The next morning I woke up feeling great and got on with the day - I had a friend coming round in the afternoon as it was her birthday and I was doing tea and cake. We went out for lunch and my friend and her daughter arrived at about 3pm. We had a great afternoon chatting as I had not seen her for a month or so as we did not live that near.
At about 5.30pm my surges started again - exactly the same time as the day before. I went to the bathroom and realised I had had a "show". I called the midwife to keep her imformed and she said she would be over in a couple of hours unless I called again. I did not want a re-run of the night before so I called my sister in law and asked her to collect my daughter to have a sleep over with her cousins. She arrived at about 7.30.
My friend wanted to stay for the birth - but I said I could hardly feel the surges and that I did not think she would be born soon. Around 8.15 everyone left and it was just myself and my husband.
From that moment I knew I could now birth - I was comfortable - having regular surges - no pain. I put the rainbow relaxation cd on in the lounge and got comfortable - started my slow breathing. My husband was busy topping up the pool with hot water - it was around 8.45 now.
The first midwife arrived at around 9pm and inbetween surges we chatted about how I was and how I felt. She made a few checks and then left me to relax. I had no internal checks.
At 9.15pm I asked if I could get into the pool. I was still very comfortable - the surges were really close now and I knew if I did not get into the pool then I might not be able to . My legs were beginning to ache. I moved from the sofa into the pool - what an amazing feeling that was. I lay there relaxed. Now I had to really focus on the cd and my breathing and visualisation.
The second midwife arrived at 9.45pm
The feelings were so intense now - I got to the point where I thought if this gets any worse I may need to try something else or maybe have some kind of pain relief. Moments later a shouted out to everyone "shes here" (from my notes I know this was 9.55pm)I felt her move down and instinctively I started "J" breathing. My legs ached a lot but there was no other pain at all - I carried on with my birth breathing and her head was out at 10.03pm - she was still in her waters so the midwife broke them while she was under the water and she was born 3 minutes later at 10.06pm. My husband brought her up out of the water and we stayed there cuddling for a while waiting for the cord to stop pulsating.
I thought my first hospital birth was great until I experienced this - now I just want to shout about HypnoBirthing to every pregnant person that I come across. My only regret is that our family is now complete and I will never experience another birth like this. (I think .... hahaha!)
Needless to say when I phoned ny friend to let her know that she had been born she was extrememly upset not to have stayed for a couple of hours longer!
Feel free to shout about HypnoBirthing and let as many mums as possible know about it so they can have good experiences like you did!
