Sitting up in bed with my 11 week old at 3am (he’s slept like a dream until now) - finally finding the time to write my birth story!

We had a one-to-one with Anna when I was about 34 weeks & I found it so incredibly helpful & vital for my birth preparation.  Being my 2nd pregnancy, I obviously managed to sideline myself & the pregnancy for nearly the whole of the 9 months - my toddler, work, loft conversion etc. etc. took up my attention, time & energy.  I sometimes forgot I was even pregnant & then felt guilty how little attention this baby was getting compared to my first (a theme that has continued!). This also meant we didn’t really even think about the birth, birth preparation until quite late into 3rd trimester. 

A friend had met with Anna & recommended her so I contacted her to arrange a session.  She kindly came to our house & it was wonderful having a dedicated space with Anna to gently guide us (over tea & cake!) through conversations about my previous birth experiencec& our expectations & hopes for this baby.

She very carefully allowed me to talk trough some of the more difficult aspects of my previous birth (induction & vaginal birth) & then thought about ways it could be more empowering this time.  We are both medics, which I imagine could be a bit off-putting but we had great fun & lots of laughter & found it useful going through a lot of the basics of childbirth & Hypnobirthing in a practical & accessible way. 

I found it useful having someone to guide the conversation with my partner too because we had struggled to make that time & space for ourselves.  Anna has a non-judgemental & open-minded approach & suggests tools that might be useful but very much emphasises the importance of personal decision making.  I found the recaps of breathing techniques & body positions really useful plus tips for the trip to hospital which I was quite anxious about.  I listened to her calming MP3s every evening as I went to sleep & found her booklet really useful to refresh & prep in the final weeks. Plus loved the aromatherapy roller ball!  And I continue to enjoy her content on social media.

In the end I didn’t need to have worried about the trip to hospital because I was induced again after attending my 40+5 midwife appointment & having developed high blood pressure.  I was initially really disappointed because I’d really hoped to have started early labour at home this time & had images of soaking in the bath & relaxing on my ball but tried to stay positive.  Looking on the bright side, we’d been panicking about getting to hospital as it had snowed several inches a couple of days before & were worried about childcare for my toddler - so the induction removed those worries at least!

I had the prostin pessary but then due to reduced movements on monitoring, they moved me quickly to the delivery suite & decided to break my waters to check for meconium despite not having started contracting. Luckily my waters were clear but the doctor was recommending starting the syntocin drip as he said he didn’t think I would start contracting on my own.  However, I used my knowledge from my previous birth & confidence from my session with Anna & with my midwife advocating for me, asked to be given time for things to start happening naturally - my surges started pretty quickly & with the help of lots of bouncing on the ball & reverse lunging i was soon in established labour & didn’t need any more intervention & was just left to my own devices - where I wanted to be!

The delivery room was large & comfortable with lovely fairy lights & a bed that could be adapted to lots of different positions.  There was plenty of room for a birthing pool but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to inflate it as baby came quicker than we expected.  On my last examination about 4 hours after my waters were broken I was 5cm - the midwife did another sweep & I was soon feeling the transition & he was born about 30 minutes later.

I was on all fours on the bed, mooing loudly through my gas & air & did not want to move from there!  Anna’s encouragement to use my voice was really helpful.  The whole experience felt so much more relaxed & intuitive & as if I was in a flow state than my first birth.  I never really understood the ‘trust your body’ thing after my first birth - but this time I really felt I could surrender more to my body & relax & breathe through my surges - I certainly felt less scared & more empowered throughout.  

Thank you to Anna for her lovely care. I really believe it gave me the confidence to advocate for & enjoy the birth that I wanted.