Nov 1, 2018

The feeling of being in “pain” never ever crossed my mind! (Birth Video Included)

Get the tissues, because this birth story brought me to tears!! I met Shon and Brent in my July, 2018 group course this year and the transformation they made from feeling fearful about their birth to excited as they describe HERE in an interview I did with them is amazing. Shon would share with me how Brent now brags about the Hypnobirthing Program to their friends over dinner. I feel so honoured to have been apart of this journey with them. Shon and Brent did the work and it definitely paid off for them. 💕 I know you will enjoy this birth story and birth video as much as I did. - Shari xx

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Shon & Brent's Birth Story

At 11.30pm on Saturday 29th September, I woke up with the knowing that my baby was on its way. I wasn’t having surges and my waters hadn’t broken but I just felt different in my body and I had a sense that very shortly we would be meeting our baby. I remember feeling some tightening like I’d felt on and off for the previous week but this felt different, I was excited. I jumped out of bed and got on my ball and started watching Breaking Bad. As excited as I was, I felt really calm and so I decided to leave my husband to sleep whilst I began labouring in the lounge room on my own. A couple of hours passed and I started to feel the tightening sensation becoming a lot stronger, so I put on some Clary Sage in the diffuser and breathed it in deeply.

By 2 am things were well and truly underway as I moved from the couch to the ball to the toilet, breathing deeply and going through the hypnobirthing mantras in my head. At 2.08am I was on the couch and felt a different type of pressure, a pressure I knew was my waters breaking! So I jumped up, waddled down the hallway into the bathroom and stood in the shower, sure enough, my waters broke (trickled) and it was at this point I decided I better let my husband know we were having a baby! I remember calling out to him 3 times “Draper... Draper... DRAAPER”, and on the third call, he came sprinting down the hallway still half asleep rubbing his eyes. From this point until about 4.30am we did everything we’d been taught by Shari in the hypnobirthing course we attended and had practised for the 11 weeks prior. We listened to the hypnobirthing tracks (the mantras were my favourite and helped me stay really calm), did some acupressure points and light touch, breathing exercises, diffused more Clary Sage, used a TENS machine on my lower back (as this is where I was having my surges and this is something I’m so glad I did as it was amazing relief), re-packed our bags and we also managed to watch another episode of Breaking Bad! All in all, I remember feeling calm and in control and not fearful about the remainder of the labour and birth. The feeling of being in “pain” never ever crossed my mind and referring to the contractions as “surges” just as we’d been taught in hypnobirthing made it so much easier to visualise what was happening within my body. Waves coming in, waves going out. It was amazing to feel so in control of my thoughts and feelings at this point as previous to learning about hypnobirthing, I was feeling quite scared about labour and birth.

The rest of the story is a little blurry for me as I found myself sitting on the toilet for comfort as my body began to automatically push about 3hrs in (sitting on the toilet is where I felt most comfortable and safe), however this resulted in me sitting on and compressing what we were told was a main artery which caused my legs and feet to turn white and go completely numb, meaning I was unable to stand, walk or move them at all! I remember thinking “Why is my body pushing already? This isn’t supposed to be happening yet...”. Luckily my husband was on the phone to the midwife when this happened and she told him to call an ambulance immediately as my surges were now less than 2 minutes apart and we were 35+ mins from the hospital, they literally went from being 10 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart in a very short amount of time, it was crazy. However previous to this the midwife had told us to stay at home and labour for as long as possible as it was my first baby and probably wouldn’t be coming anytime soon... boy oh boy was she wrong!

Whilst on the phone to the ambulance my husband was telling the lady where my labour was at as he had been as timing my surges on an app, it was at this point that she said he needed to get some fresh towels and pick me up off the toilet and lay me on the bed as he may need to deliver the baby himself! I remember hearing the conversation as his phone was on loudspeaker and thinking “Okay, we’re having a baby at home... it’s fine, we’ve got this”. And truthfully, I don’t think I would have remained so calm and so “in the zone” after hearing this conversation without hypnobirthing. It allowed me to stay focused and not get caught up in the “What if’s..”. Meanwhile, my poor husband was running around like a headless chook trying to organise our bags and find fresh towels all the while thinking “Holy shit, I might need to deliver this baby!”. Things were moving really quickly however my legs and feet were not which meant that I was unable to walk down our 60 stairs to get to the car to get to the hospital. So at about 7.30am the ambulance turned up, put me in a stair chair and took us to the hospital. I had my eyes closed the whole time and remained calm the entire way there. Closing my eyes made me feel really safe. My husband told me afterwards that I had an intense surge in the hallway of our apartment block and whilst they were lifting me onto the ambulance bed from the chair my sarong fell off and I was naked on the Gold Coast Highway in broad daylight! I kept my eyes closed from the moment my legs went numb to the moment I got into the birthing suite at the hospital so I had no recollection of this moment at all but I imagine it would have been quite a sight to see! I also remember hearing the voice of a lady speak to me for the entire ride to the hospital, she held my hand tightly and kept commenting on how calm I was, how well I was doing, and how I was going to have a beautiful birth. Once we arrived in the birthing suite I opened my eyes and saw her face and thanked her for being so kind to me, she was exactly what I needed in that moment as my husband was put in the front seat of the ambulance (and he was deeply engrossed in a conversation with the ambulance driver about the bloody football grand final happening that day!).

Jacinta was the name of the midwife that was waiting for us in the birthing suite and she was the sweetest, kindest, calmest human on the planet. We didn’t get to discuss our birth preferences with her when we arrived because there was literally no time (however, strangely enough, we didn’t need too, she just knew what I wanted) as the baby was well and truly on its way and we knew this because she asked for my permission to do a vaginal exam when we arrived. She did the exam and her exact words were “Okayyyy, so you’re about to have a baby!”. It was such a relief to hear that, knowing I was so close to meeting my baby. I got into the bath and remember feeling immediately comfortable as the water was so warm, I was so happy that I’d made it into the water as a water birth had always been my dream. I found a little spot in the bath where I felt most comfortable and spent the next 45 minutes with my arms resting over the bath and my body gently swaying from side to side in the water, my knees planted firmly beneath me. The surges were strong and intense at this point but totally manageable, I didn’t feel any pain, just huge amounts of pressure. I also didn’t feel the need to ask for painkillers or any drugs, that thought never even crossed my mind much to my surprise.

The next 45 minutes were practically silent, we had some relaxation music on but no one spoke to me unless they really had too, not even my husband as he told me afterwards that he knew I was in the zone and that he knew I just needed him close. I remember being really thirsty by this point and my husband was feeding me water, stroking my hair and telling me how great I was doing and that we were so close to meeting our baby. The midwife guided me through my surges and when my body was pushing she told me to “Hold it there, hold that pressure”, but not once did she ask me to push, she just guided me through it all and let my body do what it needed to do. The build-up of pressure was incredible, I’d never felt anything like it and at some points, I felt as though the head must be almost there, however, I was still a few surges away from that. When the head did finally appear I knew immediately because I looked at my husband and saw the look on his face... a look I’d never seen before, tears streaming down his face and so much happiness. It was at this point that I asked my husband to get into the water and receive the baby from behind as I lent forward over the bath. The next surge was strong and it pushed the shoulders out and the baby literally flew out of me and into my husband's arms. The sense of relief and empowerment I felt come over me in that moment was something I cannot even explain or put into words, it was incredible. I felt so light, so strong, so invincible. I heard the cry and my husband said so proudly “IT’S A BOY!”, and with that I let out a huge whale of a cry and turned around to see my squishy little guy, arms and legs stretched out like a little frog, screaming his little lungs out. It was a moment I will never ever forget and I have replayed it in my mind over and over again many times.

I am so grateful for the beautiful birth that I was able to have, and even more grateful that I discovered Shari from Belly2Birth Hypnobirthing program as it taught me all the tools I needed to tackle my birth so calmly.