It’s always an honour when someone books me as support during their pregnancy, but every now and then I get a family who book everything multiple times! Y and J booked on to my group hypnobirhting course in Dartford two years ago, as well as pregnancy yoga. Then came back to pregnancy yoga and my pregnancy retreat for baby number two! She had two very lovely home births.
3 am Saturday morning, I was in my 42nd week when the feeling of cold woke me up for the first time in months. Having wobbled to the bathroom, I noticed my waters partially broke. I tried to sleep longer but light twinges in my lower back kept me awake. The next day I spent walking, eating nice food and watching films. I tried to have an early night but was up again at 11 pm. I turned on my hypnobirthing tracks and started up breathing until probably 1 am when I asked my partner to call midwives.
The midwife arrived around 3 am. From that point all I remember was through the mist of tiredness and the intensity of surges – my partner was making coffees one after another for the midwives (the second midwife arrived a bit later). I took a bath where I managed to take micronaps between contractions.
My favourite working affirmations at that point were “This will not last forever” and “My baby is surfing the waves”. After three hours in the bath (which actually felt like 15 minutes), I got out and half an hour later my baby girl was born after quite a vocal introduction from me. In other words, at the birthing stage, I transitted into screaming having forgotten to breathe down. However, with some reassurance from the midwives and my partner, I used some gas and air a couple of times, then started breathing down. My adorable baby (weighing 9 lb) was born within a few minutes!