My positive birth story - a bit of a long one! 🩵

I know a lot of mums here are either anxious about the birth or questioning what to do do coming up/passing their due date so I just wanted to share my experience because I had such a positive birth with my son 🙏🏻 Back in December 2021, I was induced with a pessary with my first baby at 41+1 and she came very fast - 4h from the first contraction to having her in my arms. Because of the speed, and her having her arm by her head when coming out, I tore quite a bit and had a slow recovery. For my second baby, knowing it's our last, I really wanted to experience a spontaneous natural labour at the birthing centre, ideally with a pool. Because the first labour was so fast, we were advised to make our way to the hospital as soon as I start having contractions (we live 40mins away by night and 1.5h during traffic hours). Luckily, I started having light tightenings at 22:20 when I was 39+5. We called in our friend to look after our sleeping toddler and set off to the hospital around 23:30. We got to the birthing entre around midnight and after quick obs (temp, pulse, baby's position), we were left to it. I did a hypnobirthing course back when I was pregnant with my first, and I felt it was very useful this time round. I walked around the room with my birthing comb, listening to my positive affirmations, and felt SO in control. I loved going through each contraction, even as they were getting stronger, because I knew that each one brings me closer to meeting my son 🩵 I paced around the room calmly, went to the toilet quite often for a clear out 💩 and also had my bloody show. I didn't have these signs before the labour started! Around 3:30am I felt like I needed more relief so I got in the pool. It felt amazing! I was rocking side to side through each contraction and chatting to my husband in between them, while holding his hand through it all. When the midwife checked in on us she noticed that my temperature spiked (downside of being in the pool), so she advised me to go out around 4:45. I laboured on my knees, resting against the bed, and around 5am I entered active stage of labour and asked for gas and air. This took the edge off and helped a lot! I kept chatting to my husband and midwife (who from then on stayed with us) in between contractions and still felt very much empowered and in control. Around 5:30 I told the midwife that I was ready to push, but there was a trickle of fresh blood coming out, so she asked to examine me to make sure I'm fully dilated. I was ready and so was my body, but part of the cervix needed to be held back by her while I was pushing so that my son's head could make its way out. My waters went in the first push, then the head in the 2nd and 3rd (the midwife held the head back to prevent it all from coming out in one push and because of that I didn't tear 🙏🏻), and the rest of his body in the 4th push. There was some meconium in the waters, so the midwife pressed the emergency button after my first push, but my boy was absolutely ok and cried out as soon as he was all out. My perfect son was born at 5:45am. We had to stay for hourly observations on him for 12h because of the poo in the waters, but he was perfectly healthy and we got to go home that evening 🥰 Overall I had a really positive and empowering birth experience and I loved going through each stage of labour. I won't lie, the pushing is not pleasant and the ring of fire does sting, but it's not for long and it's so worth it once your little one is placed on your chest and you get to embrace them 🙏🏻🥹🩵 Good luck to all the mamas who are waiting for their perfect little ones, and congratulations to those who already gave birth - we're all superstars! 💪🏻❤️