Birth Story- An empowering Caesarean birth

The Birth of Charlie

Rachael and Paul did a full Hypnobirthing course with me and have shared their wonderful Caesarean birth story with us.

My husband and I did our hypnobirthing course and couldn’t be more excited to bring our baby into the world. We were practicing our techniques and getting ready for the vaginal delivery I wanted.

However, at 36 weeks I was in hospital due to reduced movements and a midwife informed us our baby was breech.

This came as a huge shock, I’d spent so much time on my birthing ball and we’d been told baby was head down (apparently our baby had a boney bottom which felt just like a head!

This news really rocked us.

I had many conversations with Drs and consultants who outlined our options. I’m so thankful for the hypnobirthing course because here we could practice using the BRAIN acronym and find out everything we needed to know.

We left feeling sad, I was quite honestly mourning the vaginal birth I wanted. I was terrified of the thought of having to have a caesarean, of forcing baby to come early, of the pain, the ‘what ifs.’

I text Daisy to clarify some things and my husband and I had a lot of discussions.

We decided the best thing to do would be to see if baby can turn by themselves (we were given small odds it could work at this late gestation but wanted to give it a try.)

I spent a week upside down on an ironing board to see if we could encourage baby to spin. At 37 weeks we were back in hospital to check to see.

As we expected though, baby was still breech and very content like that. We decided we didn’t want medical intervention to try and move baby and decided on having a caesarean. It felt best in that moment of uncertainty to make that decision and take some of the power back over my birth.

This wasn’t the birth we initially wanted, but we were going to make it the best birth for our much-awaited beautiful new arrival.

Daisy helped me re write our birth preferences to be for a caesarean birth. I printed off copies and then got ready for the next hospital appointment to find out more about what would happen next.

However, baby had other ideas. At 37+6 and on my first day of maternity leave, my waters went at home.

I was so surprised! I had given up on the idea of experiencing any of the “normal” aspects of birth. But after my waters went, the contractions started, and I was able to use all the breathing techniques I’d spent months practicing.

We called the hospital and due to baby being breech we were encouraged to come in. I couldn’t believe it, baby wasn’t being evicted early, they were coming right when they wanted. I was so pleased.

I am so thankful for our rewritten birth preferences at this point, the midwife commented she had never seen such thorough preferences and as a result they were able to implement so many things we wanted which weren’t hospital policy. Such as having baby brought straight onto chest after delivery before doing checks etc.

By having our caesarean preferences clearly written all our wishes were clearly communicated despite me contracting every few minutes and despite many people coming into our room to explain things and sign paperwork. We felt in control in a situation where it would have been very easy to feel out of our depth.

My husband helped me to breath and visualise through each contraction

I was even able to fall asleep!

When it was time for the surgery, we were excited and ready!

Once things were started it wasn’t long before we met our baby, and it was as magical as we had imagined. While they finished surgery we got to cuddle and fall in love with our little boy (who was on my chest- thanks to the birth preferences!)

Yes, recovering was painful, and it had its challenges as any birth will have. But I do not regret the decision we made for the safe arrival of our baby boy.

We could have opted for a vaginal breech delivery, but this came with a lot of uncertainties which filled me with anxiety whereas the planned caesarean came with a lot more answers and peace.

I am so proud of my body and what it was able to do. My scar on my stomach is a reminder of how brave and determined I was. Having a caesarean is certainly not the ‘easy’ route or something known as the alternative to a “normal” birth.

Thanks you so much Rachael and Paul for sharing your story, it is beautiful to read and you have done such an amazing job birthing Charlie.

Learn more about my full Hypnobirthing course and Caesarean course, along with upcoming dates.