Birth of Esme - 14 October 2016

*This blog post was originally published 14 February 2017*

Hi Christa, I just thought I would let you know our little princess arrived on Friday! This is Esme Florence Sophie Childs, she was born at 00:51 on the 14/10 after my waters broke at 3pm on the 13/10. She weighed 4.03kg! I was able to quite easily breathe through the first phase using the hypno birth techniques and was fully dilated by 11pm on gas only which I started at 5cm when I got in the bath (when I arrived at hospital). I had to get out of the bath when I was fully dilated as there was meconium in the waters and this brought me unstuck as I couldn't use gas in the 2nd phase and I wasn't comfortable in any "land" pushing positions. I pushed for 90 minutes and it turns out my pubic bone position was preventing her getting around the "s-bend". Esme was getting tired so we ended up having a forceps delivery and episiotomy. She wasn't hurt at all in delivery (unlike me!!!) and was in my arms within 2 pushes.

I am so grateful to have done the course as I honestly coped like a dream getting to 10cm, and I believe if I didn't have to get out of the bath and Esme didn't get stuck then I would have been able to get through the whole thing without too much trouble at all. As much as I didn't want a forceps delivery when they handed her to me and it was all over in a few minutes I was so relieved as my pushing was getting me nowhere for 90 minutes.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise!!! We really enjoyed the course and it helped both Nick and myself get through one of the most intense and rewarding days of our lives!!! Xx