Helen Bailey's Beautiful Birth Story!
I attended Victoria’s pregnancy yoga classes at the Yoga Tree Cheshire to prepare for the birth and it all started at my second son’s Rugbytots class. At the end of the lesson while talking to one of the parents I had a funny feeling down below....yes my waters had broken. No it wasn't a 'Hollywood Gush' but something had definitely popped, it was two weeks before my due date so came as a bit of a surprise. Luckily my mum lives close by and after a call to the husband to get 'the bag' we went to hospital for the midwife to confirm that yes my waters had broken.
After this I went back to my mums while my husband went home to sort out things like the car seat, crib, dog, etc. We weren't very well prepared as we thought we'd have a bit longer to sort things out!
My contractions started 3 hours after my waters broke and compared to my other two pregnancies came on pretty quickly. With my first pregnancy I was very nervous and spent the whole time lying down while in labour which I feel contributed to the fact that it lasted 18 hours. This time I took Victoria’s advice and kept myself moving. I put my TENS machine on, had some lunch and then watched Nottinghill,
the TENS and film really helped distract me from how powerful my contractions were getting. When the contractions started to become more intense I started to count my breathes, I'd count to 4 breathing in then to 8 breathing out and all the time repeating in my head "my body is designed to do this", this mantra really helped to keep me positive.
Only 3 hours after my contractions starting I felt it was time to go back to hospital. When I arrived I was 5cm. With gas and air and some moving about within an hour this moved to 8cm. I eventually decided to lie on the bed as I was getting a bit tired and found my most comfortable position was lay on my side with my arms wrapped around my husband.
Elliot William was born at 7.16pm only 6 hours after contractions started which was dramatically quicker than my other two sons. Some people may say it's because this is my third baby but I feel it's down to moving around, staying mobile and staying calm. My yoga breathing and mantra proved worthwhile! Can’t wait for Baby Massage!
Permission given from Helen to publish story/photograph