Hi! It’s Heather from pregnancy yoga- finally getting my story to you nearly 11 weeks after my beautiful baby girl-Everly Grace, was born!
At 28 weeks pregnant I was told I had gestational diabetes so the plan was to induce me at 40+6 days if I hadn’t gone before then. Luckily I was able to control the diabetes with diet and all my growth scans were normal so I was still hopeful for a natural delivery.
I finished work at 38 weeks and waited very impatiently for things to start happening. At 38+4 I was offered a sweep by the consultant and jumped at the chance. Nothing happened. Two further sweeps later and my due day came and went. On Wednesday 18th November , 2 days after my due date, I woke up at 5.30am with a sore back after having a really uncomfortable night. I thought I had just slept funny so got up and decided to start my day by cleaning the kitchen. My partner came down stairs and immediately knew something was going on, even though I was in denial. It was only back ache!!! I sent him to work anyway and carried on. By about 9am I knew something was going on as my back pain was worse so I had a bath and tried to relax. As soon as I got out the bath though things seemed to have progressed. At this point I was having mild contractions but nothing too bad so phoned my partner and he came back home at 10.30am. In the meantime I had strapped myself to the tens machine, dried my hair and got the bags by the front door.
By 12.00 noon I was crawling round the living room floor. What really worked for me was counting my breaths-in for 5, out for 10, or as long as I could. Also humming as I breathed out helped. By 1pm my contractions were coming every 3 minutes and lasting for about 90 seconds. We phoned the hospital and they said to go in so we started the 40 minute journey. Up until that point I had remained calm and in control, using the breathing exercises to take me away from the pain. Five minutes in to the car journey the pain became so intense and I really felt the urge to push with every contraction. My partner managed to get me back in control and breathing deeply again and after what felt like the longest car journey of my life we arrived at the hospital.
In triage I was examined and was told my waters had gone which I hadn’t even realised. I was expecting bad news in my delirious state and thought they would tell me to go home, but I was 10cm dilated! I got taken through to the delivery suite and began pushing, using controlled deep breathing through out. The contractions and pushing were manageable but I had intense pain after each push, right at the base of my back. At one point the midwife told me to pant but I couldn’t let go of the security that the deep breathing gave me. At 3.30pm my beautiful daughter was born. Unfortunately, the cord had snapped and the placenta would not come out so it was looking like I would have to go theatre. Remaining calm I managed to get the placenta out at the last minute.
It wasn’t until afterwards that I found out I had broken my coccyx during labour. I am still receiving pain management for it and using breathing exercises every day to minimise the pain. I really am amazed at what pregnancy yoga enabled me to do. I got the drug free birth that I had hoped for and I really can’t thank you enough!
Heather
Xx
P.s almost immediately after the birth my carpel tunnel syndrome disappeared 🙂