A Unique But Positive Birth At Pinderfields Hospital
The Birth Of Aveyah
Wow, what a birth story this is.
Navjeet and Taj came to me for a Hypnobirthing refresher session in preparation for the birth of their second child. They had previously completed a full Hypnobirthing course a few years earlier with Abby (the same person that I did my Hypnobirthing course with when I was pregnant and who I currently work alongside.) We talked through so much on the refresher session and they left feeling calm and confident for their upcoming birth, perhaps a little too calm. This is a birth story that proves that hypnobirthing can be used in any scenario.
Thank you for sharing your story with us:
We did a refresher course with Hannah when I was around 4 months pregnant. we had done a course with Abby 3 years ago, preparing for the birth of our son, which had helped us to achieve a lovely calm birth.
We’d actually forgotten so much in 3 years that a refresher with Hannah was just what we needed.
This birth was very different to the birth of our son, who was born in the water at Huddersfield birth centre, where our midwife let us guide our own birth, the way we wanted. Even though this time was a completely different birth experience, thinking about it afterwards, it was still a very positive birth experience.
In hindsight, I think we were possibly too relaxed and calm this time (if that is at all possible during labour)
I started getting uncomfortable feelings in my stomach during the night, while I was sleeping, which I thought was due to me needing to wee constantly, so I spent most of the night going back and forth to the loo. Looking back these feelings were actually contractions I was experiencing but even with these feelings and the need to wee, I managed to have a good nights sleep. In the morning after a visit to the toilet, I realised that I had started to shed some of my mucus plug. During my last labour, I had started to shed my mucus plug a few days before labour actually started, so in my head I felt I had days to go. We carried on with our planned Saturday and I continued to have irregular sensations throughout the day but kept thinking I was days away from giving birth.
So, we just carried on as normal
We spent the whole morning out of the house, going on a pre planned trip to Lotherton hall and having a lovely lunch out. In the afternoon I had a lovely bath and even managed a long nap, the whole time I was having irregular sensations, which I was occasionally using the breathing techniques for, when needed but just kept thinking I had days to go and to just carry on as normal.
In the evening I did bath and bedtime with my son and put him to bed, during this time the contractions started getting closer together and I started using the breathing techniques regularly to get through them but in my head I still thought it wasn’t actual labour and just carried on. I messaged my sister, who was our assigned babysitter for our son around 7pm, she lives an hour away and I told her I was possibly in labour but told her not to set off yet as I was a while away from giving birth,
Luckily she set off straight away
All of a sudden the contractions intensified, we called the birthing unit at Pinderfields and the midwife assumed I had some time and I was advised to have a bath and to not come in yet. I couldn’t even manage to eat dinner due to the intensity by now but was still managing to breath through them. At this point the contractions were lasting longer and were much more frequent. So we made the decision to set off to the birthing unit and called a neighbour to sit at the house until my sister got here.
The feeling to birth started in the car
We set off on the 15 min journey to hospital, for the first 5 minutes everything calmed down, I managed to put on a Hypnobirthing script and tried to keep my eyes closed. During the journey the intensity came back, I thought I was going to be sick at one point and asked Taj to stop the car which he did at a bus stop, I ran out and wasn’t sick but my waters went, which panicked me quite a bit (my waters only broke with my son as he was being born), I think I was more concerned about my clothes being wet through and getting the car seat wet. Taj got me back into the car with lots of reassurance that we were nearly there. The feeling to birth started soon after this, with each contraction, they were coming very close together at this point but Taj continued to do lots of reassuring and remained calm.
We got to the hospital, parked in the disabled bays and got all the bags out of the car (still thinking I’d have time to settle in before giving birth) and carrying my handbag, that had nothing useful in. Once in the hospital we were in a bit of a panic, we didn’t know where the birthing centre was, so went to where we’d been having our scan appointments, stopping all along the way to have contractions. A paramedic saw us and said he’d go get me a wheelchair (I was in no position to sit down anywhere). Seconds later I could really feel the baby pushing against me, I pulled down my joggers, without a care of where I was. Taj said he could see the head and literally within a few seconds the baby’s body came out and luckily Taj caught her. Then out of know where lots of midwifes appeared with machines, a modesty screen (not that I really cared) and the paramedic with the wheelchair. A few moments later Taj announced ‘we had a little girl’, we’d not found out the sex of the baby prior.
Baby and I were both fine, apart from being in shock with everything happening so quickly and luckily we were discharged the same day.
If you are ever on your way to ward 10b at Pinderfields, this is the exact spot that our little baby girl was born.
After doing the refresher course with Hannah, Taj and I dedicated a few evenings a week to practising the breathing/soft touch techniques, listening to positive birth scripts, watching birth stories, this put us in a really positive mindset about the birth and even though it wasn’t the birth we envisaged, in hindsight it was quite an ideal quick birth, with no pushing and the baby making her own way out into the world and my body doing what it needed to birth our little girly.
Also I’d read/heard previously that your body waits until the ideal moment to give birth, which in our case was once our son was safely tucked up in bed sleeping.
Taj kept really calm and relaxed through out, constantly reassuring me which stopped me from panicking towards the end, these were skills he’d learnt from the Hypnobirthing course. He actually realised I was transitioning before we got to the hospital from what I was saying but kept his cool and reassured me that I could do it, while driving down the wrong side of the road to pass some slow drivers. He delivered (caught) the baby with no one else around and remained super calm throughout ❤️
All of these were skills he’d learnt from our Hypnobirthing journey, which I’m so blessed he fully immersed himself in during both our pregnancies
And as I said last time, we’ll be forever thankful to Abby and now Hannah for providing us with the skills we needed to birth two babies using Hypnobirthing and helping us achieve two positive amazing births.
So, if you’re ever on your way to ward 10b at Pinderfields and pass the blood test desk, this is the exact spot where our little baby girl was born, luckily the hospital was empty and I didn’t have an audience, not that I’d have cared in the moment.
Navjeet and Taj 2021
