Induced birth or medically induced labour is often viewed as something negative and many parents would prefer to avoid it, if they can. This was certainly the case for Katherine too, so I am very happy to share her positive induced birth story with you.
Getting Birth Started
I’ve finally come up for air so wanted to let you know that we welcomed our little baby boy into the world three weeks ago, at 42+3 weeks!!!
I can’t thank you enough again for the course and all the advice and knowledge you passed on, it made a huge impact on my birth which was a really positive experience all round.
As you know I had a couple of sweeps, wanting to encourage the most natural labour possible. However, we ended up having the Foley catheter and then also the prostaglandin gel to get things moving! As you remember, I was hesitant about medical induction because, deep down, I didn’t want to go down the full cascade. Thanks to the affirmations I was able to stay in a good head-space and be open to whatever was to happen.
My Body Responds
Luckily after the gel at 9pm my body kicked in. I still can’t believe I was nearly induced at 37 weeks, this baby clearly wanted more cooking time! My waters broke the following morning. Adam wasn’t able to stay with me overnight due to covid guidelines. This was challenging, seeing as my surges started at 10pm and I was up all night as they steadily increased. I listened to the guided meditations and did my breathing. This helped me to stay calm and go with it all.
I got into a real trance with a combo of breathing, affirmations and visualisations and not only progressed naturally but managed on gas and air throughout.
I’ve never felt so primal and in retrospect powerful. I had a deep rooted sense and confidence in my capability to birth my baby and tapped into that throughout. It is just crazy to think I was so anxious about getting pregnant because i didn’t think I could cope with labour!! It’s thanks to all the prep and practice that I felt totally empowered and in tune.
Our Birth Environment
Adam was the perfect birthing partner, not only keeping me hydrated and calm but cheerleading me on when I needed it most. We were so united after our hypnobirthing course with you, it really helped for Adam to have his role and thrive in it.
The staff at Stoke were amazing too, they put candles around, lights were low and we had our playlist throughout. It was wonderful I felt totally supported and in safe hands but equally left alone and in our zone.
Also the peanut ball was amazing so great heads up on that ….it gave me such great relief. I had quite an intense back labour throughout so didn’t get much let up between surges as I had hoped, so both the peanut and birth ball were essential!
Baby Starts to Descend
After 90 mins doing my down breath and a further 90 actively pushing I ended up needing some extra assistance with the kiwi cap and I had an episiotomy. By that point I was just ready to meet baby. I was still so calm and in my zone that it still felt natural somehow.
We went down to the delivery suite about 11am and Jacob was born at 11pm.
Anyway, I’ll stop as that really is the full low down!!! I enjoyed reliving it actually to write that!
Thanks again Leanne! Truly your Hypnobirthing course had such a huge and positive impact on how we delivered Jacob. Our induced birth was just amazing and beyond what I thought it would and could be.
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