Nell’s birth story – by Jen
The thing about hypnobirthing through Mindful Mamma was that I found in the weeks and days leading up to birth that I wasn’t fearful or concerned at all. I carried on doing very normal things (although that’s a must when you have a pre-schooler anyway) and felt positive towards birth.My waters spontaneously broke on Friday 16th around 6.30pm, two days before my due date. Funnily enough it was a full moon. I’ve since seen that many midwives (and is there some research?) say that full moon = more women’s waters breaking. My expansions (my favourite word) started about 2 hours later. After settling Ada to bed, we actually got my parents round pretty quick and were on route to the JR by 9.45pm. Everything felt like it was ramping up and a hot water bottle just wasn’t doing enough. We listened to the instrumental music from Mindful Mamma in the car which I found calming. During an expansion, I focused using the golden thread breath. I found labour more intense than I imagined, which although was a lot to cope with, it still didn’t alarm me too much.I didn’t love the maternity assessment unit (stark, uncomfortable and bright) at all, but fortunately once I was taken to the delivery suite (4cm at 11pm) we set about making the room cosy. I liked my midwife, she was quiet and calming and I had written my requests in my birth plan which she did take time to read. We brought our warm nightlight from home which instantly made the room feel calm. We played the Mindful Mamma music on the CD player. Apart from that, I just bounced on the birth ball and used gas and air. The noise of gas and air was helpful to keep focused on the breath.She was born at 1.59am on Saturday 17th September. I have never known anything as intense, as this was a VBAC and I had not experienced labour before. Despite having shoulder dystocia right at the end (ow) all was well, and I felt such a natural high afterwards. I couldn’t believe I had pushed her out. 8lbs 2oz with a full head of hair. She breastfed within the first hour and I was keen to do this skin to skin. She wasn’t even weighed for a couple of hours which was nice. We have called her Nell which means bright, shining one.
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