Note from Melissa: Alison and Grant originally attended Hypnobirthing Australia classes with me back in 2013, in preparation for the birth of their first baby. A homebirth with a registered private midwife was planned. They were very well prepared for the birth and had excellent care. However, some special circumstances arose during their first birth; so they transferred to the hospital and baby Wade was born via caesarean section. He is a perfect little hypnobub.

Fast forward to 2016 – Alison and Grant attended a private Refresher Session with me to prepare for the birth of their 2nd baby. A VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) home water birth was planned, with the support of their original midwife. This is their beautiful story…

The Story of Brynn’s Beautiful VBAC

I listened to my hypnobirthing affirmations every day before going into labour and also another track every night, while going to sleep. Affirmations have always been my favourite!

Saturday I thought I went into labour around 3am with surges 5 mins apart, feeling nauseous, everything, they kind of faded by the morning, but then picked back up after going to the chiro and even got to 3 mins apart and getting pretty intense, then as I was having acupuncture done they just stopped. Only came back once in awhile, which was a bit disappointing as I thought this was it!

Sunday nothing still, we decided to watch Ant Man and stayed up a bit longer than we should have. Went to bed and Brynn just wouldn’t let me sleep with her moving around and then surges started again at 3am and when I got up to pee I had lost mucus plug with blood. The surges were really hard to sleep through, but I tried and then finally I messaged Kelli (private midwife) at 5:45am to let her know what was going on, as I didn’t want to get my hopes up because I had been having prelabour on and off at night for a week or so. I knew it was different though when I actually wanted to get up at around 6am and stay up. So I bounced on my exercise ball by myself until everyone woke up, then I messaged Steph my doula about everything and asked her to come.

I’m glad I did too because Grant was occupied doing other things to get ready and stuff with Wade (toddler). I was really tired from the night so all I wanted to do was rest, my surges were still at about 5 or so minutes apart, and weren’t too intense. So I relaxed and napped, listened to my hypnobirthing, we bounced on the balls, walked around, chatted and laughed between surges. I think I even said at some quiet point, man labour is boring haha.

Things stayed about the same for a while nothing closer than 3 mins and after my nap they seemed even farther apart, although they seemed a bit more intense.

The affirmations were on non stop while I was in labour, helped me relax and rest early on. Also whenever I felt stressed or anything about birth or afterwards I put it on. Your voice is just so soothing ☺️

Around 2pm Kelli asked if we wanted her to come because traffic would be bad soon, but we had no idea if I would be labour for hours longer or not, then at 2:20pm they started getting even more intense, so Grant told her to come. After that things progressed very quickly, I wanted to get in the pool and we hadn’t even filled it, I started getting horrible thoughts and wanting to give up and I cried, Steph told me these were very good signs.

I decided to get in the pool at around 3pm and Steph just held the hose on my back as it filled, which felt amazing. Things ramped up more and my breathing wasn’t cutting it anymore so I started using these ah and oh techniques we learned in yoga and birthing from within to help us feel better about being vocal, which did the trick. Until my body started strongly pushing.

I tried so hard to keep it together, and keep things slow, but my body had other plans! I wanted to give up so bad, Kelli was stuck in traffic and I was scared to have the baby without her. Steph and Grant were amazing though, I had the best support team! My body was pushing so hard and I could do nothing about it, my oh’s and ah’s became screams every time my body pushed.

I had to grasp anything so at one point I grabbed Grant’s hair! I thought my waters had broken, but I had just peed because after that my waters really did literally pop! I felt her coming down fast, one push I couldn’t feel her, the next she was crowning, I reached down to feel, and it was crazy! After the next push her head was out and Kelli came running through the door, then one more she was out at 3:52pm.

I and my body were in so much shock! I just did that! I had a baby in my arms, it was crazy! She had vernix all over her! And looked exactly like Wade pretty much. My adrenaline was running so high though, I couldn’t stop shaking so Grant hopped in and took Brynn while I birthed my placenta, which only took about 10mins. What a relief! Except then my uterus started cramping and I was like what the crap is this?! Haha! I knew I had torn so I made Kelli get me an ice pack right away, haha.

It took a little bit for my adrenaline to calm and everything, but then I finally got to really enjoy my Brynn and feed her. It was an incredible experience and I wouldn’t change it. (Well maybe change my body not pushing her out so quickly haha!)

I had my home water vbac! I did it. I proved everyone who was concerned or whatever wrong. I knew I could do it and so did my entire support team. I am so forever grateful.

Thank you for all of your support! I couldn’t have done it without you!

Alison x