Hospital Water Birth - Laura
Laura, 1st birth, Bunbury WA
My name is Laura, my fiancé Gary and I completed our Hypnobirthing classes between 36-37 weeks with Mikayla online in September 2020. As a first time mum to be, I found it really hard to look past some of the horror stories and negative comments I received during my pregnancy. That’s why I’d love to share our birth story. We credit the classes for giving us all the tools we needed to achieve the beautiful water birth we had hoped for, which we did!
My labour began at around 4am on 14th October when I was 40+4 weeks. It woke me with surges around 6 minutes apart. I breathed through and continued to rest until 6am when I put on my TENS machine. Gary and I used our birthing playlist including the mp3 relaxation tracks along with the TENS machine and some anchor touches and massaging to breathe through surges at home until around 10am. By that point I had progressed to surges every 3 minutes when we decided to head to the hospital.
We continued for a little longer and I allowed the midwife to check my progress. To our surprise I was already 8cm dilated! We waited for our birth suite to be ready whilst my partner helped set up the birth pool. He also decorated the room with our photographs, affirmations and other bits and bobs. I entered the birthing pool at around 1pm.
I had the most amazing support system with Gary, midwife and student midwife who all helped to keep me breathing well, positively reassuring me and the student midwife was even reading from my affirmations! I came out of the water at 2:45pm to be checked and agreed to have my membranes released at this point after confirming I was fully dilated with no cervix around my baby’s head. I then returned to the pool after a short time. My urge to bear down came quickly after and I began breathing my baby down the birth canal, still feeling very relaxed and able to keep my babies heart rate steady throughout. I requested to use some gas to help once I was able to feel my baby’s head. I birthed her into my own hands at 4:39pm and remained in the pool keeping her warm and on my skin until her cord was ready to be cut by daddy.
My baby was later weighed and came in at 4.28kgs to my surprise! I was even nicknamed “Superwoman” as my birth story circled the maternity ward! I will be recommending Mikayla and the classes to every mother I encounter from now on, the support has been incredible and I believe everyone should be given the knowledge that I was and feel empowered and ready to take birthing in their stride no matter what happens. We really are designed for this and I am so grateful.
My name is Laura, my fiancé Gary and I completed our Hypnobirthing classes between 36-37 weeks with Mikayla online in September 2020. As a first time mum to be, I found it really hard to look past some of the horror stories and negative comments I received during my pregnancy. That’s why I’d love to share our birth story. We credit the classes for giving us all the tools we needed to achieve the beautiful water birth we had hoped for, which we did!
My labour began at around 4am on 14th October when I was 40+4 weeks. It woke me with surges around 6 minutes apart. I breathed through and continued to rest until 6am when I put on my TENS machine. Gary and I used our birthing playlist including the mp3 relaxation tracks along with the TENS machine and some anchor touches and massaging to breathe through surges at home until around 10am. By that point I had progressed to surges every 3 minutes when we decided to head to the hospital.
We continued for a little longer and I allowed the midwife to check my progress. To our surprise I was already 8cm dilated! We waited for our birth suite to be ready whilst my partner helped set up the birth pool. He also decorated the room with our photographs, affirmations and other bits and bobs. I entered the birthing pool at around 1pm.
I had the most amazing support system with Gary, midwife and student midwife who all helped to keep me breathing well, positively reassuring me and the student midwife was even reading from my affirmations! I came out of the water at 2:45pm to be checked and agreed to have my membranes released at this point after confirming I was fully dilated with no cervix around my baby’s head. I then returned to the pool after a short time. My urge to bear down came quickly after and I began breathing my baby down the birth canal, still feeling very relaxed and able to keep my babies heart rate steady throughout. I requested to use some gas to help once I was able to feel my baby’s head. I birthed her into my own hands at 4:39pm and remained in the pool keeping her warm and on my skin until her cord was ready to be cut by daddy.
My baby was later weighed and came in at 4.28kgs to my surprise! I was even nicknamed “Superwoman” as my birth story circled the maternity ward! I will be recommending Mikayla and the classes to every mother I encounter from now on, the support has been incredible and I believe everyone should be given the knowledge that I was and feel empowered and ready to take birthing in their stride no matter what happens. We really are designed for this and I am so grateful.
