Claudia, Seth, and Leif

Hi!

Just wanted to give you an update on the birth of my baby boy! His name is Leif and he was born on Tuesday September 9th, 8 days after his due date. I wrote out the whole birth story if you’re interested.

The labour was pretty hard and I don’t think I could have done as well as I did without the information and support from you and the Hypnobirthing course. I am so grateful for all the knowledge, tools and support you gave Seth and I for the most insane day of our lives!

Thank you endlessly!

Here is the birth story:

 I had been having irregular contractions on the three evenings leading up to active labour and I stayed calm through them, trusting my body and knowing that things were happening for a reason, even if I wasn’t getting very much sleep!

By the time Monday came around I thought things were picking up but it wasn’t so bad, Seth and I went for walks and I cleaned the bathrooms and hung out until I thought ah the contractions are getting closer together maybe we should head to Vernon early. When we got to Vernon they checked me and I was 5cm dilated and 90% effaced, we were so happy! This part of the labour was so so amazing, I was progressing, moving with my body and relaxing everything through each surge. I got Seth to count in 4 second or 8 second intervals and I would focus my breaths for those counts. The nurse checked me again and she said I was 7-8 centimetres and fully effaced I just had to break the water and I would be in transition! I was immensely motivated and excited and my water broke shortly after. Then I started getting pushing contractions and my body would bear down so hard. I had a few of those and my water broke again for the second time.

After maybe two hours of hard pushing contractions that I was really struggling to resist or breathe through the doctor came to check. He said oh unfortunately you’re still only 7-8 centimetres and your baby is still very high up. The babies heart rate was also dipping after each contraction so they had to hook up a continuous monitor. At this point I wasn’t sure what to do and I didn’t have a lot of awareness but I tried to understand as he listed my options. He said we could do an epidural and increase oxytocin but I knew that my surges were already so strong, if they administered oxytocin and they got even stronger how would the baby react? It would send him into distress! So I voiced my concerns and he went to ask a second opinion. The second opinion came back and agreed with my concerns. He had an idea to inject saline back into me to buffer the contractions so I could continue progressing the baby down without the cord being squeezed and the heart rate dipping.

I laboured like this for another 2.5 hours and it was very very intense. Near the end of this I was begging for a c section and my worries were getting the best of me. The doctors told us the babies heart rate dipped for 5 minutes and I had to get this baby out. I thought how? He’s still high up and I’m not ready yet? But the doctor actually said you are in fact 10 cm dilated and you’ve brought the baby down. You can push this baby out. The doctor did have to use the vaccum to get the baby in position however the position was sunny side up.

I used all the strength I had left in me and pushed him out in 30 minutes. They had to take him away quite quickly to help with his breathing but he got it going in no time. He is such a strong baby and has done so well through it all

So after a few nights of early labour, 9 hours of active labour and the last five of those being very intense pushing contractions we came out the other side.

The doctors commended my strength and I feel very proud to have done it without the epidural and without the additional oxytocin.

Thank you Anne and all you gave us!