moment despite a lot of blood loss and stitches needed. He was so worth it. Baby Harrison weighed 7 lb 6 and he is so loved. Not completely to plan, but I’m so pleased I got my natural birth at Darent Valley birth centre.
I can’t thank you enough Colleen for the amazing pregnancy yoga classes that taught me so much and your calming voice to help me breathe my baby out.
