The Birth Story of Zeke

Sarah and Robbie found my classes in their search for antenatal education that could help them prepare for the arrival of their second baby, in a way that could give them a different birthing experience to their previous birth.  It was so wonderful to see their confidence in birth grow over the 5 weeks that I saw them.  Sarah shares their story…

Last Sunday 12th April I was 39+6 and starting to feel like this baby would never come. I had 2 stretch and sweeps the weeks previous which yielded no results aside from a bit of bleeding and cramping. My midwife and OB had gone on holidays (which I wasn’t expecting) and I was trying to keep calm as another doctor would be making the call and deciding this week whether to induce me. 

At 6.30pm we were walking our 1 year old daughter to her bed when my waters broke! I was so excited, it was finally happening. Called my parents to come and get our little girl and within 15 minutes my contractions started. They were mild and 2minutes apart when I called the hospital at 7pm. They said to head in when I felt ready. We planned to labour at home as much as we could. I jumped in the shower and thought I would take my time getting ready, 10 minutes in the shower and my contractions were intensifying and 1 minute apart. I could no longer speak through them, having to stop and breath and yell out orders to Robbie when they stopped. 

We decided to go to hospital and got there about 7.30pm. By now the contractions felt like they were on top of each other and took a long time for me to walk the halls to the birthing suite. The midwife did an exam and said I was 8cm already!! I was so calm and had just been breathing up to this point. Robbie was repeating affirmations to me and keeping me on track. I jumped in the shower and started vocalising and stomping in the water to help get through the pain. 

Before I knew it I was ready to push, wow what a sensation! I couldn’t really control it and it frightened me a bit. I had to refocus and start breathing slowly again. I was able to feel his head as I birthed and this gave me great motivation for the next push to get his shoulders out. He came into the world on the shower floor at 9.12pm on Sunday 12th April. Robbie received him and passed him to me, his face was priceless. It happened so fast that we didn’t get time to ask for the birth pool or even take our birth plan out of the hospital bag! But it was everything we wanted and more, the most incredible natural birth, completely different to my first.

The only hiccup was after birth my placenta got stuck and my cord broke away from it so I was then taken to theatre, given a spinal injection and had the placenta removed. Bit disappointing after having the no drug birth but not the end of the world.

I definitely believe our hypnobirthing helped prepare us for this amazing experience. I was able to stay relaxed and calm the entire time, hearing the birth affirmations in my head as I laboured and breathing through most of the pain. Robbie has the confidence to ask questions and make sure we got some of the things we had discussed in our birth plan (and all this time I didn’t think he was paying attention!) I was so fearful before coming to the classes and not looking forward to my birth at all. I didn’t believe I could do it, I didn’t trust my body. I’m so glad I did it and feel so elated by the whole experience.

Zeke Matthew Pearce 12.04.20 9.12pm 3.6kg our newest little love.

Sarah & Robbie x