Pippa, Stuart and Jasper's birth story

With having a long drawn out labour with my first little boy, with a few complications thrown in for good measure, my view on birth was tinted with a slight fear.

Throughout my pregnancy with Jasper, my blood pressure was somewhat unstable, leading up to being full term it was peaking above the norm and midwives and doctors started mentioning induction, which was far from my dream birth. This time round I visioned a beautiful calm water birth which I could see slowly slipping away as a realistic experience for me.

My view was, I feel healthy, my baby is happy and healthy, so I opted to carry on and hopefully go into labour naturally while being monitored every so many days. Each time I went to my appointments I was offered induction dates, and I’d keep politely turning them down, using the tools that Meg had given me to be under control of my own body, and having the confidence the know that I knew what was best for not only myself but my baby. 

After being offered an induction date on 4 different occasions, (and messaging Meg for reassurance) the day before my ‘due date’ I was sent for a growth scan where they found he was a ‘big baby’, being told that made me feel intimidated and that tongue of fear started creeping back while I waited to see the consultant, doing my calm breathing and then reminding myself what Meg has taught us, your body wouldn’t create a baby too big for your body, your body can birth any size baby the same.

So consultant time – again an induction was offered, and once I had again turned it down, I was reminded the dangers involved in birthing ‘big babies’. So being stubborn i said I’ll have an examination and see if I had dilated at all. Turns out I was 2cm, which meant I qualified to be able to have my waters broken. After a bit of ‘bartering’ “with the Dr. We met in the middle and agreed I’d book in for my waters to be broken and go from there.

Now pretty down hearted I most definitely was not going to get my ‘dream birth’ I had to put in my brave pants and start preparing and visioning my new plan. The morning came, I double checked my hospitals bags, kissed my little boy good bye knowing the next time I cuddled him he would be a big brother. I made sure I took the time to listen to a relaxation track or two while getting myself ready keeping as calm as possible reading the affirmations and knowing ‘I can do this’.

Sitting in the birth suite waiting to meet my midwife, I was feeling so ready to meet my little boy.

So my midwife popped my waters at around 10am, I remembered all the tips Meg had told me to help progress, defuser on, music blaring laughing and joking while bouncing on my ball, trying my hardest to naturally progress myself. Unfortunately that wasn’t meant to be and the dreaded drip had to be used… I’ve since called it the devils work! Keeping positive I kept in control every 30mins the intensity would be put up that little more, breathing through every surge and keeping active, one of the many thoughts I remember thinking to myself ‘saggy face… saggy fanny’.

Now at 60mcg/hr the the surges were becoming super intense, but I had saved the gods gift that is gas and air specially for this occasion, now having to make noise through my surges to move through each one, Stuart massaging my back and putting counter pressure on my back I felt I had this In the bag. 8.30pm came, examination time, I was excited to here how far I had progressed… I was absolutely devastated to be told my cervix was still back and I was only 4cm. My head went and I had my ‘I can’t do this any more’ moment. Stuart stepped in reassuring me to get my head back in the zone… I could do this and I was going to do it.

So fast forward to 3am, it was finally time to push. The excitement got maybe too much and I spontaneously vomited, luckily Stuart remembered this happening with my last labour and was there with a bed pan and wet flannel faster than the speed of light. Again remembering what Meg had taught us, breathing the baby out, there’s not many more amazing feelings than feeling your baby come closer and closer earth bound. Listening to my amazing midwives and even having a joke between the room in between surges, we all worked as a team to get our boy safe and sound on my chest.

I had done it!! 30 minutes of the most amazing empowering pushing and Jasper had arrived into our mad world, all 9lbs2oz of him. We had requested prolonged skin to skin and that just what we got, in our amazing newborn bubble.

I cannot thank Meg enough, for making what can be such a scary experience into one of the most amazing ones of my life. We feel extremely lucky to have found such a special lady who has carried on helping and supporting me through my feeding journey. I’ve no doubt hypnobirthing played a key role in how calm we were as the birth unfolded.