I had the privilege of working with Louise and Tom again in preparation for the birth of their second baby. They were planning a home birth due to the Covid19 restrictions, however on listening to their options and choices when their baby went 14 days over his EDD, plans changed and Louise went on to have a wonderful, positive induction experience at Truro Birth Centre.
"After doing hypnobirthing with Terri for the birth of our first son, as soon as I found out we were expecting again I got in touch with Terri for a refresher course. We did this just before lockdown so we’re able to meet with Terri in person, she went over the whole course again and gave us both the focus we needed.
When lockdown hit I found myself turning to the hypnobirthing techniques more and more for relaxation and calm, with the ever changing situation that everyone was facing it was a strange time to be pregnant.
We had planned a homebirth but I ended up going overdue and had several meetings with my midwife and at 12 days I was offered an induction and we spoke about the NHS guidelines with regard to home birth after 42 weeks. In the mean time I had a session with Terri which helped me release any pre existing fear I had and really focused me again and made me so much more relaxed. I decided that the birth centre was now the best option for us but that I would like to go to 14 days before going down the induction route which would take us to Saturday. I was having tightenings every evening but it would just fizzle out.
Saturday came and off we went down to Truro for an induction - I decided that this was the right thing for me and my baby at the this time. With Covid restrictions I had to go in on my own and Tom wouldn’t be able to join me until I was 4cm. I was told I had until midnight to get to 4cm and be in established labour to be able to use the birth centre still. I was assessed on arrival and the midwife said that she didn’t think I would labour on just the pessary as the baby was still sat so high up (not what you want to hear when you're trying to remain positive!). I would have to wait 24 hrs for the next stage of the induction, after the promise that I wouldn’t leave the hospital grounds I was allowed to leave the ward and Tom and I sat outside for the day and did laps of the hospital grounds. At 7.30 pm with nothing happening I decided to say goodbye to Tom go back to the ward and get some sleep and focus on the next day now accepting that the birth centre was also now out of the question to. Tom decided he was going to sleep in his car incase anything did develop.
Thank god he did decide to stay close by, as within an hour I was having surges lasting a minute each and two minutes apart. I fully focused using my calm breathing - a ward with other women and no birth partner is not the ideal scenario but hypnobirthing techniques kept me calm. I called a midwife and she said it could just be pains from the pessary, I assured her it felt like proper contractions and that I was almost feeling like I needed to push. After examining me I was 4cm which was now half nine so I was able to go to the birth centre!! I called Tom and he joined us on route. The walk up to the birth centre and three strong surges on route got me to 10cm. I was really calm and laughing and joking with the midwife on the way up about how I had made it just in the nick of time and against all expectations ! The pool was filled up and I had the most wonderful calm water birth. My baby was out within an hour of being on the birth centre and a total of three hours in labour (so much for being a long way off!). He was born in his waters which was incredible and within minutes of him arriving I naturally delivered the placenta still attached. We were then able to delay clamping which was great. He latched on for a feed straight away and has fed like a trooper since.
Considering the birth was very different to what we first planned, I couldn’t have wished for a better outcome and I couldn’t have done it without the hypnobirthing techniques I learnt with Terri it really helped me to stay calm and go with all the changes. The other big thing that gave us both extra confidence was having the knowledge to make informed decisions and question the guidance given to us. Luckily I had a very supportive midwife who also helped us come to the best decisions for us as a family."
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