Here are a selection of birth stories from mums who have attended Daisy Birthing classes in Plymouth - many thanks to all the mums who have kindly shared their stories and photos :o)
If you would like to have your story added please get in touch.
Sarah (August 2012)
Just wanted to say a huge thank you. The techniques you gave us made a huge difference. I used the rotate to dilate on all fours with visualising climbing the wave from word go. On first midwife examination I was already 7cm so I'm positive it helped me dilate so fast. I used the slow breathing all the way through and used lavender oil to calm down between contractions. Can't believe I got the birth I wanted despite him being 9lb 14oz and his shoulders getting a bit stuck. I told myself over and over during contractions, he's ok, I'm ok, he's just coming out and it worked brilliantly. Just gas and air, no stitches and 10x happier and more comfortable than last time.
Danielle (July 2012)
Just to let you know that Amelie Lottie Murray was born yesterday at 9.58am weighing 6 pounds 13 ounces. Labour started at 3 in the morning on Sunday, however established labour started at 11 on Sunday evening so it was a long night! Managed a drug free labour apart from a bit of gas and air, through the breathing techniques learnt in the classes, they certainly helped and I didn't clench my jaw once! Using the wave image also helped me to keep focused! Thank you for all you did!
Nicole (March 2012)
If you would like to have your story added please get in touch.
Sarah (August 2012)
Just wanted to say a huge thank you. The techniques you gave us made a huge difference. I used the rotate to dilate on all fours with visualising climbing the wave from word go. On first midwife examination I was already 7cm so I'm positive it helped me dilate so fast. I used the slow breathing all the way through and used lavender oil to calm down between contractions. Can't believe I got the birth I wanted despite him being 9lb 14oz and his shoulders getting a bit stuck. I told myself over and over during contractions, he's ok, I'm ok, he's just coming out and it worked brilliantly. Just gas and air, no stitches and 10x happier and more comfortable than last time.
Danielle (July 2012)
Just to let you know that Amelie Lottie Murray was born yesterday at 9.58am weighing 6 pounds 13 ounces. Labour started at 3 in the morning on Sunday, however established labour started at 11 on Sunday evening so it was a long night! Managed a drug free labour apart from a bit of gas and air, through the breathing techniques learnt in the classes, they certainly helped and I didn't clench my jaw once! Using the wave image also helped me to keep focused! Thank you for all you did!
Nicole (March 2012)
I took castor oil on Sunday night because I was tired of waiting for the baby. So I woke up at midnight with horrible stomach pains and spent the next 2.5 hours in the bathroom. Then my labour started but I didn't know it, I was up all night with what felt like bad period cramps. I alternated between lying in bed, and rotating on all fours. I did my lazy daisy birthing breath for the pain. It really helped! Finally around 6am I called the midwife and they sent someone over to check me out. When she came she told me that I was 5cm dilated - yay! Tons of progress without even really realising that I was in labour.
So with that my husband started filling the birth pool, and I continued my breathing exercises and rotating to keep things going. I had hired a TENS machine, but I only decided to use it because I had it. The breathing and rotating was fantastic and was really all I needed at that point to get through my contractions.
I got into the pool around 930am I think. It was fantastic, the pain relief in the water was amazing. So I floated around in there, breathing and moving through the contractions. I was using all of the visualisations from Lazy Daisy to stay nice and calm. Then after about an hour I felt the unstoppable urge to push. It seemed like I was fully dilated from my behaviour (because in a home water birth they don't examine you once you are in the water, they just let things happen). So I started pushing, and pushing and pushing...for 3 hours...and nothing happened. So then the midwives suggested that I get out of the pool to see if that would change things. When I got out I was in agony, specifically in my back. They examined me and found that I was only 8cm dilated. I was writhing with pain so they suggested that I go to the hospital to get some significant pain relief. I thought about it seriously because it wasn't what I wanted, but I couldn't stand the pain so the ambulance was called and in I went. The ambulance ride was comical (though it wasn't at the time) with the drivers saying things like 'whoa you're huge are you sure it's not twins?' and my husband telling them that it was not the time for comedy…
So I got to the hospital, had an epidural and also they gave me other drugs to get the labour going again as it kind of stopped at this point. Again, not in my birth plan but I didn't care at this point! The problem was that baby was turned back to back with me, which caused the back pain and the early urges to push.
So I lied around for a few hours and then they told me it was time to push again.
I harnessed all of my positive energy and started to push using the pushing breath. The midwives stopped me and made me do the OBEM breath instead! I wasn't exactly in a position to argue at that point, so I did it their way, but I did the pushing breath mentally. I pushed for what seemed like a while but was less than 1 hour and out came baby Cael - he was gigantic (10lbs 12oz)!! Everyone in the room stopped to look at this big baby on the bed - no one could quite believe it. Then he cried and they put him on my chest. It was the most wonderful moment of my life.
I credit Kate and the Lazy Daisy classes with my wonderfully positive birth experience. I used the breathing, visualisations and rotating moves throughout my labour - allowing me to feel relaxed and comfortable. There is no doubt that labour is very hard work, but doing these classes gave me focus and the tools to approach it confidently and calmly. Kate is the best! Lazy Daisy was the best thing I did to prepare for my son's birth.
Jess K (February 2012)
Long before Florie was even a twinkle in her daddy’s eye I’d liked the idea of having my baby at home. Due to being born with Congenital hip dysplasia I underwent a number of hip operations and spent quite some time in hospital as a baby and young child and have always had a real dislike of the places. Throughout my life I have always tended more towards natural healing rather than medical intervention. So why, when I was going to have a baby, one of the most natural human processes, would I want to go to hospital unless there was anything wrong?
When I fell pregnant I told my husband that I would like to look into having the baby at home and he was happy for me to investigate further. I did a bit of research online and discovered that luckily Plymouth has a Home Birth support group. I contacted them early on in my pregnancy and was told about the group meetings and where to find some good information online. I wanted to be as knowledgeable and prepared as possible for the birth, so I started a weekly antenatal yoga class at 12 weeks. I also wanted to find a class that offered a bit of birth information as well as exercise and birth skills/techniques. I didn’t feel that the NHS antenatal classes would offer that, especially as I wanted a homebirth, and the NCT classes were so expensive, we really couldn’t afford them. I then came across Lazy Daisy classes that Kate was just starting up in my area, they were going to be starting just at the right time, were really affordable and sounded like they offered the right mix of exercises along with information about birth and what was actually happening to your body. I also continued to go swimming as regularly as I could and walked regularly throughout my pregnancy. As a slightly ‘older’ mum to be (I’m 35), I wanted to try and ensure my body was as healthy and prepared as possible.
I found the Lazy Daisy classes really enjoyable and very informative. I’d done a great deal of research myself so was already aware of quite a bit of what we were taught and some of the exercises were similar to what I was doing in my antenatal class, however, this was really good as the exercises are all about doing them regularly so as to be able to do them almost unconsciously and reinforcing my knowledge could only help. I imagine most people would not have done quite as much research as me as I can get a little obsessed with researching information!
It was great to go along to the weekly classes and get to know other mums-to-be who were in the same mindset as to how they wanted their birth to be. I had too many people telling me I was mad to consider a homebirth with no pain relief and that ‘hippy dippy’ breathing and relaxation techniques would get me through. At the Lazy Daisy classes we were fully encouraged to learn how to use relaxation, breathing and movement techniques to help us through labour and it was reinforced that it was totally possible to have a natural birth with no interventions if we prepared ourselves. I enjoyed all of the exercises, particularly the cat to cobra, which felt great on a pregnant back! I have some mobility issues with my left hip and it was easy to adapt the movements if I could not fully get into the position. The relaxation at the end of each session was a lovely way to wind down at the end of the day and keep me feeling unstressed throughout my pregnancy.
It was great as a first time mum-to-be to hear others’ birth experiences and be able to ask questions, we chatted loads in the sessions and seemed to regularly run over as we were enjoying ourselves so much, but did not feel under pressure to stick to strict time limits, which made it all the more relaxing and fun.
I put together a daily exercise and relaxation routine using parts of the Lazy Daisy classes and antenatal yoga, plus I Iistened to hypnobirthing recordings as regularly as I could which really helped me to relax. I kept as active as I could right up to the birth, going swimming and trying to walk every day. I actually walked to the gym and back and went swimming 2 days before she was born.
We borrowed a birthing pool from the Plymouth Homebirth group a couple of weeks before my due date and got our dining room set up for the birth, plenty of towels at the ready. My husband had it all sorted and I left it down to him to get the birthing room ready. He had picked up tips from the Homebirth group and researching online.
By the time the big day arrived we were both feeling fully prepared, not scared or worried and raring to get on with it, although a little nervous of the unknown. My sister had given birth 5 weeks before in Australia and had breathed through her labour using only the hypnobirthing techniques and some gas and air, this made me all the more determined to have a natural homebirth. If my sister could do it then so could I.
I woke around 2am on the morning of 29th February and could not get back to sleep. My husband was sleeping in another room as it’s not very easy to sleep in the same bed as a 9 month pregnant wife! I lay in bed and thought I could feel what felt like a period pain ache coming and going in relatively regular intervals. At around 5am I downloaded a contraction timer to my phone and discovered the feeling was coming every 6 minutes and lasting around 40 seconds. I knew then that this was the start of things. It wasn’t particularly painful at this stage, just uncomfortable, which eased a bit if I wriggled around in bed, rocking my hips whilst lying down. By 6am I had to get out of bed and move around a bit more, standing up and rotating my hips through each contraction really helped. I thought I should probably let my husband know what was going on, so I made him a cup of tea and woke him to let him know that, “I think we might be having a leap year baby darling”. He sat up in bed, a little stunned (he’d just done 3 night shifts so was a little disorientated) and I told him there was no hurry and to sit in bed and drink his tea.
The next few hours seemed to progress well. We had some breakfast and then my husband started to blow up the pool and get the room ready whilst I timed my ever increasing contractions and continued to ‘rotate to dilate’, standing upright and rotating my hips throughout each contraction, sometimes sitting on my exercise ball. I found standing up the most bearable position to be in and paced around the house, chatting happily to my husband. I felt totally relaxed, not scared and rather excited. I listened to one of the hypnobirthing relaxation sessions and remembered to keep my breathing slow and controlled for pretty much all of my labour, I needed a little reminding later on, but the hypnobirthing really helped with the breathing. I tried the TENS machine, but found it a little annoying as it was constantly there, meaning I did not get the break between contractions, so I took it off. As the contractions got closer and more intense we phoned the midwife to let her know what was happening. I was getting contractions every 2 minutes, but they were only lasting about 30 seconds. She reassured me that it sounded as if I was progressing well and told me to phone back when I could not talk through contractions and they were lasting 40 seconds or more. I continued to pace around the house and found myself using some of the techniques I had picked up from the Ju Ju Sundin Birth Skills book, using juggling balls to bang against the wall, counting and stamping my feet during contractions to distract me, all the time trying to breath in a slow and controlled way to ensure lots of oxygen was getting to me and the baby and that I was staying as relaxed as possible and trying not to tense up. About an hour and a half later, the contractions had become much more intense and were lasting longer. I phoned the midwife again and she listened as I breathed through a contraction. She seemed satisfied that things had progressed far enough and I was happy for her to arrange for a midwife to come and see me. I wanted to leave it as long as possible before getting them to come out as I knew it was down to me to get through this myself.
The next hour or so is a bit of a blur of pacing round the house and trying to concentrate through the ever increasing contractions. I think I started to vocalise a bit by then (by that I mean yelling!), the neighbours must have started wondering what was going on. Claire, our lovely midwife, arrived and brought all her stuff in. I was so happy that she had managed to come and attend the birth as we really clicked with her and were really glad she was our midwife. She got me on the sofa to examine me and lo and behold I was 9.5cm dilated. I was overjoyed to hear this; the last thing you want to hear when you feel the contractions are almost becoming overwhelming is that you’re only 5cm! ‘Right, we’d better get you into the pool then’ she said. Unfortunately, Jez had done such a good job of keeping the water warm that it was too hot for me to get in and they had to lower the temperature by 9 degrees! I was not too pleased about this and demanded, ‘do it faster’ through gritted teeth! What seemed like an eternity later, but was probably only 5 minutes, the pool was cool enough for me to get in. I had my clothes off and was clambering in as fast as I could. The relief was immediate and I relaxed a little and was able to refocus my mind and get back into control. The water gave me a few minutes of relief to do this before the contractions ramped up again. However, I felt much more in control in the water, being able to change position easily really helped. As I concentrated on getting through the contractions the other midwife, Cheryl, and a student midwife attending her first birth arrived. I watched them from my safe position in the pool and they watched me from the sofa. They didn’t interfere and just let me get on with it. Although they did need to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and did suggest I change the tone of my shouting so as to try and not give myself a sore throat – I think a sore throat was the last of my worries at the time though. I remained pretty agreeable throughout apart from responding to the encouraging words from Jez and Claire of ‘well done, you’re doing it’ with ‘I’ve got no f@*!ing choice have I?’, although I think I did mean it slightly in jest!
An hour after being in the pool I was encouraged to start pushing. I remembered the bearing down breath from Lazy Daisy and managed to focus on internalising my pushes and keeping all of the energy inside me and pushing down rather than releasing the energy as I did with contractions. My notes say that I pushed for about an hour, I’ve no idea how long it was. I just remember thinking that I was going to get the baby out and just put all my energy into doing so. The midwives coached me through pushing the head out slowly so I didn’t tear. Jez was leaning over the edge of the pool encouraging me to breathe; he told me later he was breathing with me for most of the pushing stage. Once the head was out Claire told me to reach down and feel the head, I could feel soft hair. It felt strange with the head out and the body still moving inside me. I gave a couple more pushes and Claire said ‘pick your baby up’, I looked down and she was lying on the bottom of the pool. I reached down, picked her up and brought her to the surface, the first person in the world to hold this tiny creature with the really long legs, it was amazing to watch her slowly take her first breaths then the colour rushed into her and she cried a little. She seemed pretty calm and relaxed though after being born in the water and having a very gentle introduction to the world. She was born at 15.54, just over 12 hours after I realised I was in labour.
I held her in the pool for a while and Jez, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, cuddled and kissed us both from the side of the pool. We took a couple of photos and checked she was definitely a girl before I was helped out of the pool to dry off and try and have a physiological third stage. We sat wrapped in towels having a cuddle on the sofa for some time, unfortunately she didn’t feed straight away but we were happy gazing into each others’ eyes. An hour after she was born I had still not delivered the placenta so the midwives suggested we cut the cord and they administer the injection to speed it up. I was happy to go along with this by then. We’d had all of the benefits of keeping the cord attached for an hour. They clamped it and Jez cut the cord. Florie was taken to be weighed and have skin to skin with dad whilst Cheryl helped me to the bathroom for a wee and to see of the placenta was going to come out of its own accord. It didn’t so she administered the injection and after a few minutes helped it out; the feeling of relief was almost as big as when the baby came out! Cheryl then ran me a bath with lavender oil and I had a cup of tea and some toast before getting into it and cleaning up. The midwives and Jez cleaned everything up, leaving just the pool for Jez to empty. Cheryl helped me out of the bath and into some comfy clothes and made sure I was happily settled on the sofa feeding Florie before she left. Whilst Jez emptied the pool I ordered pizza and a couple of hours after she was born the three of us were sat in our lounge at home eating pizza and laughing that the pizza delivery boy didn’t have a clue I’d just given birth when I answered the door to him.
That night it was just our little family that went to bed together. Jez didn’t have to leave us and I didn’t have to be woken by other people whilst trying to sleep in a hospital. It was the perfect calm birth, just as we wanted it to be. But, in order of us to have the birth we wanted, we needed to put in the research and effort before hand for it to work out that way. I’d recommend a homebirth to anyone and everyone; it was the most amazing experience that my husband was able to be a full part of.
Sim (February 2012)
I began to have Braxton Hicks at 37 weeks. I had been diagnosed with a low lying placenta so was pencilled in for a scheduled c-section at 39weeks but was desperate to avoid a section as I have a 3.5 year old at home who I would need to care for and wanted to take out and about, but had been told that I would be allowed to try for an active natural birth for 5 hours but then they would take me straight to the theatre.
Whenever the BH occurred, I would rotate on my yoga mat with the birthing ball. For a while, it seemed to work, but then the naughty baby would engage then disengage. Ouch! For two weeks, I went for long walks, ate pineapple, curry, drove over speed bumps and was basically rotating for England but alack alas to no avail despite my best efforts. And soon those two weeks speed past and due to my low lying placenta, I reached the time where I due to have my elective c-section.
C-sections sound scary, and the recovery time from them can be for an age but compared to my first daughter which was an emergency section after failure to progress, it was an entirely different experience and recovery.
The room was calm and I could have had the Ride of the Valkyries if my eldest had not kindly unpacked my hospital bag for me. And also unpacked my notes. I was the first woman in the midwifes memory who had turned up for an elective without my notes. And she had been a midwife for 36 years. My husband had gone home to get the notes and was delayed in traffic so I became hormonal, weepy and stressed. This is where my breathing techniques helped. It slowly calmed me so that when the husband sauntered through the doors as I was being taken down for surgery, I was able to greet him calmly before once more becoming a hormonal mess.
I found breathing in for 4 and out for 8 helped with my severe phobia of needles as they administered the pain relief and drips. In fact I hadn’t even realised that the section had started as the anaesthetists were recommending stupidly awful names for our unborn child until they mentioned that the baby was coming soon. At which point daughter number 2 made an appearance and after apgar’s and a quick rub down we had skin to skin and got to know each other. She was not happy with her eviction which I feel is quite probably a sign of things to come for the teenaged years. Meanwhile, my husband then whispered and asked if there was any pain relief left over as he noticed two bricks outside and didn’t want any more children. It’s worrying that the surgeons actually took 20 seconds to consider his request...
My recovery from having daughter no 2, now nicknamed Bunny, has been easy for me despite the pain of the stitches being removed. Even then, my trusty breathing helped me through it all. Lazy daisy helped to keep me fit and mentally prepared me for dealing with phobias and pain – and for that, I can’t thank them enough.
Jess B (February 2012)
I had got to term plus 10 and was well and truly fed up. My husband came home and told me about a friend who had meditated their baby out so I thought it was worth a try. I ran a bubble bath, put some candles on and turned off the phone. I used the relaxation and visualisation techniques from the Lazy Daisy classes (my favourite part of the classes!) and spoke to my bump telling my baby that it was time to come out now. I’m not sure if it worked or if it was just coincidence but I started getting contractions at 3 the next morning.
I had irregular contractions all day and got a visit from midwife as I was having a home birth. She informed me that I was in early labour and that nothing would happen yet but that we should get things ready including inflating the birth pool. I walked around a lot and did the rotate to dilate moves that had been drummed into me. The irregular and not very painful contractions carried on until about 11.30pm when I called the midwife again to tell her I was fed up and shouldn’t something be happening now. Luckily for me she came straight out, examined me and said that I was 6 cm and definitely in labour. The reason why my contractions were not regular was that the baby’s head was pressing down at a funny angle. The midwife asked me to lean forward with every contraction to help the baby into the right position. The contractions started becoming more intense and the second midwife was called.
I managed to breath through all the contractions using the breathing techniques. I actually didn’t get past the basic breathing technique as it was all I needed. I’d coached my mum and husband to remind me to breath throughout and to stop me tensing. When I did tense my jaw I kept on seeing Kate’s (birthing mentor) face doing her impression of the One Born Every Minute people tensing and therefore not breathing properly. Not sure what Kate thinks of being pictured whilst in labour but it certainly stopped me doing it.
I walked up and down the stairs and at one point had 3 contractions walking up the stairs and 1 whilst on the toilet. I had the urge to push whilst on the toilet so thought maybe I should get into the birthing pool.
I got into the pool and have to say it was absolute bliss. If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend it. I knelt in the pool leaning over the edge holding my mum and husbands hands. The midwife said to me just push when you feel you want to so that’s what I did. After a couple of pushes the head was out then a couple more they told me to reach down to get my baby. I was absolutely shocked that my baby had arrived so quickly. It was no more than 10 minutes pushing in total.
I held her to my chest but she was grey and not breathing as she was born so quickly so had to be resuscitated. Although I was worried the midwives were so confident that I knew it would be alright. I stepped out of the pool but also went into shock which was pretty horrible. Luckily Holly started breathing and was handed over to me for cuddles. Everything was cleared up, my eldest daughter was brought down to meet Holly and then we all went to bed, bliss.
Holly arrived at 3.03am at term plus 12. All in all it was a fantastic and amazing experience. I am amazed that I managed it without any pain relief. My labour with my first daughter was in hospital, she was 7 lb 8, lasted 8 hours with 1 and a half hours pushing and lots of vomit inducing diamorphine. This one was over in 3 hours with 10 minutes pushing for a 8 lb 5 baby. The Lazy Daisy classes helped me as they made me feel in control, helped me keep calm and most importantly reminded me to breath! You may not necessarily use everything that you learn whilst in labour but it’s about having the different tools there to draw upon should you need them.
Jess K (February 2012)
Long before Florie was even a twinkle in her daddy’s eye I’d liked the idea of having my baby at home. Due to being born with Congenital hip dysplasia I underwent a number of hip operations and spent quite some time in hospital as a baby and young child and have always had a real dislike of the places. Throughout my life I have always tended more towards natural healing rather than medical intervention. So why, when I was going to have a baby, one of the most natural human processes, would I want to go to hospital unless there was anything wrong?
When I fell pregnant I told my husband that I would like to look into having the baby at home and he was happy for me to investigate further. I did a bit of research online and discovered that luckily Plymouth has a Home Birth support group. I contacted them early on in my pregnancy and was told about the group meetings and where to find some good information online. I wanted to be as knowledgeable and prepared as possible for the birth, so I started a weekly antenatal yoga class at 12 weeks. I also wanted to find a class that offered a bit of birth information as well as exercise and birth skills/techniques. I didn’t feel that the NHS antenatal classes would offer that, especially as I wanted a homebirth, and the NCT classes were so expensive, we really couldn’t afford them. I then came across Lazy Daisy classes that Kate was just starting up in my area, they were going to be starting just at the right time, were really affordable and sounded like they offered the right mix of exercises along with information about birth and what was actually happening to your body. I also continued to go swimming as regularly as I could and walked regularly throughout my pregnancy. As a slightly ‘older’ mum to be (I’m 35), I wanted to try and ensure my body was as healthy and prepared as possible.
I found the Lazy Daisy classes really enjoyable and very informative. I’d done a great deal of research myself so was already aware of quite a bit of what we were taught and some of the exercises were similar to what I was doing in my antenatal class, however, this was really good as the exercises are all about doing them regularly so as to be able to do them almost unconsciously and reinforcing my knowledge could only help. I imagine most people would not have done quite as much research as me as I can get a little obsessed with researching information!
It was great to go along to the weekly classes and get to know other mums-to-be who were in the same mindset as to how they wanted their birth to be. I had too many people telling me I was mad to consider a homebirth with no pain relief and that ‘hippy dippy’ breathing and relaxation techniques would get me through. At the Lazy Daisy classes we were fully encouraged to learn how to use relaxation, breathing and movement techniques to help us through labour and it was reinforced that it was totally possible to have a natural birth with no interventions if we prepared ourselves. I enjoyed all of the exercises, particularly the cat to cobra, which felt great on a pregnant back! I have some mobility issues with my left hip and it was easy to adapt the movements if I could not fully get into the position. The relaxation at the end of each session was a lovely way to wind down at the end of the day and keep me feeling unstressed throughout my pregnancy.
It was great as a first time mum-to-be to hear others’ birth experiences and be able to ask questions, we chatted loads in the sessions and seemed to regularly run over as we were enjoying ourselves so much, but did not feel under pressure to stick to strict time limits, which made it all the more relaxing and fun.
I put together a daily exercise and relaxation routine using parts of the Lazy Daisy classes and antenatal yoga, plus I Iistened to hypnobirthing recordings as regularly as I could which really helped me to relax. I kept as active as I could right up to the birth, going swimming and trying to walk every day. I actually walked to the gym and back and went swimming 2 days before she was born.
We borrowed a birthing pool from the Plymouth Homebirth group a couple of weeks before my due date and got our dining room set up for the birth, plenty of towels at the ready. My husband had it all sorted and I left it down to him to get the birthing room ready. He had picked up tips from the Homebirth group and researching online.
By the time the big day arrived we were both feeling fully prepared, not scared or worried and raring to get on with it, although a little nervous of the unknown. My sister had given birth 5 weeks before in Australia and had breathed through her labour using only the hypnobirthing techniques and some gas and air, this made me all the more determined to have a natural homebirth. If my sister could do it then so could I.
I woke around 2am on the morning of 29th February and could not get back to sleep. My husband was sleeping in another room as it’s not very easy to sleep in the same bed as a 9 month pregnant wife! I lay in bed and thought I could feel what felt like a period pain ache coming and going in relatively regular intervals. At around 5am I downloaded a contraction timer to my phone and discovered the feeling was coming every 6 minutes and lasting around 40 seconds. I knew then that this was the start of things. It wasn’t particularly painful at this stage, just uncomfortable, which eased a bit if I wriggled around in bed, rocking my hips whilst lying down. By 6am I had to get out of bed and move around a bit more, standing up and rotating my hips through each contraction really helped. I thought I should probably let my husband know what was going on, so I made him a cup of tea and woke him to let him know that, “I think we might be having a leap year baby darling”. He sat up in bed, a little stunned (he’d just done 3 night shifts so was a little disorientated) and I told him there was no hurry and to sit in bed and drink his tea.
The next few hours seemed to progress well. We had some breakfast and then my husband started to blow up the pool and get the room ready whilst I timed my ever increasing contractions and continued to ‘rotate to dilate’, standing upright and rotating my hips throughout each contraction, sometimes sitting on my exercise ball. I found standing up the most bearable position to be in and paced around the house, chatting happily to my husband. I felt totally relaxed, not scared and rather excited. I listened to one of the hypnobirthing relaxation sessions and remembered to keep my breathing slow and controlled for pretty much all of my labour, I needed a little reminding later on, but the hypnobirthing really helped with the breathing. I tried the TENS machine, but found it a little annoying as it was constantly there, meaning I did not get the break between contractions, so I took it off. As the contractions got closer and more intense we phoned the midwife to let her know what was happening. I was getting contractions every 2 minutes, but they were only lasting about 30 seconds. She reassured me that it sounded as if I was progressing well and told me to phone back when I could not talk through contractions and they were lasting 40 seconds or more. I continued to pace around the house and found myself using some of the techniques I had picked up from the Ju Ju Sundin Birth Skills book, using juggling balls to bang against the wall, counting and stamping my feet during contractions to distract me, all the time trying to breath in a slow and controlled way to ensure lots of oxygen was getting to me and the baby and that I was staying as relaxed as possible and trying not to tense up. About an hour and a half later, the contractions had become much more intense and were lasting longer. I phoned the midwife again and she listened as I breathed through a contraction. She seemed satisfied that things had progressed far enough and I was happy for her to arrange for a midwife to come and see me. I wanted to leave it as long as possible before getting them to come out as I knew it was down to me to get through this myself.
The next hour or so is a bit of a blur of pacing round the house and trying to concentrate through the ever increasing contractions. I think I started to vocalise a bit by then (by that I mean yelling!), the neighbours must have started wondering what was going on. Claire, our lovely midwife, arrived and brought all her stuff in. I was so happy that she had managed to come and attend the birth as we really clicked with her and were really glad she was our midwife. She got me on the sofa to examine me and lo and behold I was 9.5cm dilated. I was overjoyed to hear this; the last thing you want to hear when you feel the contractions are almost becoming overwhelming is that you’re only 5cm! ‘Right, we’d better get you into the pool then’ she said. Unfortunately, Jez had done such a good job of keeping the water warm that it was too hot for me to get in and they had to lower the temperature by 9 degrees! I was not too pleased about this and demanded, ‘do it faster’ through gritted teeth! What seemed like an eternity later, but was probably only 5 minutes, the pool was cool enough for me to get in. I had my clothes off and was clambering in as fast as I could. The relief was immediate and I relaxed a little and was able to refocus my mind and get back into control. The water gave me a few minutes of relief to do this before the contractions ramped up again. However, I felt much more in control in the water, being able to change position easily really helped. As I concentrated on getting through the contractions the other midwife, Cheryl, and a student midwife attending her first birth arrived. I watched them from my safe position in the pool and they watched me from the sofa. They didn’t interfere and just let me get on with it. Although they did need to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and did suggest I change the tone of my shouting so as to try and not give myself a sore throat – I think a sore throat was the last of my worries at the time though. I remained pretty agreeable throughout apart from responding to the encouraging words from Jez and Claire of ‘well done, you’re doing it’ with ‘I’ve got no f@*!ing choice have I?’, although I think I did mean it slightly in jest!
An hour after being in the pool I was encouraged to start pushing. I remembered the bearing down breath from Lazy Daisy and managed to focus on internalising my pushes and keeping all of the energy inside me and pushing down rather than releasing the energy as I did with contractions. My notes say that I pushed for about an hour, I’ve no idea how long it was. I just remember thinking that I was going to get the baby out and just put all my energy into doing so. The midwives coached me through pushing the head out slowly so I didn’t tear. Jez was leaning over the edge of the pool encouraging me to breathe; he told me later he was breathing with me for most of the pushing stage. Once the head was out Claire told me to reach down and feel the head, I could feel soft hair. It felt strange with the head out and the body still moving inside me. I gave a couple more pushes and Claire said ‘pick your baby up’, I looked down and she was lying on the bottom of the pool. I reached down, picked her up and brought her to the surface, the first person in the world to hold this tiny creature with the really long legs, it was amazing to watch her slowly take her first breaths then the colour rushed into her and she cried a little. She seemed pretty calm and relaxed though after being born in the water and having a very gentle introduction to the world. She was born at 15.54, just over 12 hours after I realised I was in labour.
I held her in the pool for a while and Jez, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, cuddled and kissed us both from the side of the pool. We took a couple of photos and checked she was definitely a girl before I was helped out of the pool to dry off and try and have a physiological third stage. We sat wrapped in towels having a cuddle on the sofa for some time, unfortunately she didn’t feed straight away but we were happy gazing into each others’ eyes. An hour after she was born I had still not delivered the placenta so the midwives suggested we cut the cord and they administer the injection to speed it up. I was happy to go along with this by then. We’d had all of the benefits of keeping the cord attached for an hour. They clamped it and Jez cut the cord. Florie was taken to be weighed and have skin to skin with dad whilst Cheryl helped me to the bathroom for a wee and to see of the placenta was going to come out of its own accord. It didn’t so she administered the injection and after a few minutes helped it out; the feeling of relief was almost as big as when the baby came out! Cheryl then ran me a bath with lavender oil and I had a cup of tea and some toast before getting into it and cleaning up. The midwives and Jez cleaned everything up, leaving just the pool for Jez to empty. Cheryl helped me out of the bath and into some comfy clothes and made sure I was happily settled on the sofa feeding Florie before she left. Whilst Jez emptied the pool I ordered pizza and a couple of hours after she was born the three of us were sat in our lounge at home eating pizza and laughing that the pizza delivery boy didn’t have a clue I’d just given birth when I answered the door to him.
That night it was just our little family that went to bed together. Jez didn’t have to leave us and I didn’t have to be woken by other people whilst trying to sleep in a hospital. It was the perfect calm birth, just as we wanted it to be. But, in order of us to have the birth we wanted, we needed to put in the research and effort before hand for it to work out that way. I’d recommend a homebirth to anyone and everyone; it was the most amazing experience that my husband was able to be a full part of.
Sim (February 2012)
I began to have Braxton Hicks at 37 weeks. I had been diagnosed with a low lying placenta so was pencilled in for a scheduled c-section at 39weeks but was desperate to avoid a section as I have a 3.5 year old at home who I would need to care for and wanted to take out and about, but had been told that I would be allowed to try for an active natural birth for 5 hours but then they would take me straight to the theatre.
Whenever the BH occurred, I would rotate on my yoga mat with the birthing ball. For a while, it seemed to work, but then the naughty baby would engage then disengage. Ouch! For two weeks, I went for long walks, ate pineapple, curry, drove over speed bumps and was basically rotating for England but alack alas to no avail despite my best efforts. And soon those two weeks speed past and due to my low lying placenta, I reached the time where I due to have my elective c-section.
C-sections sound scary, and the recovery time from them can be for an age but compared to my first daughter which was an emergency section after failure to progress, it was an entirely different experience and recovery.
The room was calm and I could have had the Ride of the Valkyries if my eldest had not kindly unpacked my hospital bag for me. And also unpacked my notes. I was the first woman in the midwifes memory who had turned up for an elective without my notes. And she had been a midwife for 36 years. My husband had gone home to get the notes and was delayed in traffic so I became hormonal, weepy and stressed. This is where my breathing techniques helped. It slowly calmed me so that when the husband sauntered through the doors as I was being taken down for surgery, I was able to greet him calmly before once more becoming a hormonal mess.
I found breathing in for 4 and out for 8 helped with my severe phobia of needles as they administered the pain relief and drips. In fact I hadn’t even realised that the section had started as the anaesthetists were recommending stupidly awful names for our unborn child until they mentioned that the baby was coming soon. At which point daughter number 2 made an appearance and after apgar’s and a quick rub down we had skin to skin and got to know each other. She was not happy with her eviction which I feel is quite probably a sign of things to come for the teenaged years. Meanwhile, my husband then whispered and asked if there was any pain relief left over as he noticed two bricks outside and didn’t want any more children. It’s worrying that the surgeons actually took 20 seconds to consider his request...
My recovery from having daughter no 2, now nicknamed Bunny, has been easy for me despite the pain of the stitches being removed. Even then, my trusty breathing helped me through it all. Lazy daisy helped to keep me fit and mentally prepared me for dealing with phobias and pain – and for that, I can’t thank them enough.
Jess B (February 2012)
I had got to term plus 10 and was well and truly fed up. My husband came home and told me about a friend who had meditated their baby out so I thought it was worth a try. I ran a bubble bath, put some candles on and turned off the phone. I used the relaxation and visualisation techniques from the Lazy Daisy classes (my favourite part of the classes!) and spoke to my bump telling my baby that it was time to come out now. I’m not sure if it worked or if it was just coincidence but I started getting contractions at 3 the next morning.
I had irregular contractions all day and got a visit from midwife as I was having a home birth. She informed me that I was in early labour and that nothing would happen yet but that we should get things ready including inflating the birth pool. I walked around a lot and did the rotate to dilate moves that had been drummed into me. The irregular and not very painful contractions carried on until about 11.30pm when I called the midwife again to tell her I was fed up and shouldn’t something be happening now. Luckily for me she came straight out, examined me and said that I was 6 cm and definitely in labour. The reason why my contractions were not regular was that the baby’s head was pressing down at a funny angle. The midwife asked me to lean forward with every contraction to help the baby into the right position. The contractions started becoming more intense and the second midwife was called.
I managed to breath through all the contractions using the breathing techniques. I actually didn’t get past the basic breathing technique as it was all I needed. I’d coached my mum and husband to remind me to breath throughout and to stop me tensing. When I did tense my jaw I kept on seeing Kate’s (birthing mentor) face doing her impression of the One Born Every Minute people tensing and therefore not breathing properly. Not sure what Kate thinks of being pictured whilst in labour but it certainly stopped me doing it.
I walked up and down the stairs and at one point had 3 contractions walking up the stairs and 1 whilst on the toilet. I had the urge to push whilst on the toilet so thought maybe I should get into the birthing pool.
I got into the pool and have to say it was absolute bliss. If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend it. I knelt in the pool leaning over the edge holding my mum and husbands hands. The midwife said to me just push when you feel you want to so that’s what I did. After a couple of pushes the head was out then a couple more they told me to reach down to get my baby. I was absolutely shocked that my baby had arrived so quickly. It was no more than 10 minutes pushing in total.
I held her to my chest but she was grey and not breathing as she was born so quickly so had to be resuscitated. Although I was worried the midwives were so confident that I knew it would be alright. I stepped out of the pool but also went into shock which was pretty horrible. Luckily Holly started breathing and was handed over to me for cuddles. Everything was cleared up, my eldest daughter was brought down to meet Holly and then we all went to bed, bliss.
Holly arrived at 3.03am at term plus 12. All in all it was a fantastic and amazing experience. I am amazed that I managed it without any pain relief. My labour with my first daughter was in hospital, she was 7 lb 8, lasted 8 hours with 1 and a half hours pushing and lots of vomit inducing diamorphine. This one was over in 3 hours with 10 minutes pushing for a 8 lb 5 baby. The Lazy Daisy classes helped me as they made me feel in control, helped me keep calm and most importantly reminded me to breath! You may not necessarily use everything that you learn whilst in labour but it’s about having the different tools there to draw upon should you need them.
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