As a hypnobirthing practitioner there often feels a slight pressure to have the perfect birth(doesn't exist) and practice what you preach. One of those ‘practice what you preach’ moments came when my husband took a long job which would take him away starting on my due date….now we all know how I feel about due dates, and that baby will come when baby was ready. But with this bit of information( that I found out when our family calendar ping’d and alerted me) I felt immense pressure that this baby needed to come before my due date-something I felt was probable seeing as the date I thought matched up with my last period was 10 days before the scan date.
So this is how my birth story begins for Bodhi Sunny Jobling-at my 39 week antenatal appointment( an appointment I didn’t think I would make seeing as this was when my daughter was born, but you know different baby!) At this appointment I asked for a sweep, I had done my research, was fully aware that it would more then likely not work, however I really wanted to speed things along so my husband would be there for the birth. The midwife said a big fat no, at this point in my pregnancy she didn’t think it would make any difference to the baby coming and it was unnecessary, she did give me some exercises that ‘could’ help things move in the right direction BUT baby comes when baby is ready. All things I knew and would advise my parents to trust.
That night I lunged, I bounced, I squatted and then went to bed. Around 2am I woke with the need to pee(not unusual) but as I was the size of a whale it took a while to shimmy out of bed, at which point I felt a pop in my stomach and a trickle of water soaked the bed-oh no I had wet myself….or had I? My waters hadn’t released with my daughter so I had no idea what it would feel like. Waking my husband and standing up, I realised (with relief) that I hadn’t wet myself and that my waters had released, we called the hospital to keep them posted seeing as my previous birth had been quick, then as I wasn’t having any surges yet I went to bed listening to my hypnobirthing tracks.
As I woke I began to feel the start of my surges, we were having a home birth so my mum came over as did my MIL to keep an eye on my daughter and the midwives turned up around 10am. Nothing much was happening and to be honest I just wanted everyone to leave so I did what most birthing people do and locked myself in the toilet, jumping in and out of the shower as needed.
A walk around the block at lunchtime and my surges really started to gear up-they were coming faster and were a lot stronger then I had experienced before. I knew I would want some gas and air but was also very aware that birthing at home meant limited quantities and I didn’t want it to run out when I really needed it, so I asked one of the midwives to see how dilated I was, this was around 3pm. I had an amazing team of midwives with me, and after the examination the midwife very calmly and respectably told me I wasn’t dilated at all…….however as a second time mum things would usually speed up quite quickly. Now I am usually one that tries to remain positive but for a split second I felt a little worried, I was finding the surges quite tricky to deal with and I was very aware that once I hit that 24hr countdown from my waters breaking I would be encouraged to head to the hospital, something I didn’t want to do nor battle with the midwives over. Using my B.R.A.I.N.S, I decided to ask for a sweep and after an hour or so bouncing on the ball and my husband massaging my back , I knew I needed to get into the pool. My husband and Mum gently reminded me to breathe and this helped hugely. I had imagined my daughter being in the pool with me, however she is such a chatter box and talking was really distracting I declined her offer to join me in the ‘swimming pool’ and she very calmly went to play in her room with my MIL-I don’t know what it was but it was almost like she had a sixth sense to not fight me and to give me space(something she never does!)
It wasn’t long after Tim put my playlist on and Elton John’s ‘Can You Feel The Love’ came on(and I angrily asked why this was on my play list….something that will forever baffle me) I decided to push(again something I didn’t really need to do with my daughter) I could feel his head move back and forth as if he was butting up against something and with a couple of pushes his head had entered the world. Feeling his head and knowing I would meet my baby so soon was the best pep talk I could have had.
The midwives all encouraged me to just trust my body in what to do and just as I had caught my breath, he decided he wanted to be born, and somehow I was catching and bringing him to my chest. A very beautiful baby boy in my arms and I just wanted my daughter to meet him. She skuttled into the room, and very shyly met her baby brother with a look of wonder on her face. A very magical moment.
Bodhi Sunny Jobling was born at 17.06 and was a picture of health. Being tucked up into my own bed was bliss, feeding my youngest and being snuggled by my eldest, how lucky was I!
After everyone left and my daughter being put to bed by my mum, we ordered a burger and chowed down in bed, taking Bodhi in.
Once again I was in awe of my body, I had wobbles and doubted myself but knew in the end I would birth this baby with strength and power, looking back on his birth with happiness and positivity.
