Brooke’s Birth Story

Kobe 3.5kg

40 weeks 6 days

Natural hospital birth

At 40 weeks and 6 days I spontaneously went into labour. With no pre labour signs, I went to bed the Sunday night with a slight backache. Throughout the night it got more uncomfortable and I began to feel some pains in my stomach. I tried to sleep through most of the night and ignore the symptoms thinking this could be an early labour sign. By 4:30am I went to the toilet and began to feel nauseous, I knew this was a sign my body was clearing itself and beginning to prepare for labour.

I woke up my husband Jordan and I began to feel the stomach pain come and go, we decided to get the contraction timer app up and see whether they were regular. I have never experienced period cramps before so I wasn’t sure if this was a contraction I was feeling or not. We timed them for an hour and they became very regular. Yay this was labour starting! The contractions lasted about 40 seconds each and were coming every 2 minutes.

This seemed unusually quick however I was able to talk through each contraction still so we ran a bath and put on some hypnobirthing tracks. I focused on my breathing and tried to relax as much as possible. However, I felt as though the water intensified the contractions a lot. I jumped out and we head to the hospital, as I had to really concentrate on each contraction by this point and they were coming very close together.

When we were admitted into the birth unit I was measuring 4cm dialated and my cervix was long, thin, and fully afaced. I had my yoga Mat, yoga ball, tea lights and and affirmation cards all packed and ready to go however all my body wanted to do was lay down and be still. The only tools I used to cope were hair combs in my hands where I squeezed them with every contraction,used a tens machine and had my meditation music on. After 2 hours in the hospital I lost my mucus plug and my waters broke atthe same time. I instantly had the urge to push.

My body was involuntary pushing and with loud deep groans I pushed out my baby boy in 10 minutes. As soon as he was out the relief was unbelievable. I felt so empowered and amazed I had just done that all-natural with no drugs or gas. All the pain instantly went away and it was truly the most beautiful experience ever. 5 and half hours of labour and 10 pushes in 10 minutes Kobe was born! Bubs was born with the cord wrapped around his neck twice and didn’t cry.

However, the midwives allowed skin to skin where he started moving around and making tiny noises. Unfortunately we could only delay cord clamping for 2 minutes as the nurses were concerned with his breathing as they didn’t have time to track his heart rate while in the birth canal. We later figured out baby is just very chill and doesn’t cry often. Soon followed golden hour for both of us. We were allowed to leave the next morning. Hypnobirthing was so helpful as Jordan and I were on the same page with everything, we both knew our options and what to expect so we went into the experience confident and calm.

He knew what I needed and the midwives were so impressed with our birth plan too as they knew we were well-educated. I truly believe hypnobirthing, raspberry leaf tea, dates, and the love I felt from my husband (oxytocin) really helped me achieve this perfect birth.