Lucy's First Time Mum Post Dates Induction Waterbirth

I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl at 42+1, she was due mid November and arrived on the 1st December! We had an induction at 41+6 which was not in our plan as I really hoped for a natural onset of labour but the statistics ended up really stressing us out and I was able to shift my mindset to the induction being the first step to meeting our baby and looking at it as a positive. I had tried membrane sweeps which again were not in the original plan and these were unsuccessful, but I wanted to try them before anything more medical.

We went in to have the first stage of the induction on the Friday morning, hoping this would be enough and that I could still have the midwife led water birth I had wished for. I had the propess at about 12pm, I was about 1cm dilated and my cervix hadn’t softened much and we were able to go home for 24 hours. Sadly, the propess fell out after about 5 hours and we had to go back to the hospital, due to having tightenings we couldn’t have another fitted and I didn’t want to overload my body with the hormones. We had to wait hours to see if anything progressed, by 12am I was still at the same stage of dilation and softening.

I hated being on the full ward as I don’t like being in medical environments and there was lots going on, I felt this delayed anything happening in my body and the fact they were obsessed with trying to break my waters or have another propess fitted if possible which I didn’t feel was right for my body. My husband really advocated for me and expressed we wanted to go home to see how things developed as we were meant to be at home anyway if the propess hadn’t fell out. We went home and agreed we would call in the morning, I couldn’t sleep due to the tightenings and by the morning they were closer together and more intense. My husband called and again expressed that the environment was not ideal and that we really want a midwife led water birth, the pool rooms were all busy but he managed to get us our own room on the delivery suite instead of the ward.

We went and set up our projector light from our Yuula kit, alongside a bluetooth speaker with Popthatmumma’s oxytocin bubble and labour tracks playing, I also had my Yuula aromatherapy roller and comb ready. Again things were slow at progressing and I wasn’t at a point where my waters could be broken with the usual tool as you need to be at least 3cm, but they suggested they could probably do it with a small metal spiral that is used for baby monitoring and goes into their scalp which I didn’t want and debated accepting the waters being broken only when my body was ready for that and with the right tool, I also felt I could progress the labour more naturally if I kept not having such medical conversations, it felt like people were more on edge due to me being 42 weeks the next day.

There was a midwife who really respected our wishes and kept checking if the midwife led unit had any space, she also then gave me some pain relief due to the tightenings being more intense and left us for a few hours to try get some rest and see what we want to do. I had a bath and was using my Yuula comb and breathing techniques and gas and air. I couldn’t get comfortable in the normal bath and ended up being between the exercise ball and laying down. When the midwife came back at about 6pm, I was finally at 5cm and there was soon to be space in the midwife led unit with a pool. We both cried with relief that we could be in the environment we wanted and in a pool as I had always felt so much more comfortable in water in pregnancy.

We went to the pool room and it was amazing, as were the midwives. I got in the pool and felt instant relief and calm, we had the protector lights that were already in the room and added ours too so the whole room was full and our music alongside hypnobirthing tracks playing. It was how I pictured it and it felt amazing to be there, with Doppler monitoring feeling much more free. I switched to the Yuula orbs at this point and was using gas and air, the orbs were such a good distraction and it was so nice to have something to really squeeze. They even floated in the water which was fab! The Yuula aromatherapy roller smelt so lovely and comforting.

My waters broke whilst in the pool at 12:30am, I was pushing for nearly the max time before needing to either get out the pool and try or go back to the delivery suite incase assistance was needed, I asked for more time and I think this was the last kick I needed as I hated the pain difference when being out of the pool. Also the baby’s heart rate wasn’t bouncing back as quick after contractions, I then switched up positions as advised and delivered our daughter within the pool at 4:51 am on the Sunday. Luckily I experienced the fetal ejection reflex which massively helped when pushing as a first time mum, I feel this was thanks to the environment, amazing midwives and hypnobirthing techniques.

We wanted optimal cord clamping and managed a few minutes before she needed to be taken out of the pool due to struggling to catch her breath, I was still in the pool and desperate to hear her cry which was such a relief when I did. I then needed to get out of the pool due to my blood loss and we cuddled on the bed before I delivered my placenta naturally but then needed the injection anyway to help with blood loss and needed some stitches. Although it wasn’t the original birth plan on how we got there, I am so thankful for delivering our daughter safely in a very zen water birth. Especially after not sleeping since the Friday morning! The Yuula birth kit and hypnobirthing techniques helped massively, I had pins and needles for a while because of squeezing the orbs so hard, they were great and I’d 100% recommend the whole kit!