Well, first day back at work yesterday – I was working with a midwife who was just back from maternity leave, so we agreed she would do the midwife stuff, leaving me free to do all the nice stuff. Yay! We went straight into a woman who was in early labour – it was clear when we met her that she was further along than that. She had an epidural the first time, but wasn’t keen on that this time. She had been told baby was back to back and had pain in her back throughout. My colleague examined her – 6cms dilated. I encouraged her to do the up breath and breathed with her till she got the hang of it, she was more relaxed immediately and her husband commented on it. I encouraged her to stand and lean over the bed, got some aromatherapy oils, massaged her back around the sacrum, then tried feather stroking massage on her back, got her partner to join in, so we were doing both types of massage at the same time for a while. She changed position onto all fours on the floor, then all fours on the bed. I gave her the visualisation of the opening rose. She then said she wanted to push, I encouraged her to work with her body and just let it happen. She started to doubt herself, saying the baby wasn’t going to come, I said positive affirmations like “your body knows how to do this” “trust your body”. Soon we saw the head, I encouraged her husband to look and he assured her, I encouraged him to watch the head being born as it was all happening so beautifully, which he did, then baby was born with hand alongside head, about 1 hour from when we met. Interestingly baby was not born in back to back position, but back labour throughout. Midwife passed baby through her legs, but she was so overwhelmed at that moment, I supported the baby while she gazed at him. (I have noticed that many times – the instinct is to observe for a few moments in awe before picking baby up). 20 minutes later, she delivered her placenta without drugs, tiny graze from where the hand had come out alongside head, no stitches required. Baby boy weighed 9lbs exactly. Afterwards I told her and her husband I had used hypnobirthing. They were both so happy with the experience especially compared with the first time. Baby fed and slept, very peaceful. – Jan (midwife)
