Birth story of Janine & Trent - 24.4.22

Levi born 41+2 - Spontaneous labour, normal vaginal birth, meconium liquor

On Sunday 24th April, we welcomed our little boy Levi into the world, and I wanted to share our birth story with you. 

Prior to labour, from 35 weeks, I had been massaging clary sage onto my tummy, antenatal expressing colostrum twice a day, doing perineal massage, having regular acupuncture and mediating daily. I believe these intuitive preparations contributed to the birth I envisioned. 

For me, education and knowledge was power as I embarked on my journey towards parenthood. So, at 26 weeks, my partner Trent and I attended a four week Hypnobirthing course with the lovely Chloe Thornton. This course empowered us both and truly set us up to have the birthing experience of our dreams.

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From the early stages of my pregnancy I had a strong inclination that I would go into labour at 38 weeks. As a result, every day that followed ’38 weeks’ felt like both a mind game and a mental test. Looking back, it was a test I needed to go through. It was in these final weeks that I had to really learn to fully trust, surrender and let go of all my expectations. Every day I journaled the affirmation “I now trust my body and baby know how and when to birth”.

It all started on Friday at 2pm when the daily Braxton Hicks and period cramp like pains started. I had been feeling these pains during the weeks prior, so I didn’t think too much into them as I didn’t want to get my hopes up (again!). At 9:30pm, I lost my mucous plug and contractions picked up almost immediately. We called the hospital to let them know things had started and they informed us to come in for a check-up at 8am Saturday morning. We told them to prepare the room for a water birth as this is how I envisioned managing active labour. I then popped my Tens machine on, diffused some lavender essential oil and went back to bed.

My contractions were very regular throughout the night starting from every 15-20 minutes before moving to every 3-5 minutes at around 7am, which was when we called the hospital back to let them know I was not going to come in as I didn’t want to break my rhythm and wanted to continue managing early labour at home.

It was from this call that things paused, my regular contractions then moved to every 20-45 minutes. I used this time to have a shower, fuel my body with some nutrients, played some hynobirthing affirmations for birth, diffused some lavender essential oil and tried to get some sleep. This pretty much continued through most of Saturday until my contractions moved to every 8-10 minutes at around 4pm. At 5:30pm I heard a loud ‘pop’ and said hello to my membranes releasing. We called the hospital back again and they informed us to come in as they wanted to check for any meconium in my waters. We loaded our bags into the car and headed into hospital at around 6:30pm.

Trent describes walking to the birthing unit as the ‘longest walk ever’ but for me I had already transcended to another place. I knew I had started active labour. My surges at this stage were lasting 45-60 seconds and were about every 1-2 minutes. During this period I repeated the affirmations: “With each surge I am getting closer to meeting my baby” and “These surges are not too strong for me because they are me”. When we got into the birthing unit the midwife we were assigned wanted to send me home because she didn’t think I was in active labour. In my birth plan I had declined all vaginal examinations; but trusting my body and not wanting to break my rhythm we demanded to stay and after a lot of hesitation they moved us into our own birth suite.

Because my membranes had released I wasn’t able to have the water birth I envisioned due to risk of infection so we prepared the room by dimming the lights, set up electric candles around the room, got the diffuser burning lavender essential oil and set up a speaker playing some hypnobirthing tracks.

The midwife suspected meconium in my waters and wanted me to have constant CTG monitoring. I wanted to be quite mobile and active during my labour, so declining this and constantly clashing with the midwife that was not respecting my birth plan, we were assigned another midwife with experience in calm birth and she was just what I needed.

From here, I bounced on the fit ball, breathed through each surge using the Tens machine and zoned into the birthing affirmations that were playing. My midwife monitored Levi’s heart rate using a doppler before she asked if I would agree to CTG monitoring for just 30 minutes just to see if he was in any sort of distress while I was having my contractions. For a little peace of mind I agreed and thankfully he was calm, showing no signs of distress.

By 11pm, I could feel myself starting to give up as breathing through each surge was becoming harder. The midwife asked if she could do a vaginal examination to assess my dilation. At this point I agreed. After managing contractions for nearly a day and half I was losing energy and motivation. I asked not to know how far along I was but while I was being examined I focused in on being 8cm dilated. Minutes later my midwife informed me that at some stage I was going to have the urge to push and when I felt that to let her know. This was all the motivation I needed to dig deeper to bring my baby earthside.

This next phase tested all my strength mentally and physically. I knew I needed to go within and focus in on the sensations of each surge so I handed Trent the Tens machine and gave him a nod every time I needed a boost. After 90 minutes, Levi’s head kept going back and forth and I recall the midwife on charge that night say that things weren’t progressing and maybe I should try pushing on the toilet. In my birth plan I had written for “The patience to allow labour to progress naturally without references to moving things along" so using her comment as fuel I sat on the toilet and with one big push his head was half way out.

I wobbled to the bed, leaned over it in a squat position and with a few more pushes his head was fully birthed.

Waiting for that last surge felt like forever. I could hear my beautiful midwife encouraging me saying that “I was amazing”. With one last push Levi was born at 5:11am on Sunday. He was brought through my legs and placed on the bed. I held his little hand and said “Hello my sweet boy”. Before I could comprehend what was happening his cord was cut and six doctors entered the room. He was taken to a resuscitation trolley as he was not breathing.

This next part is a little blurry to me, but I remembering feeling a sense of calmness in my body and a deep knowing that everything was going to be okay. I looked over at Trent who was in tears. My midwife reassured me everything was okay. Trent went with the doctors as they took Levi to the neonatal unit for monitoring as they were concerned he had inhaled meconium. For the next 3 hours I repeated the affirmation “Levi is safe and healthy and I trust he knows how to breathe” until Trent wheeled him back into my room saying “Our little man is a fighter and everything was okay”.

All I wanted was a natural physiological birth, free from all intervention and I feel so grateful that I was able to fully trust my body and baby to achieve the birth I envisioned. The tools, knowledge and support I received from Chloe and the Hypnobirthing Australia course empowered both Trent and I to advocate for ourselves and our beautiful and healthy baby.

Chloe Thornton is an AHPRA Registered Midwife, Registered Nurse, Birth Mentor and Hypnobirthing Australia™ Certified Practitioner.

She provides group classes virtually to families across the country each month and also has a small number of spaces available for private bespoke sessions online or in-person. She can be contacted by email at chloelouisethornton@outlook.com or phone 0493108658.

You can learn more about her Hypnobirthing Australia™ classes here.