Viki Boddie – Birth Story
On Wednesday 9th November at 36+4 I’d been having on/off contractions every 6 minutes or so – although not painful I rang triage as I was still classed as “pre-term”. On arrival I was monitored and contractions were showing every 5 minutes, I was checked and was 1cm dilated – because I was pre term I was admitted to the ward. At around 1am Thursday morning, my contractions ramped up to every 2 minutes lasting 45/60 seconds each – I took some paracetamol and just spent my night bouncing on the ball and breathing through each wave. Unfortunately by 6am my contractions had stopped completely and when checked again, I was still 1cm, so off home we went!
For the next 3 days of on/off contractions I tried my best to think positive, I think this is one of the main things we took away from our hypnobirthing course with Lucy – I kept telling myself I could do it, that my body knew what it was doing and when baby was ready, he would come!
I woke up on Sunday morning to contractions coming every 6 minutes, I called the birth suite for advice and was told to take some pain relief and call back if they got closer together. Within the hour they were every 3/4 minutes and I felt I would be happier knowing if I’d progressed since the Wednesday so we went in.
On arrival at 11am I was 2/3cm, from reading our books I knew to try not to focus on the number as things progress differently for everyone!
We made ourselves at home in our little room with our iPad – we watched the cricket World Cup, the F1 and Burnley vs Blackburn football – I just wanted to feel as relaxed as possible and being big sports lovers was hoping the oxytocin my body would create from winning all 3 would help somehow.
By 3:15 I was 4cm and was getting through the waves with gas and air – each time I felt a contraction coming I shut my eyes and pictured flowers falling out of a rainbow, it sounds so silly now but I remember Lucy during our course talking about how with each contraction your baby is moving further down and if you can visualise something falling or moving downwards it can really help in breathing baby down. And it definitely did! No idea why there were flowers coming out of a rainbow but it made the whole experience much calmer!
By 7:15pm I was 8cm dilated – I remember talking about how it can become so easy to lose focus and think you can’t do it – that’s exactly how I felt at this point – all through my pregnancy I vowed I wouldn’t have an epidural as a. I’m so terrified of needles and b. I didn’t think you could practice hypnobirthing if you had one (but after our course I knew this wasn’t correct!) After 4 days of labour – albeit very stop/start, the epidural was the relief I needed and it helped me get back into a positive space.
Within a couple of hours I was fully dilated and with each contraction I could feel Jasper’s head pushing down – unfortunately upon checking, the midwife noticed that his head was facing the wrong way, the cord was wrapped twice around his neck and he was having a few dips in his heart rate. The doctor tried her best to turn him but it wasn’t successful. Around 10:30pm we were taken to theatre where Jasper was delivered by forceps.
Those final few hours would’ve been a time of huge panic for me usually, being out of control is something I really don’t enjoy – but I felt so positive throughout the whole experience and I really do feel that’s all down to Lucy and our hypnobirthing course! My partner Adam was a huge support too, keeping me reassured throughout the whole process and remembering to use our positive affirmations.
Baby Jasper was delivered safely at 37+2 weighing a healthy 7lb 10oz
