Lottie's Story

I was due on 17th of August. As the days ticked by I was becoming more and more desperate to go into labour naturally, as I wanted the birth to be as natural as possible. I was trying every trick in the book to get things going, but to no avail! So on 29th of August I was booked in to the Leicester General to be induced. I was in tears the night before as I was dreading loads of medical intervention which I did not want. I had also heard a few horror stories about being induced which didn't help! Anyway, they hooked me up to a monitor for a while and then at 1 pm gave me a Propess pessary. I was keen to get off the monitor as soon as possible so that I could remain as active as possible, so as soon as I was unhooked I started pounding the grounds of the hospital. Within an hour I was having contractions, and they started coming regularly straight away - in fact within about 3 hours they were every 4 minutes! I was really concentrating on using my breath like Nerissa had taught us. I was also finding it quite useful to stamp my feet during each contraction and was trying to keep my noises to low mooing sounds! I must have been quite a sight to some of the visitors in the hospital corridors, stamping and mooing!!

By 5 hours the contractions were every 2 minutes. There was hardly a break in between! They got me into a delivery suite which was great because I could have some gas and air! That was a god send! I got up onto all fours holding onto the bed head, like we had practised in the class and I had been pushing for about 20 minutes when the midwife said that she needed to examine me so she wanted to get me on my back. I really didn't want to get on my back, as we had talked about how this could slow things down. Also the contractions were coming so thick and fast that I just didn't know how I would even do it - especially as I had so many wires on me! But I managed to get on my back and she told me that things were going well and the baby would be here soon, which helped me to keep going. But the contractions were so strong I just couldn't get back to my preferred position kneeling up. So I remembered what Nerissa had said and just flipped over on to my side. This was actually quite good as I was able to grab one ankle and pull on it during each push which really helped. At 9.03pm our beautiful little girl was born. I just couldn't believe it - in fact just writing this is making me cry!

I really think that having done your course helped me to take things in my stride and using my breath when things got intense helped me to remain focused! I now recommend any friend who is having a baby to come on your course! Thank you so much Nerissa.