‘It was an incredible experience’ – Fredrik’s Birth Story

Hi Nat

Little Fredrik arrived 7.29am Sunday 10th January. It was an incredible experience. Labour started approx 11pm the evening before and was pretty strong by 1am. Managed to calmly breath through all of the contractions whilst we remained home – Adam setting the space with candles, lavender, the affirmations playing and using a heat pack on my lower back whilst squeezing hips through contractions. We left for hospital around 5.30am at which point contractions were less than 2 minutes apart but waters still in tact.

We had a lovely gentle midwife Fiona who very calmly settled us into our room – Adam set everything up and made sure everyone read our birth preferences. Half an hour later Fiona examined me and found I was 9cm which was amazing as I was starting to struggle. At that point I requested gas and that helped me regain my breathing and took enough of an edge off the contractions for me to keep going. They called my OB and when she arrived I agreed to her breaking my waters as there was a lot of pressure and I was wanting to help the labour progress. Once it came time to push I didn’t have the energy to get up on all fours and was lying on my side on the floor. I couldn’t exactly distinguish clearly the transition as I still felt a lot of pain through the contractions.

 At that point the OB did another check and found that the little man was posterior (despite being anterior the whole way along). Thankfully she didn’t tell me at the time as this would have definitely thrown me off – I just assumed the pain and pressure was all normal. After maybe half an hour of pushing Fred’s heart rate wasn’t recovering so well between contractions so Sarah requested we get on the bed and use a vacuum to assist with the delivery.
I was completely open to this as at this stage I was really struggling to have the energy to push effectively whilst managing the pain. I think the whole ward would have heard me deliver and I squeezed the life out of Adam’s hand but a short time later we met our little man. We didn’t know the gender though I was convinced the whole time it was a boy – still was in disbelief when he finally arrived. We are so grateful for the birth experience and thank you again deeply for your guidance. Adam was amazing the whole way through – any time I started to get overwhelmed or doubtful he would reassure me. We also had the most wonderful OB and great midwives.

For little Arna it was love at first sight – she thinks he is better than Christmas! Still wakes up every morning saying ‘Freddie, Freddie, Freddie’.

So thank you again for playing such a big part in enabling us to have this experience. I’ve attached some photos for you and happy for you to share on your socials.

Best,
Emma & Adam