My positive, unmedicated hospital birth centre birth story

The story of my unmedicated, positive birth of my first daughter in a hospital birth centre, including how I prepared for birth and managed labour sensations using breathing techniques, active labour positions and accupressure.

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• First-time mama

• Hospital birth centre

• Water birth (ish)

• Vaginal birth

• Unmedicated.

My birth story

There are so many reasons why my first birth shouldn’t have been a positive experience, but it was. Here’s what didn’t go to plan:

• I went into labour after a huge Arsenal football game in London and police almost didn’t let our taxi leave our street (the road was blocked)

• The taxi driver was playing the most annoying, loud prayer music that kept snapping me out of my labour ‘zone’ (poor guy must’ve been freaked!)

• I had always wanted a water birth, but I got into the birth pool and I just wasn’t feeling it

• I had a ‘cervical lip’ and midwives told me to stop pushing for two hours – incredibly hard when your body is telling you to

• I felt rushed during the pushing stage.

It was far from a perfect birth, but it was a positive birth. Why? Because I was able to achieve the birth I wanted (a drug-free, unmedicated vaginal birth), I felt confident throughout, I was able to get in the otherwordly ‘birth zone’, contractions were manageable using the techniques I’d learnt, I had my husband to support me, was able to advocate for myself during birth and, most importantly, I felt absolutely amazing afterwards.

Here’s my story…

Before labour/ preparing for birth

As a first-time mama, I wasn’t afraid going into birth because I’d seen my mum give birth to my brother and sister at home with a midwife and she’d always talked about birth as an amazing experience and I felt confident I could have a great birth too. It was a pretty good foundation to start from.

I also prepared for birth by:

• Doing pregnancy yoga classes and learning and practising breathing techniques for birth

• Reading positive birth stories – for example Ina May Gaskin books

• Doing birth classes with my husband

• Getting informed about how birth works

• Keeping active.

At home and travelling to the hospital

In the early stages of labour, I stayed at home and breathed my way through contractions using birth breathing techniques I’d learnt at my pregnancy yoga classes and moving around my house using active birth positions I’d practised there too. It was hard work, but manageable.

By the time my husband called the birth centre at the hospital to see if we should come in, I was already well and truly in the grips of mega contractions and in ‘birth land’: completely on another planet and unable to think about anything or speak. My husband put the phone near me as the midwife wanted to speak to me, but I couldn’t. When they heard my low grunting and other cow-like noises, they told us to come in immediately (these are a key sign of being well pretty progressed in labour).

We didn’t have a car as they weren’t needed in transport central, London, where we lived at the time, so I had to get a taxi to the hospital. The act of moving from home and having to get into a taxi with a stranger really jarred me and almost took me out of my ‘zone’. I had to really close my eyes and focus to stay in the zone. Then the taxi driver turned on some sort of prayer music (the poor guy was probably praying to God I didn’t break my waters in his car) that snapped me out of the zone again, so I yelled at my husband to make him turn it off.

I was so in ‘labour land’ that I don’t remember our taxi being stopped by police at the end of our street and not being allowed through as a huge Arsenal football match had just ended. My husband told me later he had to convince the officer to let us through!

Arriving at the hospital birth centre

When we finally arrived at the birth centre at our local hospital, my husband had to pay the taxi driver, so I had to waddle out of the car and try to enter the hospital alone. This required pressing some sort of intercom and button, but I was in my labour land and couldn’t work it out. Finally, my husband sorted it out. Then the receptionist started talking to me and asking me questions, and tried to get me to fill in a form – all of which jolted me out of my zone and into bright-light hospital land.

The birth pool

After a vaginal examination, also snapping me out of my lovely birth land zone, midwives said I was eight and a half centimetres dilated and should start pushing. After the midwives madly filling up the birth pool, I got in and started pushing (I didn’t really think about if I felt like I should be pushing). But it all didn’t feel right in the pool – it was too hot and too shallow, and I ended up just feeling sleepy and like it was stopping my contractions.

I got out and the midwives did another examination and said it was now only six centimetres and had a cervical lip (when you have a bit of cervix on one side that is still there) so should stop pushing. By now I had serious contractions that were telling my body to push so this was so hard! The midwives kept offering me an epidural to get through this bit, but I was determined I didn’t want one.

Contractions

During my birth, I was transported to another ‘labour land’ (like an out of body experience where I wasn’t really present/ aware of what was going on) and my body gave me an amazing high to support me during labour. Not many people talk about that part of birth – all you hear is about the ‘pain’.

Although my contractions were intense and all encompassing, mostly I wouldn’t describe them as painful. When I forgot to breathe using my breathing techniques, it definitely felt more painful then though.

Things that helped me deal with sensations during labour

• Birth breathing techniques

• Moving around during birth – active birth positions

• A positive mindset and way of viewing contractions as helping bring my baby into the world

• Supportive midwives and my husband

• The “natural epidural” acupressure point on my back (pushed on by my husband) to ease pressure during contractions.

Pushing

While the midwives I had were all generally lovely and supportive overall, when it came to time to push, I felt a bit hurried by the midwife. I got through this stage by really focusing on my breathing. I tore a little bit and, while they were not significant tears, it was painful being stitched up and they made the first week or so after birth pretty awful with my new bub. Going to the toilet became a kind of hell, as did sitting down and walking and even sleeping, so I was super determined not to have this happen again for my second birth (and it didn’t).

After birth

After pushing my daughter out, I was on such a high – I felt a bit like a messy, goop covered, big but slightly deflated bellied Superwoman.   I finally came back down to earth and said hi to the midwives who had been supporting me – I’d been so in the birth zone that I was mostly unaware of them and that they’d changed shifts during my labour.

I had a gorgeous 8 and half pound, curious, little daughter who looked straight up at her daddy as she was being born and never even cried. Even though my birth wasn’t perfect, it was amazing. It was mostly pain free and I got the drug- free vaginal birth I wanted.