My Birth Stories

Let’s talk about birth.

To my mama’s preparing for birth I know you might be apprehensive. However don’t be, there is nothing more natural than bringing life into this world.

I gave birth twice. To my son in 2021 and my daughter in 2023. And let me tell you, they couldn’t have been more different.

Now, let’s look at the births in more detail.

With my son I did every hypnobirthing course, read a bunch of books and felt very prepared to bring this little dude into the world. My plan was to have a water birth and especially didn’t want any pain relief medication. I wanted it to be as natural as possible.

But… let’s just say that plan went down the drain when my water broke and 24 hours later there wasn’t much going on except for small contractions in my lower back. So we had to be induced with oxytocin.

As I had done all my research, I knew being induced wasn’t going to be easy. The contractions were going to be strong and I wouldn’t be able to do my beloved water birth. 

Nevertheless, I went forward with this new plan. It was 6am when they put the drip of oxytocin and the contractions started rolling in pretty fast and quite painful. I asked for gas and air for pain relief but it dried out my throat and I was puffing it like a cigarette. So, I just kept going but at no point the epidural crossed my mind. I was so keen on having a natural birth that I had almost removed that option from my brain. In hindsight, it would have been nice to have gone for the epidural because it was (let’s not lie) a very painful 7 hours. However, the moment that baby was in my arms and the pain was gone I was in high heaven. It was the most beautiful moment of my life. I was a mama and it was as if the last 7 hours didn’t happen.

The midwives’ trainee came up to me as she was leaving and said “this was birth number 25 and it was very special.”

I don’t know why this birth was so remarkable compared to the 24 other births she had, maybe it was because of the will I had to just keep going, exhausted after no sleep for 48 hours. Who knows.

Now, let’s look at my daughter’s birth. A very different experience!

With my daughter, I didn’t do any research, didn’t do any reading, didn’t do any breathing exercises and didn’t even have a birth plan. The only plan I had was to go with the flow and if I wanted the epidural to go for it.

On the day I had an appointment with the private gynaecologist (in Spain if you have private health insurance most people like to get seen by a private gynaecologist & the public system). We had a scan and the doctor told me the baby was weighing small and I had to be induced immediately. She also said there must have been a problem with the placenta as she was not getting the right amount of nutrients. She also did a membrane sweep without my permission. Now looking back, she shouldn’t have done that and no one should touch you or anything without your permission. Anyways, that afternoon I went to the ER to tell them I needed to be induced. (As you can imagine from my experience with my son I wasn’t delighted about being induced a second time.) I had a scan and the doctor told me the baby was perfectly normal and a good weight. So we went home. What a rollercoaster of emotions.

I was having little contractions throughout the day but that was normal because of the membrane sweep, so I didn't think too much about them. As we were having dinner with my in-laws, contractions were increasing more and more but I again didn’t think too much about them and thought they would pass. So I went to bed but quickly checked the advice on Google to when you should go to the hospital. It said “When you have regular, painful contractions lasting one minute each and occurring at least every five minutes for more than two hours”. So I started timing them and they were coming in every two minutes. I looked at my husband and thought maybe it’s best we go to the hospital and by the time we ordered the Uber my contractions were very full on and the poor Uber driver thought I was going to give birth in his car. Luckily I didn’t. In triage my water broke and the doctor asked me to put on the hospital robe but I couldn’t.

It was time to push but I couldn’t give birth in triage so an army of doctors came out of nowhere and put me in the lift. I told the doctor from triage who was holding my hand, I’m going to have this baby in the lift. Finally, I made it to the birth room and started to push and in about two seconds the baby was in my arms. I didn’t even have the time to think about painkillers.

People did say birth number 2 is faster, but I really didn’t think it was going to be that fast. I think in about an hour and a half my daughter was here and again it was the happiest moment of my life.

So to sum it all up, birth is not easy and might not go to plan. Hypnobirthing courses will sell you the idea of a natural pain free birth but I don’t think that exists (without pain relief medication). However, if you do go the natural way, you will see a side of you that is so strong, beautiful and weirdly animalistic.

Because at the end of the day we are all animals.