Positive Birth Story: #birthedonlockdown Natural Birth with Epidural
Positive Birth Story, 2nd Baby, Natural Birth with Epidural
At the time of positing, we are currently on lock down as the COVID-19 Pandemic sweeps the world. This has meant we have seen some changes to the way our maternity systems are operating, and natural it’s left lots of women feeling a little anxious and unsure of what to expect. But here’s the thing, the way we give birth still works in exactly the same way! And the opportunity for truly positive birth experiences is still there.
Our new campaign #birthedonlockdown aims to share these stories with you so you go forward into your birth feeling reassured, confident and ready to have the positive experience you deserve.
Over to Joy for her story…
I’ve been meaning to send you my birth story :) your course helped me so much!
My son was born just as lockdown began here in Barcelona. I was having a shower before heading to a scheduled consultant visit when my waters broke! I was only 37 weeks so it was a bit of a shock. I threw some things into a bag (I hadn’t packed a hospital bag yet!) and went to the appointment as planned, where they confirmed my waters had broken and advised that I should go to the labour ward sooner rather than later.
I wasn’t having contractions so my husband and I quickly sorted out childcare for our older son, then went to hospital. I had hired a bilingual doula (since I moved here from the UK and don’t speak much Spanish) but due to the coronavirus lockdown she was unable to accompany me at the birth.
I used the up breathing and hypnobirthing techniques to keep me calm when situations started to make me feel anxious. I had an induced labour with my first son which was a bad experience and I had been adamant during this pregnancy that I would not be induced again this time. However, due to the circumstances I decided that it was a good idea for me to be induced eventually when contractions didn’t start naturally. I felt empowered to make my own decisions and ask for what I wanted from the hospital staff.
I had a pessary to dilate my cervix at about 10pm, then went to bed to wait and see what happened! I managed to fall asleep, and woke up at about 1am having regular surges. I used the hypnobirthing affirmations, breathing, and mp3s from the course to breathe through the surges as they got stronger and more frequent. From there things became very intense very rapidly and I realised I was already in transition. I went from barely dilated to 10cm dilated in less than an hour! Although I started feeling very out of control at this point, the hypnobirthing mp3s and breathing techniques gave me something to try to focus on and bring calm to the situation. I ended up asking for and having for an epidural since I was really struggling, and I had my son about an hour later, at 5am. The room was peaceful and quiet with low lighting and it was overall a great experience even though it was very intense and quick!
My husband was able to be with me during and after the birth but we weren’t allowed any other visitors. The hospital was actually very calm and quiet - it actually felt like a little bubble away from the outside world. Although it was sad to not be able to have visitors it gave me lots of uninterrupted bonding time with my son!
On the face of it, it could all seem like a very negative situation: the coronavirus lockdown, waters breaking early and being unprepared, doula not able to be there, induced labour, epidural, no visitors. However, I felt really calm throughout and it was a very positive experience. Hypnobirthing and the birth-ed course was a big part of that!
I had looked vaguely into hypnobirthing techniques with my first pregnancy but I never studied it properly so it went out the window when I was in labour that time. The birth-Ed course gave me the tools I needed to focus during birth and try to maintain a calm, peaceful environment during this labour. I would highly recommend it!
Thanks so much for all that you do, including everything on Instagram! Your posts, alongside the course, really helped me to get into a positive and empowered mindset for birth.
Thank you!
Joy (and baby Daniel!)
Want to feel prepared for a positive birth like Joy did? Why not join us for the birth-ed® Online Hypnobirthing & Antenatal course too?