Michelle and Adam’s 2nd Birth Story. Oct 2024.

Adam and I just wanted to extend our heartfelt thanks again for your hypnobirthing refresher course and your amazing support towards the end of our pregnancy. Much like our first birth - despite medical issues, we were able to have another beautiful birth experience which we will always treasure. Your support and the knowledge you shared helped us advocate for our birth preferences and we used many of the hypnobirthing resources to help us stay calm through a stressful last few weeks of pregnancy. Doing a refresher course was the best decision we made this pregnancy because it reminded us of everything we learned last pregnancy and having support outside of the hospital again was absolutely invaluable. 

We knew it was likely that an induction would be recommended for this birth because of my previous history of gestational diabetes and our daughter’s shoulder dystocia but we were determined to avoid it if possible. When I developed pregnancy induced hypertension around 37 weeks it felt like our choices were quickly becoming limited and we would need to compromise many of our birthing preferences. We were so grateful for the questions you had prepared us to ask regarding induction because we found this really opened up conversations with the obstetricians and made the whole process a lot more collaborative. In the end it meant the conversation shifted from the suggestion that the baby should be born as soon as possible and that there was no real benefit to waiting for the baby to come on their own (which we didn’t agree with) to the doctors agreeing to help us get the baby and I as far along as possible with regular monitoring. 

We followed all your advice for natural induction methods and around 38 weeks I started experiencing regular practice contractions and a several bouts of early labour. Everyone seemed optimistic I may go into spontaneous labour before an induction was needed and there were at least 4 occasions over the week where I felt certain labour was starting, but unfortunately each time the surges died down after a few hours. In hindsight, I think my body knew the baby needed to come early and was effacing my cervix in preparation but in my heart of hearts I really wanted to give the baby as long as possible to be ready for birth so my body was also waiting until the very last moment. 

In the end, after over a week of early labour, although we felt full spontaneous labour wasn’t far away, we decided to book an induction for 39weeks + 2days. We reached a point were our instincts were telling us this was the best decision due to increasing risk factors, fatigue from the monitoring and ongoing prelabour, and the need for some stability for ourselves and our toddler. We agreed to the induction on the premise of as little intervention as possible. There was no need for a balloon as my cervix was already soft and opening and we asked to be given a few hours after my waters were released without hormones to give my body the chance to go into labour by itself. In the end when we arrived at the hospital for the induction I was already experiencing contractions and thankfully having my waters released was the only intervention needed. When my waters were released I felt a surge of oxytocin through my body and a huge sense of relief that my baby would now be born. 

To everyone’s surprise our son was born very quickly within an hour of going into established labour. I only experienced the natural ejection reflex once before he started descending down the birth canal. It was so sudden, I had a moment of panic but the midwife and Adam managed to calm me down by reminding me of my breathing. It was really Adam’s voice and instructions that grounded me back in the moment and it made me so thankful to have a prepared and experienced birth partner. The midwives were amazing at helping us release a mild shoulder dystocia and supporting my perineum as our son was born. In those final moments I used our hypnobirthing breathing and our son came easily into the world. 

I was in a bit of shock after he was born as he came so quickly and couldn’t quite process that I was already holding our baby. Because of this it took longer for me to birth the placenta than my baby and I needed a little help from the obstetrician but all was well in the end. I was then assessed for a tear and was thrilled to find out it was only a second degree tear, compared to a 3B tear in my first birth. It felt like everyone in the room celebrated the news and that was the moment I really started to feel the relief of birth and feelings of bonding with my baby. 

Adam and I were given a long time in recovery with our baby and we had a wonderful two golden hours bonding. It was incredibly healing to have this time as a family because we didn’t get it during my first birth when I was rushed off to theatre. Overall this birth experience was very healing and I’m so glad I persevered with another vaginal birth and was able to advocate for my birth preference despite some of the advice we were given. Thank you for playing such an important role in the births of both of our beautiful children educating and supporting us. 

All the best, 

Michelle and Adam