Our first child was born in 2018. I was nearly 42 weeks when I was advised to be induced following two membrane sweeps. Completely unaware of what my options were, I went ahead with the induction which started a very long, painful labour, resulting in an emergency c-section due to ‘failure to progress’.
The whole experience was pretty unpleasant (despite having a wonderful midwife) and decisions were made without us really knowing the right questions to ask.
Fast forward to the end of 2022 when I fell pregnant with my second child. I knew that I wanted things to be different and was really keen on getting my VBAC. I heard through a friend about the wonders of hypnobirthing and that it was worth looking into. I was super sceptical at first as it sounded like something that was super hippie and holistic which wasn’t really my style, so I decided to find a taster session. I came across Anna on Instagram and liked the look of her content so thought, why not!
Instantly I was drawn in by Anna’s approach to hypnobirthing, which she did with humour, personality but importantly powered by facts and figures.
After the course was finished, I felt so excited to welcome my second baby! I knew what I’d really like to happen based on everything I’d learned and felt ready to get my VBAC on!
One of the main things I was disappointed with in my first pregnancy was that I wasn’t able to go into labour naturally and was nervous that the same would happen again second time round. During the morning of the 9th August after sending my daughter off for a day with her grandma, I started feeling tightening in my lower abdomen. Once it got to around 12pm these became painful and more frequent. Could it be that I was going into labour naturally? I decided to call Homerton’s maternity helpline who talked through what I was feeling and also timed my contractions. She said yes, you’re in labour! It was music to my ears!
I knew it was probably still early so I decided to wait it out a bit more at home. Between contractions I was doing last min tidying, but eventually they were too painful to do much more. Once my partner got home from work I decided at around 6pm it was time to head into the maternity ward.
We were welcomed in for initial monitoring and offered a VE. I was keen to know how dilated my cervix was so I accepted the offer. I was told I was at 3cm and contractions were progressing nicely so they were happy to admit me onto the labour ward. We had previously talked with a midwife about the use of monitors during labour due to my previous c section which I happily accepted as I was anxious about uterine rupture (despite the risk being teeny tiny). I specified these would need to be wireless as I wanted to be as mobile as possible during my labour and they were completely accommodating. I got put in room 7 at my request which was dimly lit with fairy lights and my birthing ball was ready for me! I met my midwife who just started her shift at 8pm and she was usually a birth centre midwife but read my birth plan and was keen to help us through it. I was breathing through my contractions, sunglasses on and with my comb in hand. These all work wonders!!! I was calm and ready to meet my baby.
Despite things going so well, at around 10pm that evening they couldn’t detect the baby’s heart beat. After 5 mins of trying they became very concerned and the red button was pressed! Floods of people entered the room and moments later they had broken my waters. They didn’t see any meconium in the fluid which was a good sign but still struggled to find a heart beat. They needed to try to place a monitor on the baby’s scalp to find the heartbeat. We were terrified in these moments.
They managed to detect a heartbeat but it was very low. They rushed me the theatre for another c-section. I was devastated, but so thankful that we had chosen to monitor the baby or we wouldn’t have been able to detect they were in distress. Once I was opened up they found that the baby had the umbilical cord wrapped round their neck twice which could have been a reason for the drop in heartbeat. I had the most amazing doctors who talked to me throughout the whole thing and made sure I was aware of everything that was happening. It all happened so fast, and not long after my baby girl was born. They respected two of my most important wishes which were to delay cord clamping for as long as possible and to give me baby for skin to skin soon after. I’m so grateful that I was still able to do both of these things.
Not long after we went over to the Templar recovery ward where we could rest and get the care we needed. 24 hours later after arriving at hospital in labour we were discharged and back at home to continue recovery and introduce our newest daughter to our first child!
I didn’t get my VBAC that I so wanted but I felt so much more empowered to make decisions that were important to me. I felt prepared with a c-section plan in case things didn’t go the way we wanted. I am so grateful to have gone into labour naturally and felt like I could make informed decisions every step of the way. Our baby girl is here and healthy and my recovery has gone so very well.
Anna’s Hyponobirthing course was a great tool to help us prepare for the unexpected and to realise what’s most important for us during birth.