I went into the hospital at 39 weeks to be induced after deciding that was the best course of action due to bubs suspected larger size. There were a number of reasons we decided to go ahead with the induction but we felt really informed, supported and empowered with the decision after doing the Hypnobirthing course.

June 7th around 7pm Cervadil tape was inserted, I was experiencing some rather intense back pain on and off earlier in the day and when I got to hospital I was dilated to 1cm.

The tape fell out and had to be reinserted however it was only in for a few hours before I started getting regular tightenings and we decided to remove it at midnight. The midwives also organised some pain relief, sleep tablets and fluids to allow me to rest during the night and give my body a chance to start labour on its own. The next morning I was transferred to the birth suite to continue the induction. My waters were broken at 10am but it didn’t feel quite right, with my daughter my waters had to be broken twice and it was quite a traumatic birth with her. The midwife agreed not to start the hormone drip until I was comfortable, after twenty minutes of no sign of labour I asked the midwife to try and check my waters again and sure enough they hadn’t broken fully the first time.

My waters continued to leak on their own and I got very minor tightenings so we decide to start the drip on the lowest dose possible around 11am to help labour progress. Tightenings started getting a little more intense but active labour kicked in at around midday. I popped on my tens machine for pain relief and use the hospital bed with the bed head upright to lean over for labour and let gravity assist in my labour. I tried to focus on one surge at a time like I’d learned in the course and did my best to breathe through each one.

After 45 minutes of labouring on the hospital bed and crying through my surges I decided I needed to use the toilet and see if that helped but I didn’t find it comfortable at all. I quickly asked for a mat so I could get on the floor onto all fours as the surges got more intense. I then decided I needed more pain relief than the tens machine and begged for an epidural as I hit a wall in my labour. My wonderful team of midwives stalled as they offered alternatives such as gas and the shower. They knew I was close to giving birth. I attempted using gas but was frustrated and decided it wasn’t what I needed and instead vocalised my surges by grunting and screaming and releasing all of the tension through my body. After a couple of surges something changed and I became extremely erratic as I felt a burning sensation. My midwife asked me to vocalise as best I could what I was feeling, as I shouted “it burns” over and over again they prepared for the arrival of my baby.

The next surge I could feel immense pressure and no longer felt the intense pain of the contractions that I was feeling before. The midwife told me she wanted me to follow my bodies instincts but there would be a point where my body would want to do one big push but she wanted me to instead pant and do small pushes. Once my body started to bear down I had a moment of clarity and knowing my baby was coming into the world I completely gave into my instincts, the entire time my birth partner, my husband, was using the light touch massage on my upper back and his voice was my anchor to bring me back between surges. I laid my face down on the mat as a gripped a pillow for comfort and pushed my baby boy into the world at 1:54pm.

With active labour lasting only 2 hours including the few minutes of pushing time, I brought my 9.9 pound baby into the world completely naturally with only a small tear. It was truly an amazing and empowering birth that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve without the Hypnobirthing course.