- Nov 27, 2016

"I did it!! I successfully had a VBAC in the birth pool"

So I did it, I successfully had a VBAC in the birth pool on the 27/11/16 (due date) to a little girl Reeve.

After having an emergency c section with my son in 2014 after 18 hours of labour (failure to progress they called it) I knew the 2nd time round I wanted to do things a little different. I had heard about Shari and the hypnobirthing course she offered in town and after reading and watching lots of positive hypnobirthing stories I knew I wanted to book in (much to my partners disagreement). In July we completed the course as I wanted to have plenty of time to practice before I was due to give myself the best chance of having a VBAC.

After the course I felt so informed and this combined with changing providers to the local Midwife Group Practice I knew I could do it, I had little doubts and felt full of confidence.

So with listening to the daily affirmations whenever I was in the car and the surge of the sea when I needed to relax and practicing my breathing I felt so much more prepared.

Any questions this time I knew to ask and between the midwifes and Shari I got all my answers.

I had been visiting the chiropractor for the 3 weeks before I was due to realign my hips and bring baby down and also at 39+3 I went and had acupuncture (was trying to avoid medical induction) and the lady mentioned to me if it was to work I would start having surges the next night. She was right at 39+4 I started having irregular surges through the night to the point where I couldn't lay down so I sat on the ball and relaxed on the recliner between them. By using my breathing techniques I managed to stay at home as it was only at night they were intense. Saturday night came around the day before I was due and I went to bed 8pm and then they kicked in so I was up again on the ball and recliner and they started to show some pattern and I had a show sometime that night (can't remember the time was trying to not concentrate on it). It was about 1.30am I decided to have a shower to use the warmth on my back, I stayed in there until about 2.30am when I decided that maybe I needed to head to hospital as I was having 3 surges in 10mins only lasting about 30 secs but they were intense. So we called my midwife who said to come up at 4am and they would see how I was going and send me back home if needed.

I had a VE once up there at 4am and was 3cm (yay) then again at 8am 4cm. We moved to the birthing suite as I was having 5 surges in 10 min and not once did my midwifes talk to me about much except if I wanted to change positions but I just wanted to sit on birth ball and concentrate on my breathing. I had another go at the shower for an hour but not helping much and asked when I could get into pool. I got into pool about 11am it was great the heat and water instantly relaxed my body more and then the surges intensified to 3 in 10 mins but lasting a good 45 sec to 1 min. All of a sudden I was telling them I needed to push and they said whatever I needed to do let my body tell me what needs to be done. I won't forget the feeling of being so overwhelmed to what to do as my head was saying no but my body just started to push. I knew then if I didn't use my breathing and some very crazy noises to breath baby down then I would tense up and the pain would of got to me. At 12.51pm I had birthed my baby girl on my own in the water it was perfect. I couldn't believe it I actually did it and without the breathing techniques I probably wouldn't of done it. I never listened to the tracks I remember the birthing suite being quite calm already so didn't need to make any changes as they had low lights, soft relaxation music, clary sage burning, a midwife doing my pressure points with clary sage and my partner pushing very hard on my lower back when I had a surge. I didn't open my eyes much and drifted off to sleep in between surges.

I honestly believe if I hadn't done Shari's hypnobirthing course the birth of Reeve would've had a different outcome.

Alanna & Aron