The Perfect Birth of Lotus

When I caught up with Sarah and Chris for a refresher I was so excited as I knew this birth was going to be super special. So when I received this amazing birth story and Sarah said she was happy for me to share I was over the moon, I know you will love this as much as I did, they are total hypnobirthing superstars! And if you're contemplating booking a refresher this is a good reminder that it's a good idea!! Enjoy - Nic x

Hi Nic, do we have a story for you!!! Our gorgeous little girl, Lotus Mary-Ellen McCallum, arrived on the 5th January, just scraping in, being born at 23:58. Her birth was as close to perfect as you can get! We had planned to birth at the birthing centre, I was hoping for a water birth but it turned out that our dear little girl, and my body, had a very different plan in mind! I had lost a dear friend unexpectedly on New Year’s Eve. The night to the 5th I’d put our 2.5 year old son down, Chris (my partner) also went to bed giving me the house to myself. I cried many tears that night for my friend, cried the hardest I’d cried since losing her. It was very therapeutic and just what my soul needed. I got into bed around 22:30, had been in bed for about 5 minutes when I felt the first surge. I got back up out of bed, put a load of washing on and started gathering the last of the things for the hospital bag. I had the next surge during this time and was able to breath through it easily and continue on my way. Enter the 3rd surge.....1 minute and 10 seconds long! BAM! They came hard and fast after that, lasting anywhere from 40 seconds to a minute and a half, coming every 2.5 to 3.5 minutes (possibly even closer together, I wasn’t able to time them all). They were intense, I won’t lie. I breathed through them the best I could. I honestly didn’t expect the labour to be this intense so early, as it was our second child I was expecting a 5-6 hour labour.....I laugh about this now, NEVER assume anything!! After an hour of trying many different positions, and trying to let Chris get some much needed sleep, I finally woke him. I just managed to get to him between surges and could feel another coming as I placed my hand on his leg to wake him. He asked if everything was ok, all I could do was whisper “labour”. He was fantastic when he got up, I told him I didn’t think I could keep doing it and he reminded me that I was made for this. He said the next time he looked at me my face had completely changed and I looked determined. Those few words he spoke to me at that point was just what I needed. I HAVE got this, I AM made for this!! He then made a phone call to the midwife to let them know we were on our way. Then, it happened, the unmistakable urge to push! At this point I feel I should remind you that we are still at home, in Humpty Doo, 45 minutes from RDH... Our next conversation went like this... Me: “we are having a baby” Chris: “I know darling, that’s why I’m loading everything into the car” Me: “No, I mean we are having a baby NOW! Call an ambulance” He ended up ringing the midwives back who then called an ambulance. Another surge was coming and I pushed, holding our babies head (she was still in the sack at this point, membranes intact) I let Chris know, who then relayed the information. Next surge, I was letting him know we had a baby, membranes broke after her hips came out. I delivered my own baby on our bathroom floor. It was magical! I can honestly say that while I was pushing, I was pain free. The midwives were instructing Chris to get towels and to keep baby warm. We had her breathing in seconds. They asked what we had had as we had left it as a surprise, I had to check! Apparently my response was a little colourful, I don’t remember swearing but I said “get f#*ked, it’s a girl!”. They asked if we wanted to stay on the phone to them until the ambulance arrived, but we said we were fine. We got our son up to meet his little sister, pretty sure it was love at first sight! The ambulance arrived about half an hour after she was born and I had birthed the placenta before they arrived. This was funny too, after Lotus was born I asked Chris to get a container for me to birth the placenta into. He came back with the large boiler we have for cooking, I laughed and asked for something smaller, the next container was a much better size!! When the ambulance arrived we had a great laugh as they were scared to get out of the ambulance at first because of our pet pig!! They mustered up the courage and left the safety of the ambulance and came inside. They were amazed at how calm we were. How peaceful the whole situation was! They then clamped her cord, which was white by this point, and I got to cut the cord. It was perfect, my hormones, baby and body did exactly what they were supposed to do!Nothing could ever top this birth, nothing! It was beyond my wildest dreams, I got to deliver our baby all by myself. I was the first person to ever touch her To have this birth after what we had with our son, was much more than we could have ever hoped for. A grand total of about 1.5 hours from first surge, to holding our daughter! Many thanks for your time when we did the refresher course with you, Chris is adamant that it was doing the course that allowed him to remain calm during the whole thing, not many guys would have handled it as well as he did! Thank you!