The hypnobirthing course helped us so much throughout this labour

When we got up maybe 15 minutes later, I was writing in my dad‘s birthday card (as it was his birthday) sitting on our bed and felt my first contraction. I turned to my husband Scott and told him and he smiled back excitedly. My parents were staying with us in the lead up as they would be looking after Pippa once we went to hospital. I walked out to the kitchen and gave my dad his birthday card and a hug and told him that I think the baby is coming today, and he replied “how good”.

I could feel the contractions starting to occur regularly, so I decided to go for a warm shower and to get into the labour mindset. This was probably just before 7am. Once I was in the shower, The contractions were definitely coming regularly and I remember at 7.12am looking at my watch to try and time them. The contractions seemed to begin to intensify and I couldn’t seem to find a comfortable position to breath through the surge. I was trying to use my diaphragm breathing techniques, facial relaxation and horses breath exhale through the contractions.

I also remember having the thought in the shower that if it was this painful so quickly, how was I going to get through the next couple of hours? I was comparing to my first labour and it didn’t seem like last time which slowly built over the 22 hours of labour.I got out of the shower and yelled out to Scott to get my tens machine. When he came I told him we need to start timing contractions cause it felt like I was getting multiple in 10 minutes. I remember being in the bathroom and trying to find a space to move through a contraction and ended up holding onto the towel rail, swaying my hips. Scott came back and helped me setup the tens machine just in time for me to turn on the boost function as the next contraction came. I asked him to move some of my labor prep things into our bedroom, like the fitball, diffuser and AirPods for my birth play list. I just made the walk from bathroom to bedroom (all of 10 meters) before the next contraction started. At 7.43am scott made the first call to the midwife to let them know we would be in soon and asked my dad to pack the car.

My parents and Pippa were slowly getting ready to go out for a birthday breakfast. I laid over the fitball with my knees on the ground on a pillow to ride through the next contraction with my tens machine on. Everything began to intensify once again and I remember making a lot of gutteral noise due to the intensity. Scott asked me three times if we should get in the car and make our way to the hospital, but after the third time I had what felt like the initial burning sensation to push so I said we’re staying and we’re having this baby here. Scott told my parents the plan – my dad to take Pippa to the local playground and mum to come into the bedroom with me. Scott stepped out to call the midwife again at 7.58am and they told us to call the ambulance. I remember reaching and calling for Scott, and Mum held my hand through my next contraction, I then felt ready to push and squatted down with support of the fit ball to bear down and told her our baby is starting to come so she moved behind me to help. Scott called the ambulance at 7:59am and when he came back in the room, our baby’s head was starting to crown. Another push and I reached to feel the head which felt very squishy.

Our baby’s head was out and Scott said the amniotic sac was still intact. another surge and as our baby’s shoulders came through the sac broke apart and Scott pulled it away from baby’s face. one last push and our baby came out , into his dad hands and I heard the first cry. My husband told me it was a boy! I still had my undies on so mum ran off to get some scissors to cut them off and our baby boy was passed through my legs and put him up on my chest for a cuddle for skin to skin. We had about 15 minutes before the ambulance crew arrived. The time to ourselves was golden and we got some photos too. The ambulance crew (with help of stork) were directed on how to clamp the cord and then my husband got to cut it. We got my dad to bring my daughter home so she could meet our baby boy before we were taken to Bussleton Hospital by ambulance, I got to hold our baby boy the whole way there. Once there I had the injection to help with delivery of the placenta as it had been over an hour and I was happy to get things moving. I also had an oxytocin drip to help with delivery of placenta and blood loss. The after birth pains and nausea were more intense being my second baby.

We named our baby boy Joey.We decided to do the Hypnobirthing course through Busselton hospital to help us prepare for the arrival of our second baby. Even though we had been through birth before, we wanted a refresher and help us get into the mindset. We are so very glad we decided to do this because the hypnobirthing course helped us so much throughout this labour! Not just for pain relief and putting together our birth preferences, but what to do when things don’t go to plan. To know when you need to pivot and change plans at any stage during labour, and also that sometimes it’s just too late to make it to hospital and the best thing to do is stay at home, call the midwife and get lots and lots of towels!Throughout the whole labour, the hardest decision to make was whether we should get in the car and try and get to hospital, but once I made the decision to stay home, I felt very calm and knew that my body would do what it needed to do to deliver this baby. As it was my second baby, I knew how everything should feel too which helped a lot . Everyone was very calm and I knew that Scott and my Mum would be there to help every step of the way for delivery.
Im so very happy with this birth, A moment we will never forget.