Hanna's Birth

Hanna, born on Saturday 19th November 2011 at 7.23pm

at Lewisham Birth Centre (water labour)

“My baby was to arrive in the middle of November. I was awaiting her impatiently.

My waters broke in the night, on Friday the 18^th, about 11:30 pm. The surges started coming strong and quite regularly, about every 3-4 minutes. I called the Lewisham birthing centre and was advised to come over to be checked. I was staying calm and slow breathing through the surges.

We got to the birthing centre and it was confirmed that my waters indeed broke and all is well. However as I didn’t dilate enough at that stage, I was advised to go back home, relax and to call back in a couple hours… and so we did.

We got back home, I put on my relaxation music and was trying to have a nap. About 4 am I noticed that I was bleeding with bright red blood and wasn’t sure if that’s ok therefore I called the birthing centre again. They said to come over to be checked but this time to come to labour ward as they were not sure what was causing the bleeding.

We waited for about 45 mins in the labour ward to be seen. Then it turned out that all was good and the bleeding wasn’t something to worry about. The midwife who was checking me said that I was 7 cm open but that I would be giving birth in the labour ward. This wasn’t according to the plan but we agreed. I was taken to a separate room, however it had a strong ‘hospitaly’ feel, unlike the rooms in the birthing centre. By this time, the surges were coming regularly about 1 minute apart and they were quite strong. I did ask for gas and air but didn’t like it at all and gave it back.

Around 7 am, a midwife from the birthing centre came to see us, and when she found out that all was well, she said that we can come back downstairs to give birth in the birthing centre as originally planned (yuppieee!).

We got to one of the birthing suites and it was one with a birthing pool. I didn’t originally plan to give birth in a pool however as it was there, I thought that I’ll give it a go. And it was such a relief and very relaxing once I got in there. I had my music on, lights were dimmed, my husband was applying some acupressure during the surges and I stayed in water for the next 10 hours – you may only imagine how wrinkled I got! :-)

As time was passing by, I started to feel tired and falling asleep in the pool. The midwife advised that I should come out for a while and that we may try some other positions. They brought a birthing stool and a ball. After a check, it turned out that my baby got stuck a bit as she had one of her hands tangled by her chin. The surges started to weaken by this time and were coming less often. The midwife who was in charge of me was a bit concerned that I may be taken over by the labour ward again, she therefore asked for the consultation with the head of midwives in Lewisham hospital who came around and ‘ordered’ as follows: “Agnes, we need to move you so the surges kick in again, therefore – let’s turn the temperature down, make the lights bright, put some fast music on and let’s dance everyone!” and so we did! :-)

And it did work. Surges kicked in again and all went pretty quick from there. My daughter Hanna was born that Saturday evening at 7:23.  At the last stage however I was prompted to actively push and ended with a couple of stitches but once I got to hold my daughter in my arms, nothing mattered anymore.

I would recommend hypnobirthing classes to everyone and I’m so happy we did it. I think it helped me to understand the birthing, to feel relaxed about it and to allow it to come rather than ‘expect it in fear’. Hypnobirthing taught me that there’s so much more in labour than the physical process, that going through labour on a mental level is as, if not more important. My husband also enjoyed the classes and I loved how supportive he was throughout OUR birthing journey.”

Agnes & Piotr, Eltham