Carolin & Caio’s Birth Story. Aug 2023

Lucca’s Birth story

I woke up with what felt like period cramps very early on Tuesday morning, the day before Lucca was born. The cramps soon took on a pattern of surges, coming on then lasting a moment after which they would completely disappear. It was three days before our due date so I was excited that something seemed to be happening but I hadn’t experienced any practice surges, so I convinced myself that these were the cause for what I was feeling. I went about my day as usual, trying not to overly focus on the sensations but staying on my feet as much as I felt comfortable with. By 6pm that day the surges had picked up in intensity slightly, so I paused and breathed through each surge before continuing my dinner conversation. Still to this point I wasn’t convinced that this was the ‘real deal’. At around 10pm we started timing the surges which were about eight minutes apart at that stage. Before jumping into bed to try and get some rest we called the hospital to let them know that our baby might be on the way. I started using the TENS machine I had borrowed from my friend, popped on the rainbow relaxation meditation and lied down in bed. Even though I did not manage to get any sleep, I was comfortable to breathe through the surges while listening to the rainbow relaxation and birth affirmations on repeat and I was able to drift off in between the surges for a while. Soon after, things started to get more intense, my breathing became a lot noisier, almost animal like, I felt nauseous and vomited several times and was unable to lie in bed any longer. I remember moving between our bedroom and the bathroom countless times that night. My partner Caio was by my side the entire time, massaging and gently stroking my back and reassuring me with his calmness. At some stage, and I have no clue what time this might have been since all I could focus on was the surges, my breath and pressing the life out of the button on the TENS machine (which felt incredible at that time!!), I felt the urge to bear down during the surges. Again, since everything was happening so fast, I didn’t believe what my body was telling me. I convinced myself that the sensation of a hard structure pushing against a membrane tissue in my body must be the baby’s head pressing against my cervix which I doubted had opened enough already. I only realised that baby had been descending into the birth canal after Lucca was born. My water’s released with a gigantic balloon pop sound and a big gush of water during one of the surges. We were both so surprised by the sound that we had to giggle. From there things happened pretty quickly, after a quick shower and picking up the hospital bags (we had packed enough snacks for several more hours of labour!) we rushed to the hospital, running a few red lights along the way, I could feel that our baby was very close. We arrived in birth suite shortly after 5am, with the bathtub already prepared for us. Our midwifes had quite the struggle with me getting the initial administration done as I could not stay still. The surges were coming on one after the other at this stage, after quickly checking my dilation at which the midwife could already see our baby’s head, they popped me into the bath. I remember the warm water felt heavenly, but we did not have a lot of time to relax. Our midwife reassured me that I was fully dilated and ready to bear down so I used the J breath with an additional ‘fogging the mirror’ breath to loosen up my jaw that I had practised so passionately on the toilet leading up to this day. I could feel the head descending but then releasing back up a bit during the first surge, Baby’s head was crowning during the second surge and our beautiful baby boy was born with the third surge at 5.58am that morning, less that one hour after arriving at the hospital. Caio and I were absolutely stunned by this little creature that all of a sudden landed in our arms all purple and full of vernix and with a full head of hair. Our umbilical cord was quite short, too short to pull Lucca up to my chest, so we clamped and cut the cord after 30 minutes to allow Lucca to crawl up to my breasts for his first little nibble. When he finally attached to the breast, my placenta slid out instantly. It’s incredible how our bodies just know what to do! We had four beautiful hours of skin to skin contact before Lucca was weighed and dressed for the first time.

I still want to pinch myself when thinking and talking about our beautiful birth. All these weeks I had visualised our ideal birth scenario of staying home for as long as possible during labour before then having a water birth without the need of any medication, which is exactly what became reality for us. After Lucca’s birth, I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia which very likely contributed to the speed of our labour and birth. While we had a big portion of luck on our side with our birth, all the education and relaxation techniques we learned with the Hypnobirthing course was really what got us through each surge. Like so many women, the thought of ‘pushing’ out a baby scared the hell out of me early in the pregnancy, I felt the need for the best equipped hospital that is set up for any traumatic emergency scenario that we see in the media. With every week of the Hypnobirthing course I felt calmer and more relaxed and in the end even excited about our birth. For us it was the combination of education about birth and the natural processes that are happening in the body as well as getting equipped with the breathing and relaxation techniques that we relied on so heavily during the surges. Really believing that my body is designed to give birth to our baby, the power of eliminating any fear but instead welcoming the sensations and the surges to assist with what my baby and my body were working towards was what made this birth so special and positive for me, Caio and most importantly Lucca.