First-time mum, Rachel, welcomed daughter, Ava, after a precipitous labour (also known as rapid labour).
Read her story below.
As a first-time mum entering the third trimester of my pregnancy, I began to feel nervous about the actual labour. My partner and I therefore decided to attend hypnobirthing classes which were delivered via Zoom due to coronavirus. The sessions were very informative and made me feel much less anxious about giving birth.
At 36 weeks and 6 days pregnant, as a Saturday night treat, my partner and I ordered pizza and chose a movie to watch. Halfway through the film, at 11:30pm, my waters broke! We phoned the hospital who asked us to go in so that l could be assessed. We set off at midnight and when we arrived, they checked my heart rate, the baby’s heartbeat and confirmed that my waters were clear. I was experiencing mild period-like pains but as I still hadn’t experienced any surges we were given two options – I could either be induced immediately or as there was no risk to the baby and we had now reached the 37 week stage (i.e. it was by this time past midnight) I could go home for twenty four hours and wait to see if anything happened naturally. We decided to opt for the latter and left the hospital at 2am. We got home at 2:45am, had a cup of tea and waited to see if l experienced any other symptoms. As nothing had happened by 3:15am we went off to bed.
We had only been in bed 5 minutes when I had my first surge, quickly followed by a second. I focussed on my breathing as we had been taught in class, while my partner helped to put on my TENS machine and began timing the surges. From the outset they were already only 2 minutes and 50 seconds apart! We quickly dressed, got back in the car and returned to the hospital. I didn’t feel as worried or anxious as I thought I was going to be prior to attending the classes. Instead, I continued to focus on my breathing and remembered the positive affirmations. I phoned the hospital to let them know that we were on the way back. On arrival the receptionist provided me with a wheelchair and my partner pushed me to the labour ward. We were greeted by two midwives. One asked if she could examine me, while my partner quickly shared our birth preferences with the other. The midwife said, “I can see the head”. I was given gas and air and told to start pushing. My partner held my hand, stroked my forehead and offered words of encouragement. After just 13 minutes, four pushes and an episiotomy, we were introduced to our beautiful, healthy baby girl at 4:23am. I had skin to skin contact right away and our baby girl immediately latched on and fed. As requested, the midwifes did optimal cord clamping and my partner was able to cut the cord. I delivered the placenta and was stitched up prior to our baby being given the necessary checks. The lights in the room were dimmed and we had a breakfast of tea and toast while being allowed some alone time as a family. My partner had skin to skin time while I had a shower. Afterwards they weighed our baby, we dressed her in her ‘going home’ outfit and were discharged at 10am. It really was a positive experience for both of us and we feel that this would have been quite the reverse had we not learnt so much from our hypnobirthing classes. We both remained calm throughout the labour and I felt confident at all times that my body knew what to do. The staff in hospital were amazing! Although everything happened very quickly once we arrived at the hospital, the staff still listened to our birth preferences and we had the calm, positive birth experience that we had hoped for.
