Ella Adrienne Maryanto, 22/10/2019

“On Monday 21st October mum drove me to my monitoring appointment as we were overdue (41 weeks). We got hooked up to the CTG machine and everything was textbook. She was perfect. We then had an ultrasound to check the fluid. The nurse was having trouble finding the pockets of fluid so she called in a doctor to help. It was then discovered that there was no fluid, only 3cm in 1 quadrant and none in the rest. The doctor recommended to get things moving for the safety of the baby. The midwife then did an internal to check the cervix. Which was unfavourable and not softened at all. She did a stretch and sweep whilst she was doing the internal and a bit of my mucus plug came out. The midwife then booked me in to come back at 7pm that night to have the balloon inserted to commence the induction process.

So off I went home to collect my bags, have something to eat, have a nice hot shower and wait for Eda to get home. I spoke to Eda on the phone after mum and I left the hospital telling him what was happening and there was a panic in his voice. I reassured him that everything is fine, I’m fine, bubs is fine it’s just time to for her to come out soon. We went in at 7pm to have the balloon inserted and the midwife did another internal check and said we don’t need to do the balloon, as I was 2cm dilated. She said to go home, and if nothing happened to come back at 7am to have my waters broken.

At 3:30am my waters broke! We called the birth suite and they suggested to come in to have a check. We were feeling pretty relaxed and both of us were expecting to be sent home again as contractions hadn’t started. We arrived at the birth suite and by 5am contractions had started. I was quick to focus on my breathing and keeping my body relaxed. Breathing in for 20 and out for 20, keeping a nice slow pace. Eda set up the room, we had our oil diffuser, salt lamp and my music. He also helped me put the tens machine on. At 5:30am they put the hormone drip in. This made me feel anxious. I needed to keep focused on my breathing and feeling ‘safe’ in the room. They had me on the lowest setting to start with.

At 6am I was 4cm dilated. The surges had really started to ramp up. Eda helped me change positions and did some light touch massage, I was kneeling on the floor, resting on the bed. A nurse came in to up the drip. I had just finished a contraction and then another one came straight away after she up’d the drip. It was unbearable. I cried for Eda to get her to come back and put it back down. She was hesitant but she put it down for me. By this stage the tens machine wasn’t doing anything so I asked for the gas. I struggled with breathing on the gas mouthpiece and ended up frustrated with it and threw it away.

I wanted to give up. I kept my breathing going, 20 in, 20 out. Sometimes I’d catch my self in a panic breath and had to remind myself to slow everything down. All of a sudden I had this urge to push. I told the midwife and she replied, ‘no you don’t’ .. I said to her, no I really need to push. She then said, hmmm let’s get you up on the bed and have a look. The surges were really close by now, I wasn’t able to have much of a rest in between. I was leaning backwards on the bed on my hands and knees. Eda was by my side so I knew I was safe here. He reminded me to keep breathing as I was losing focus on my breathing.

Ella’s shoulder got stuck so they needed to flip me on my back. I asked why because in my head I couldn’t give birth laying on my back. The midwife firmly said we need to do this. I just had to trust her. A surge then came so I quickly forgot about being on my back. She then said we need to do a little cut to help her out. By this stage each push I was giving it my everything. I opened my eyes and suddenly there were 12 more people in the room and one of them said, your going to meet your baby really soon. In my head I was thinking, ‘yeah sure we will be here for another 12 hours’. Eda looked down and her head was peeping out, he said to me, ‘shit, she’s just there, I can see her, she will be here soon!’

I had 30 minutes of active pushing and the 1 last push I gave my absolute everything and the rest of her came out and she was then on my chest. I was almost in disbelief, her wet little body on mine I looked at Eda and said “I fucking did it!!!!” He was proud as punch. We were both instantly so in love with her and our hearts were so full! We catch ourselves staring at her all the time. We are so proud to be her parents and love her so much.

It still feels so surreal that I’m her mum and she was in my tummy for so long. I thought I’d be pregnant forever. I couldn’t have done it without Eda by my side. He made me feel so safe and trust my body to know what to do. The birth was very fast and intense with the drip and no drugs but overall I feel very positive about the experience and doing HypnoBirthing helped so much. I don’t think I would have coped anyway near as well as I did if I didn’t do HypnoBirthing. Trusting my body was my main focus and HypnoBirthing helped me achieve this. I’m so glad I did all the preparation and I feel excited to tell people how I did it.. how I birthed Ella in 3 hours ❤️”