"Birth of our child"

Our big beautiful baby arrived into the world after 22 hours of labour 😃

My husband and I did the online positive birth program: hypnobirthing with Kasey from Bunbury hospital, via zoom. With the techniques, we had learnt with hypnobirthing techniques we were able to have a positive birth experience and safe arrival of our baby. 

My waters broke late in the evening. I went to the hospital soon after to check it was in fact my waters, the midwife was able to confirm it was, and after this, we returned home to begin our labouring process. I was able to successfully labour for 14 hours at home using hypnobirthing techniques and did the final 8 in the hospital after I hit the end of my tether and felt more comfortable with the idea of being in hospital rather than home.

We used affirmations, music, a calming environment, minimal intervention and monitoring, in the beginning, labouring pool, fit ball under hot running water, gas and air and sterile water injections for pain relief only. 

My husband and I had a signal to identify when I was having a surge, so if anyone was asking me a question he was able to tell, it was very helpful and helped to keep things calm for us both.

I was able to fully relax between surges and one of the midwives even commented on that, saying it was amazing how I could relax completely between surges. This was definitely one of the reasons I was able to go for so long without being extremely exhausted. I was able to calmly meet whatever turn my birthing took, and the affirmation I was repeating in my head and my husband was saying allowed to me was 'each surge brings my baby closer to me', with this I felt empowered to keep going.

At hour 21, the Doctor discussed with us an epidural and vacuum, then cesarean if that failed, which he said most likely would as it had been a long time now and I had been pushing close to 2 hours with mild progress. As we knew our rights (thanks to the positive birth program) my husband, being my advocate, was able to ask what the risk was in waiting a bit longer as they were continually monitoring baby and myself and we were both doing great. So with that, the doctor gave us an extra 30 minutes before we would have to leave for a trip to the theatre. That extra 30 minutes was all the extra time my baby and I needed. Within 20 minutes, our baby began to crown 👑 

Although our baby had shoulder dystocia due to their size, at the time we did not realise the extent of the emergency situation, we had complete faith in our birthing team and they were able to maneuver our baby out without any major complications and then our baby arrived safely into the world, weighing in at a whopping 9 pounds 15 Oz of pure perfection.
 

We want to say a huge thank you to the positive birth program and Kasey for running this course, it was one of the reasons I was able to do 22 hours of labour with just gas and air.

We especially found this course to be helpful for my husband, as he felt confident in being my advocate and birth partner during this long labour. 

Treatment

Being given time

Involved in decisions

Care Staff