I love the way that Natalie speaks of the power of labour and how women are capable of rising up to meet it. Her birth had a long early labour but when things started to move the birth was swift. This is a detailed and wonderful birth story/journey…

Wynona arrived on Tuesday at 5:43am at 41+4 weeks.

I’m still processing my birth story and I’m a pretty private person but I really wanted to share it with you. Knowledge is DEFINITELY power, I’ve never believed that more than I do now! We had such a powerful but unexpected experience

I’m a first time mom, due date was June 18. All things considered, my pregnancy was pretty easy, which I feel super grateful for. But when that date came and passed, despite all of our best efforts to mentally prepare, anxiety and “will this baby ever get here!?” definitely started to creep in. By our 41 week appointment, we went in to visit with our midwives and had a cervical check and I was at 1 cm, minor surges were starting to show up on the NST, and talk about induction started, with a suggestion that I come in the next day for a stretch and sweep.

I also registered a high blood pressure that day, so they had me lay down before retaking it - and I ended up in tears. It all suddenly just started feeling hard and I wanted so badly to just have the baby on it’s own timeline (but we don’t have the luxury of that in the U.S. - 42 weeks was our cut off of care).

That night (Friday) we went home and tried to take it VERY easy, epsom salt bath, etc. Luckily, the next morning the midwife on call called us and reassured us that she had full confidence we could do this without a stretch and sweep and gave us a pep talk and some steps to take to move the baby along. So, we spent the weekend just loving on each other, doing squats facing the sun , going for a nature walk, and I booked an Accupuncture appt for Sunday. It was honestly a heavenly quiet summer weekend in our family nest.

That Sunday night, I started to experience surges (to me, period like cramps that came and went and wouldn’t go away when I was resting, in fact I could “feel” them more that way). They were 6-7 sometimes 10, sometimes 3, minutes apart, weren’t changing really in intensity,. This went on ALL night. Because they weren’t consistent or picking up in pace etc, I was advised to do my very best to sleep (which I managed about an hour of in the bath).

At 730am I got super sick as this continued and threw up. AT that point though, the surges and nausea stopped. We went in at 1030am to see our midwife, she checked to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid, checked the baby and me, said my cervix was totally closed, baby was healthy, saw no surges on the monitor. I love my midwife practice, but a few times she used the words “nothing is happening yet” and to SLEEP that night above all else, which really put me in a specific place mentally and questioning my own instincts about labor. We even agreed to schedule the stretch and sweep and got the recipe for midwives brew for first thing Wednesday morning.

I now know something was DEFINITELY happening.

We carried on that day as normally as we could, even went to our 41 week sonogram appt to check fluid levels (all was well) and went home. At around dinner time like clockwork, I started feeling sick again. This time though, I couldn’t sense a regular surge patterns or timing (also just didn’t have a desire to check) so tried everything to be comfortable. Notably during both evenings, the warm bath and shower and my hypnobirthing tracks, as well as my husbands presence, were really the only things that helped me find comfort . I got sick again after trying to eat a yogurt for dinner, and decided to take an ambian which the midwife perscribed in CASE I couldn’t get through the night (they really - and I really - didn’t want me to go through nights of this to only end up in active labor completely exhausted and drained). Took it at ~10 pm, woke up at 2 AM in what I now know was full blown active labor.

I got straight in the bath, woke up my husband in a near desperate plea and tried to get a grasp on what I was feeling. Was trying so hard to “time” my surges so we could communicate that to the midwives, but let me tell you, time and space did NOT exist, which actually scared me and I felt unsure. My husband started to get really worried because of how confused I was, we rang up the midwives, and the next ~2 hours is a bit of a blur but around 3.45/4 we were rapidly on our way to the birth center (thankfully 5 mins from our house) because I quickly got the urge to push. No joke “this baby is coming” left my mouth. And in that moment, any of the fear or uncertainty I had about the entire experience completely left me. Huge thank you to hypnobirthing for that. (The anxiety didn’t leave my husband quite yet who was frantically pulling out our emergency instructions for a self homebirth )

Between that shift, and making it to the birth center I had ~4 surges, two on our bed at home, one in our front yard, and one on the back of the car. We had the midwife on speaker phone the whole time coaching me through and I was so in the zone trying to control when / how she would arrive but it honestly felt, good? Like you know your baby is coming and you feel SO powerful. The second we arrived I thrust off my clothes and got on the bed was was basically like “okay I’m ready!” As the next surge arrived . We got our tracks playing loud on my husbands phone, he kept up with the water and light touch massage, he and the two midwives talked me through each wave as it came and went, rapidly got stuff ready and fill the tub. Probably 20 ish minutes later, the tub was full enough and somehow I made my way over, and 20 minutes after that of surge after surge and gradually coaxing little bit Wynona down this little lady arrived into the world!!

It was all so fast and I swear I was on another plane. She floated up in the tub as I flipped around and was so alert. I couldn’t believe it. That we are that powerful, that it felt that raw and real. Definitely didn’t go as “planned” which is something that I can tell I’ll just get over in time (that long magically deep breathing labor in the birth center jacuzzi with nitrous oxide and twinkle lights. I didn’t even wear shoes and showed up wearing two night gowns!) but women - we are out of this world.

You and your baby are on this journey together Birth and labor do not follow a linear pattern for everyone, (mine certainly didn’t) so listen to your body. I went from 0 cm dilated at the beginning of the day to having a rapid labor and delivery and truly believe that every time I was consciously making sure I was resting/relaxing and at peace in my own space is when things moved along.

Want to learn hypnobirthing with us?

Don’t forget that we have a full Online Antenatal Hypnobirthing Class that you can follow in your own time anywhere around the world. It is only £39/$49.
The Online Hypnobirthing Course

We also teach antenatal hypnobirthing classes in London in person with our One Day Group Hypnobirthing Class.
In-person Antental Hypnobirthing Group Class

If you’d rather prepare for your labour and birth solo with Melanie you can do so in the privacy of your own home in person if you live in London or via the Zoom platform wherever you are around the globe.
Private Antenatal Hypnobirthing Classes