A week before my due date, I’d had a fairly normal evening with a friend round for dinner then went to bed around 10pm only to wake a couple of hours later with some stomach cramps. I thought it might be Braxton hicks so I took a couple of paracetamol and got back into bed. I couldn’t get back to sleep and the cramps didn’t seem to be going away so I decided to just get up and have a bath at 1am! My husband asked if everything was alright and I told him yes and just to go back to sleep, I would let him know if I needed him. The bath definitely helped with the cramps but when I came out things definitely weren’t easing off and if anything, getting more intense so I thought I better wake my husband so that he could call his mum to come and look after our toddler.
While we were waiting for her to arrive I popped Love Actually on the tv (it was December!) and used the yoga breathing techniques which really helped take my mind off the contractions which were fairly frequent by this point. My mother in law arrived at our house at 3am and we set off for the Royal, the car journey was a bit uncomfortable as I’m sure my husband hit every pot hole in Edinburgh but we made it there for 4am and after a quick examination found that I was 8cm dilated!!! I’d hoped to have a water birth and as there didn’t seem to be any complications so far I was able to get straight into the birthing pool. The water actually made everything slow down and my contractions started to become less intense and frequent so I ended up getting out of the pool after about an hour to try and get things moving again – I think baby was just enjoying the big bath too much!
Once contractions became more regular again I got back in the birthing pool and using my breathing to help with the pain and some gas and air my baby boy arrived just after 8am. I was able to pick him up out of the water so he could get instant skin to skin contact which was an incredible experience. I definitely think that the breathing techniques helped keep me calm and relaxed and allowed me to tune down the pain and enjoy the experience.