Danielle and Bings birth story

I woke up at about 2am needing to wee. My son had woken up too so I took him for a wee too (I was getting some Braxton Hicks contractions, they were a bit painful so waking me up as well). I went to sit in the front room for a bit because my son had brought a cough home that week and I'd caught it off him, yaaay, cough pee cough pee 🙃. So I thought getting in and out of bed that night would be waking Bing up all the time so thought "just chill for a bit until ur cough calms down" but by 3am I was like, OK I don't think these are Braxton's 😅.

So I put our bubble lamp on, I turned the bubbles off and just used it as a colour changing lamp really, its got bluetooth so I put music on. We'd bought a new dish bowl so I squatted over that, leaning on the settee thinking well if my waters go, it will save a clean up 😂😅🤷‍♀️. And just did the breathing techniques.

So about half 6 I think, my back was aching so I started running a bath. I went back to leaning on the settee but when I was having a contraction I was thinking I can't get up to turn the taps off and I think the baths gonna overflow so called to Bing to wake him up to turn them off.

So Bing wakes up not knowing wtf is going on lol. I get in the bath which doesn't even reach my achey part of my back, and then I decided it was to hot to stay in anyway so got out and leaned on the bath so I could squeeze the bath handles.

Bing said he's gonna start filling the birth pool we bought but he hosed it from the bathroom so was still with me. I think I started to lose control 3 times but then he was straight away do the breathes with me 1 2 3 4 FLOPPY FACE 😂 so that was great keeping me in rhythm. Then he says OK Dan, after this contraction I need you to get up cause the pool is ready. And I said cant, she's coming!! Catch her!! He looks under and says no she's not, I say yes she is!! And out pops the head!

He has a closer look and starts doing something. I say "what's wrong? what are you doing?"

He says "nothing it's fine". And then the rest of her came out. He guided her out.

He said "she's the slipperyest thing in the world". He cleared the crap off her face, she did her cry and then we skin-to-skinned. While Bing was more like...but, the pool. I just finished filling the pool! 😂

He explained later when the head popped out he was checking the cord wasn't a problem but was freaked out cause the baby sack was still over her face, he couldn't tell what had popped out 😂. Born 8.30am.

So then he phones the hospital to say she's been born, so they send a midwife and an ambulance because they didn't have a 2nd midwife to join. They stay on the phone and are trying to force him into cutting the cord and we said like literally 6 to 8 times, we don't want to cut the cord yet. Which was irritating. The girl on the phone wanted to follow procedures and we were like no. She was suggesting using a shoe lace and everything 😅. So the midwife and paramedic show up-

I'm still naked, a single towel is literally draped over me and Lucy, and the paramedic turns out to be Bing's friend from school so I'm avoiding even looking in this guys direction I'm too shamed 😂.

It had been about 50 mins since birth and the placenta hadn't come out, so they strapped me like a crazy person into a wheelchair and carried me down the stairs and into the ambulance to have this placenta removed at hospital.

Bing has to ring his mother to come over and mind Max and take down the pool so Max doesn't wake up and flood the place etc.

Literally ten mins after getting the hospital, more or less as Bing got there, the placenta comes out on it's own. If I had just walked around a bit more I'm sure it would have happened at home. But then they kept us in until 3 o'clock claiming all the paperwork was holding us up. And the only reason it was 3 o'clock was because we said we are leaving regardless of anything because we've been waiting since 10, we've got another kid at home we've got to get back for, we've already said this numerous times, don't understand the hold up because we didn't have a hospital birth, what the hell needs so much paperwork doing you know?

Then when we read over the paperwork they had basically made up half of the answers, saying they'd injected me to get the placenta which they didn't and the home birth was unplanned when it was planned and the active labour lasted this many hours (which they obviously had no clue if it was true or not) and stuff like that.

We has a fantastic home birth which definitely directly benefitted from Beautiful Beginnings Hypnobirthing.

Emily and Dan's Positive Birth Story

At 10 days overdue, I had already had the chat and been booked in for an induction on 12th August. This was not what I had planned. Due to Covid, home births had been stopped which meant I had to go into hospital to have my baby. Fortunately, Neath Port Talbot have a fantastic set up in their midwife led birth centre, so I felt comfortable with the thought of going there. The only thing I wanted to prevent was possible induction!

Day 9, at 9:40pm, my waters went, and for me it was a gush as I got off the sofa. So I sat on my ball, chilled out and just tried to relax as much as possible. Surges were bearable and I felt ok moving around the house and making sure everything was packed and ready to go. At around 11pm I went to bed to get some rest. I got up again around 1:30am and continued to move around. I rang my best friend to make her way over. I also rang the birth centre and they said to have something to eat and drink and make my way over.

At 3:30am I arrived at the birth centre and was happy to be examined. I was at 5cm (and the midwife said she could feel ALOT of hair 😂) so I continued to stay upright, move around and practiced my breathing and visualisation. I listened to Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombes podcast to get that oxytocin flowing! And I went to my own little place and completely zoned out. Around 5am I asked for gas and air but continued to move around, drink plenty, and use the toilet!

Then just after 8am I felt the need to bear down. I remember saying to my husband, tell them to take me to singleton, I want to have a c section, I can’t do this. And in the back of my mind, I thought ‘this must be transition’

Then after 25 minutes of pushing, at 8:52am I gave birth to a baby girl, Alys.

Before, during and after my labour at Neath Port Talbot,

I felt fully supported, my choices were recognised and I was able to do things at my own pace. I can’t praise the midwives and staff there enough, they were amazing! It’s so relaxed there and so close to being at home. We had loads of support from Christine the breastfeeding consultant (guru) and she provided some invaluable advice which had continued even to this day, 4 weeks on.And the stay after Alys was born was like a hotel. We left at 9pm the same day, but we had our own room with a double bed and the staff popped back now and then to see how we were getting on.

With Angharad’s advice and information provided in the hypnobirthing course and the support at Neath Port Talbot, it was honestly the best experience and everything I wanted despite the changes along the way.

Vicky and Matthew's Positive Birth Story

Tuesday 17th August

So, tomorrow would see me go to 41 weeks which would have meant decisions on a sweep and possibly talk of induction, which is not something that I saw as part of my birth plan this time around, so I spent the day on my birthing ball watching stupidly funny films and doing things to get the oxytocin flowing!

Later that evening I got up off the sofa to feel a warm trickle down my legs, after having period like pains and a bit of a show earlier in the day I knew this was now my waters going. There was no big gush, just continual leaking whenever I changed position.

I called the hospital I was due to give birth at to let them know they’d gone and that my preference was still to give birth in the MLU there, in the pool if possible. They advised me just to keep my Community Midwife appointment the next day, where they’d check me over to see if it was my waters that had gone. At this point they advised me that if I hadn’t gone into spontaneous labour within 24 hours they’d advise on an induction due to the risk of infection. Again, that was not my preference if it could be avoided, so I continued to practice some of the techniques we’d discussed during my hypnobirthing course, so we carried on our comedy film marathon to boost the oxytocin, I also continued to bounce on my birthing ball whilst doing some up breathing to relax me.

Sure enough by 22:30 my surges had started, at first they were very mild and infrequent, so I found breathing through them no problem. I started logging them on an app, and in a short space of time they’d really started to get stronger and closer together. I tried to have a lie down and rest with some deep relaxation in the back ground, but being laid down was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. I left my husband in bed to rest whilst I went back to my ball, in a now peaceful and dimly lit living room.

Wednesday 18th August

01:30 The time passed and the surges were coming more frequently and more intense now, so I switched between the ball and being on all 4’s over the back of the sofa, until I woke my husband up, getting him to come and be with me through the surges. Around 2am we called my mum over to ours to look after our youngest son whilst we made our way to the hospital. I called the triage midwife on the way to let her know that we were on the way as the surges were now around 3 in ten minutes, and with a 35 minute drive ahead of us wanted to make it in good time, she informed me that they’d opened up the MLU for us, so a midwife would be there to greet us. My confidence and positivity was boosted hearing this, as we really had our hearts set on a water birth within the birth centre.

I was feeling really calm and in control at this point, using up breathing for each surge and going back to some recorded positive affirmation tracks in the car as a way to remain calm, positive and focused. We made it to the MLU around 2am, I agreed to a vaginal exam to find that I was 7cm dilated on arrival, I was so proud that I’d gotten to this point using my hypnobirthing techniques, however the surges were really powerful now so asked for some gas and air whilst the pool was being filled.

My husband left my birth plan on top of my notes so the midwives were aware of my birth preferences, he was such an advocate for me, so again felt so empowered. Shortly after the pool was ready, so I got into the warm water which provided great comfort during the surges, which were at their most powerful, after being in the water for a while I was again examined to be told I was fully dilated so would hopefully meet my baby soon! However looking back on it now I was fully in transition, kept telling my husband and the midwives that I couldn’t do it, that I needed to get out of the water to go to the labour ward and have them take my baby out! I’d started to forget about everything I’d learned however my birth partner and the midwives were incredible here and really reassured me that I could do it, I think the fact they’d all read and respected my birth plan meant they knew what I wanted and did their best to help me continue with the water birth we’d planned.

I did my best to re-centre myself and went back to concentrate on my breathing, this time I remembered the down breathing technique, that along with a change of position meant that after a couple of surges I’d managed to push/breathe my baby all by myself, he’d happily come straight out into the water at 4:30am, just an hour and a half after getting to the MLU. I was able to be the one to catch him and bring him out up to my chest. It was an incredible feeling, more empowering than anything I’d felt before!!

We stayed in our little birth pool bubble whilst I delivered the placenta, which remained attached until the cord ran white, daddy then cut the cord, I was still the only one to have held him up until the point, so he was still covered in vernix whilst we enjoyed skin to skin cuddles. Daddy then enjoyed some skin to skin whilst I made my way out of the pool and onto the bed, on assessment I had a 2nd degree tear that’d need a few stitches, but I had to wait at least an hour for those as I’d been in the water. The midwives then left us to it to enjoy quiet time as a three… I’m still in awe of my body and how it really did just unknowingly knew what to do to birth baby Louie so naturally!