Kate’s Birth Story

WATER BIRTH – BRACKEN BIRTH CENTRE – HYPNOBIRTHING – FIRST TIME MUM

Written by Kate

At 40+4 weeks after 7 days of on and off contractions I made an informed decision to try a sweep. I felt aware of the risks and benefits and chose to go with it. 

Over the next 24 hours my contractions started to become more intense. I carried on doing things that I enjoyed like walking my dog and seeing friends and family, basically trying to put it to the back of my mind. 

It was the night before and things had really ramped up. My partner was using a hypnobirthing app on my phone that would tell us how long and how often the contractions were while also prompting me of the breath work that Mollie had taught us. 

The contractions weren’t yet quick enough to go into Bracken so my partner suggested taking a relaxing bath, I included some clary sage in there and put on my dimmed lights. It was 9pm at this point and decided to try and get some sleep, I managed to doze for a short while but during this time I was starting to feel more uncomfortable and so I decided I would like to make our way into Bracken. 

The staff at Bracken were wonderful and reassured me that my contractions weren’t close enough at that point and that I was welcome to stay but I might be more comfortable at home. We agreed to go home and took away some pain relief to make me more comfortable. The pain relief must have worked as I managed to get a good nights sleep. 

In the morning I woke up and suddenly felt a shift, my contractions were every 2 minutes and I wasn’t able to talk through them anymore. So we called Bracken and let them know we were on our way. 

We arrived to be welcomed by a lovely student midwife and were left to our own devices but assured they were there if we needed anything. We felt very at home and relaxed being able to put my Jack Johnson playlist on. 

My latent phase of labour was quite long and although the midwife reassured me that she didn’t need to examine how dilated I was, I asked if she would check. I was disappointed to learn after 4 hours I was still only 2cm dilated. I was reassured that things can happen quickly and remembered Mollie explaining that there is no linear timeline for birth. After another 4 hours of contractions and getting in and out of the pool I asked to be checked again as I was becoming tired, and again I was disappointed that I was only 3cm. 

My partner and I discussed my options with the midwife and made an informed decision to have the pethidine injection. This meant I had to get out of the pool but that I could try and get some sleep and after two hours I would be able to get back into the pool. Sure enough I slept for those 2 hours! I woke up to my waters breaking and feeling of needing to push. I had time to get back into the pool, get the ambience to my liking and start again with the breathing techniques as it was time to push! 45 minutes later after a very calm period of pushing (alongside making noises I never thought I would make) our healthy baby boy arrived ! 

The period after this was so tranquil and relaxed, the cord was cut about 5 minutes later and I birthed the placenta naturally. All things I thought I would have to ask for were standard practise in Bracken. Using Mollies techniques alongside the wonderful staff and facilities at Bracken definitely helped us to have the calm birth that we wanted and I feel next time I’d love to have a home birth! 

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Thank you Kate for sharing your beautiful birth story here. Like Kate, if you would love the tools and knowledge to navigate your birth with strength and confidence, you can join one of my monthly Group Hypnobirthing courses in Taunton!