Mia’s Birth Story
As a first time mum I was very nervous about labour and birth. I attended one of Leah’s active birth workshops at 34 weeks as the one thing I was determined I didn’t want for my delivery was to be on my back! We learnt lots of different positions, movements and holds to help with each stage of labour.
My due date came and went and so did the pressures of induction and floods of messages from friends and family asking if baby was here yet. This all lead to me feeling really low and even more anxious about birth!
At my 41 week appointment I opted for a stretch and sweep as I was getting to the point of really wanting this baby out and knowing that the pressures of induction would continue to grow. That evening I started with some period type cramps, which I had been told to expect, so I got on my ball with a hot water bottle strapped to my back and ignored them.
The following day these cramps continued and I just ignored them, trying to go about my day, telling myself they wouldn’t be anything – as I think I really had convinced myself this baby wouldn’t be coming out!
I spend the day watching TV, colouring in and doing lots of movements on my ball. By 5pm they were getting quite uncomfortable but I still didn’t allow myself to believe they were contractions. At 5:30pm I went to the toilet and noticed I’d bled – this kickstarted some panic! I rang my husband and got him to leave work as I knew I would be asked to go into hospital when I rang. I then rang MAC and was told to go in and bring all of our stuff as we might have to stay in and be induced if I wasn’t in labour (I still didn’t believe I was at this point).
By 6:30pm we were on our way to MAC and I had put my TENS machine on to help, they examined me at 7pm and were shocked to say the reason for my bleed was that my cervix had dilated so quickly and I was already 5cm! I needed to go straight through to delivery!
By 6:30pm we were on our way to MAC and I had put my TENS machine on to help, they examined me at 7pm and were shocked to say the reason for my bleed was that my cervix had dilated so quickly and I was already 5cm! I needed to go straight through to delivery!
I used gas and air as pain relief but the contractions very quickly ramped up and I didn’t believe I could cope for much longer, so asked for an epidural – I made the midwife aware that even if I had an epidural I didn’t want to be laid on my back and made sure she would support this even with an epidural.
However, after a few more minutes waiting for the anaesthetist, I asked for them to check on baby as I could feel my body pushing, and it turned out I was fully dilated and baby was on their way! No time for the epidural!
I pushed on my knees, and had my husband use the counter pressure of hip squeezes with each contraction – something we had learnt from Leahs workshop! At 9:39pm our beautiful little boy was born. It was an incredibly quick labour and even the midwife was shocked with this being my first baby. I feel so grateful and lucky to have had the delivery I have but I went into it feeling informed and knowing what I wanted, which helped massively!
