It was the most incredible experience of my entire life

Taylor’s Birth Story

Central Coast NSW Australia
Patrick 3.65kgs
39 weeks and 6 days
VBAC water birth

After an emergency c section with my first son, we went into our second birth really prepared. After going to our refresher hypnobirthing course I made an educated decision and asked for no IV, no cervical checks, no continuous monitoring, no directed pushing and no growth scans. The doctors in our hospital were not happy with these requests but after very clearly stating that they were my wishes and alongside a very supportive midwife we moved forward. On the 23rd December 2022 I woke up to a strange feeling at 5am, stood up and my waters broke. Surges immediately followed, I called the midwife to give her a heads up and she told me to stay home as long as possible.

I then decided to get even more oxytocin flowing and watched a Christmas movie ( perks of a December baby). At 6:30am I popped the tens machine on and continued labouring over the birth ball while my husband played with our toddler next to me. Around 9am my surges were getting quite intense and so my husband took our toddler to his grandparents house. While my husband was gone I rang the midwife to tell her ( in very few words) that we would be coming in shortly. I then went to my bag and pulled out two plastic combs and started to grip them through the surges. I also at this point had the waves hypnobirthing mix playing in my headphones. My husband arrived home to me going into transition and after some very heavy convincing on his part I finally allowed him to help me into the car.

As we reached the car park I began feeling some pressure. He wheeled me into the birthing suite, where my midwife was there waiting with my room set up exactly how I wanted it with the bath drawn. Without her even touching me I got straight into the bath. Once in and between surges my midwife gently and without my notice took my blood pressure, my pulse and checked bub via a Doppler. After that I just breathed my baby down through every surge using the combs and my music playlist to help me through. At one point I asked the midwife if I was close and she lovingly said to trust my body and if I felt comfortable I could reach down myself to see if I could feel bubs head.

The next surge came and I reached down and could feel baby’s head. This filled me with so much excitement and motivation to keep going. I then used the breathing down techniques and my breath and body then birthed my baby’s head. My husband later told me that I was so quiet and calm that the midwife got a shock when she took a mirror into the water and saw a head. In the next surge my baby was out and I myself at 12:10pm pulled him from the water. We didn’t know our baby’s gender so then I was able to announce to myself and the room ( 2 midwives at this stage and my husband) that our baby was a boy!

We then had 1 hour of skin to skin and breastfeeding before the cord was cut and placenta removed. Then an additional 2 hours of skin to skin before his checks were done. At the 4 hour mark we were given the all clear and the option to go home or stay. We opted to go home and at 4:30pm we were in the car with our precious new son in on our way home. My husband went to get our eldest and we were all home together as a family of 4 by 6pm. It was the most incredible experience of my entire life and I can honestly say I loved birthing my son.