Calm, Empowered Water Birth: Lauren’s Magical Hypnobirthing Journey with Baby Cruz
Birth Story by Lauren, Positively Hypnobirthing Mum
“I knew it wouldn’t be long as when I was on all fours on the bed waiting for the pool to be filled I had the feeling of wanting to bear down and honestly 10 minutes after I got into the water our little baby boy was here.”
At almost midnight on Friday 7 Feb I was woken up by a ‘leaking’ and knew it was clearly my waters breaking. I had done a YouTube Spinning Babies style ‘labour prep yoga’ the past two nights and the amount of comments saying women went into labour shortly afterwards were astronomical so whether this had anything to do with it I’m not sure but either way my body and baby were clearly ready for this birth to get going!
I toyed with staying up as when my waters broke with Rocco I was in labour 3 hours later, but then also knew that it’s important to be as rested as possible so missing sleep probably wasn’t a good idea. So I tried to sleep – sporadically of course as both Dan and I were super excited – and had a few surges through the night but nothing too intense or in any kind of rhythm.
We had a visit from one of the MGP midwives (not the one I’ve had throughout the pregnancy as it wasn’t her weekend to work, but honestly they’re all so fantastic and so focused on mother-led birth that I didn’t mind one bit) just to check in with me first thing on Saturday morning as it’s protocol after waters break now but nothing had fully kicked off yet so she said to relax and let the birth unfold as it was meant to.
I spent a lovely few hours just pottering around the house with the boys, washing my hair, cleaning the floor (clearly still nesting LOL) and keeping gently busy to distract myself from the surges coming here and there. Then at about lunchtime they became a bit more regular so I cocooned in my little bubble with Dan and Rocco on the sofa watching films, until about 5/6pm-ish when they started to ramp up a fair bit with 2–3 surges in 10 minutes.
They weren’t all equal in length though so I knew it wasn’t time to go in to hospital because I got sent home at this point when I went in during labour with Rocco… Plus, my Mama brain was determined to do some of bedtime with Rocco so I knew I had to hold on until about 7.30pm!
I managed to wiggle my way through a story and cuddles with him which was actually so emotional and precious as I knew it’d be the last time before he became a big brother, and then once he was asleep labour and surges ramped up (probably because I could let go a bit more). We called the midwife but I could still talk during surges and was managing to use breathing techniques through them so we decided to stay home a bit longer until things progressed further (albeit they were coming at the same level and 3 in 10 minutes so in hindsight I could have perhaps gone in then).
Cheryl (my long-term naturopath and doula) arrived at our house at about 9pm and by this time I was getting pretty intense surges every 3 minutes for just over a minute each, but she felt baby and he was still slightly positioned to the side so hadn’t made his way fully into the optimal birth position yet and so we decided to stay at home for a little longer to give him time and also make sure we didn’t slow anything down by hopping in the car.
Just before 10pm I was getting to the point where the raw noises (albeit quiet because I had a sleeping 2 year old in the house) started to come out a little and then had this moment where I thought ‘I can’t actually do this like how is this even going to happen’ which was new as I didn’t really have that when in labour with Rocco I don’t think. I knew from the Hypnobirthing course that I was at transition and so it was probably time to get to the hospital and pretty fast… we’re still waiting to see if Dan has got a speeding ticket because as soon as I was in the car surges were coming every 2 minutes and I definitely was cracking out those animalistic noises that’s for sure.
We got to hospital at about 10.30pm; Dan had rung the midwife and told her we were downstairs and it was definitely go time so the night guard quickly got us a wheelchair, helped us inside and then once again I was met at the lift with a flurry of midwives and rushed into the birth suite at pace… coincidentally into the one next door to where I had Rocco.
They tried to push antibiotics on me to get into the pool because my waters had broke more than 18 hours beforehand but then my MGP midwife fully advocated for me and reminded them that you need a 2 hour window between the IV and getting in the water and that I clearly hadn’t got that, and that they can’t deny me the ‘pain relief’ that the water provides so they got the pool filled up and in with Dan I got.
I knew it wouldn’t be long as when I was on all fours on the bed waiting for the pool to be filled I had the feeling of wanting to bear down and honestly 10 minutes after I got into the water our little baby boy was here.
Every birth is so different but I definitely leaned on experience from Rocco’s and knew what positions I needed to be in and at what point to make sure this little one wasn’t crowning and then going back up for a while, and how to get him here safely (in the same squat position I did with Rocco)! I was also able to enjoy it a fair bit more as Rocco was posterior so I felt a lot of the labour in my back, whereas Cruz was anterior so I could take advantage of the relax part in between surges which was super nice to experience it so differently.
Also, when I birthed Rocco the cord was wrapped around him a few times so had to be cut straight away and he had to be taken off to resus, whereas Cruz came out in one push (I’m assuming the fetal ejection reflex had something to do with that) with no cord wrapped around him and he cried almost instantly so the midwives just left us three in the pool for a long while having those beautiful, sacred first moments and skin-to-skin bonding time in the pool.
I was also able to fully honour the fact that I wanted a true physiological third stage of labour and so birthed the placenta before cutting the cord which was really special too!
In all honesty it was a really, really magical birth and looking back, nothing could have gone differently to make it better… which after everything that we’ve been through in the past year I am just so unbelievably grateful and lucky to have had it happen like it did as I was definitely more nervous and emotionally a bit rocky beforehand this time and had to really lean into affirmation work and the hypnobirthing tracks to keep my outlook super positive.
Even the car journey, which was pretty hectic as Dan genuinely thought I’d be having the baby in the front seat at one point, had to happen exactly as it did because if we’d have gone sooner it could have slowed down the labour and things wouldn’t have happened as they did. Everyone knows I love birth so much anyways but after this I don’t think I’ll ever be done wanting to be pregnant and having more babies now!
I did have to stay in hospital for a few days for observation just because I refused the antibiotics before birthing and then again for both Cruz and I after he was born and they wanted to make sure no infections were present seen as my waters had broken a while before I birthed.
But again this was actually a blessing because it gave Cruz and I one-on-one time to find ourselves together and also Rocco time to adjust to having a baby brother… not that we actually spent much time apart as Rocco just wanted to stay at the hospital all day because he didn’t want to leave ‘baby brother’.
So yes, it’s all been very dreamy and so full of light and love to be honest so far. Of course postpartum is different when you have a toddler running around too but it’s also been so special in so many different ways too!
“My husband and I recently did a Hypnobirthing Refresher Course with Kate, and cannot recommend this enough for anyone wanting to freshen up their skills! From the moment Kate arrived at our house her calm and welcoming energy put us completely at ease and her incredibly knowledgeable and personalised approach was so valuable and reassuring, and made us feel like we were reviewing everything with a long-term friend! Kate tailored our session to focus on what we felt was most important to us which left us feeling so prepared and empowered ready to go into our next birth, plus the one-on-one element and being in our own space allowed us to fully absorb all of the information and fully relax during our time with her. We’ve now welcomed our newest baby boy and I feel like without this refresher with Kate it wouldn’t have been the truly magical birth that it ended up being. If you’re looking for a nurturing, informative and empowering refresher of Hypnobirthing, this is honestly the perfect option. I can’t recommend enough”
