My waters broke on Sunday 31st October at 2:30am. I was abit worried and wasn’t really sure if it was my waters as I didn’t feel the “popping” sensation that a lot of people usually describe. We rang Burnley Birth Centre and they asked us to come in to check things over. As soon as we arrived they confirmed that my waters had indeed gone, but as I wasn’t having contractions yet they were happy for me to go home and see how things got on. When we got home we went back to sleep until about 8am, I felt contractions but they were just like period pains.
After a day of mooching around, watching films and taking things slow my contractions had been ramping up throughout the day and around 5pm they became a lot stronger. I was still able to breathe through them and feel comfortable thanks to the breathing techniques I had learnt with Tessa at Pregnancy Yoga and Jennie throughout our Hypnobirthing course.
I had a long shower and continued bouncing on my ball whilst watching funny TV as I knew this would help me concentrate on working through the contractions. I then started to work through the yoga positions I would usually do on Thursday evening at Tessa’s studio. Throughout the evening I had Tessa and Jennie’s voices in the back of my mind talking me through each contraction and how all of this work was leading up to me and Peter meeting our baby.
I rang the birth centre again and told them my contractions were now 7 to 8 minutes apart and that I felt it wouldn’t be long until they started to get closer together. It was now 1:15am on Monday 1st November (Peter’s 30th Birthday!!!) and we headed to the birth centre as my contractions were now 3/4 minutes apart and I was struggling to breathe through them.
Unfortunately when we arrived at the birth centre as I hadn’t gone into labour within 24hours of my waters breaking there was now an infection risk and I was advised against having the water birth I had planned for throughout my pregnancy. This DID NOT ruin my birth experience. I was a little worried when the midwives told me that I would now be on the birth suite, but they were AMAZING. They helped me prepare the room and made sure I could still be active throughout the journey even though me and baby now needed to be monitored.
I was 4cm dilated at 3:00am and was told that my full waters hadn’t broken, only my front waters so was advised to have them broken so that my labour could progress. One of the main things I learnt in yoga and hypnobirthing was that everything was my decision, I had a choice and I was able to ask questions to understand why I was being offered certain things. Peter was amazing and was confident to question things that midwives said, everything they were advising us was the best decision to help me bring my baby into the world.
After just breathing through the contractions, it was now 7:30am and I was 8cm. I decided to move onto gas & air as I felt it would help me concentrate on my breathing more. Things started moving quickly and by 11:20am I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. I started to get very very tired and wasn’t coping as well now with the contractions as they were really strong and in my back. My midwife offered me pethidine which I accepted. I didn’t feel it helped me too much but it did make me a little sleepy which made the contractions feel less strong.
It was now 12:30pm and had been pushing for about an hour and my contractions started to slow down and I was offered the hormone drip to increase the length of the contraction so I could push for longer on each contraction.
It was now 1:10pm and I was told baby’s head was visible so it wouldn’t be long until I met my baby….after 5 BIG pushes George James Hinnigan came into the world at 1:20pm.
My labour wasn’t 100% what I had planned for but it was still a very very positive experience and when I think about it I don’t think it could have gone any better. I was active, well informed and was fully supported by all of the midwives at Burnley Birth Centre.
I really couldn’t have done it without Tessa and Jennie. Their advice throughout my pregnancy helped me and Peter bring our beautiful baby boy into the world.
Thank you sooooo much!
“Tessa Clemson Yoga - your yoga studio in Great Harwood, serving Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, Ribble Valley & Burnley”
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