Mummy H says “My first thoughts (after giving birth) were how grateful I felt for a positive and fast birth experience, and my partner and I both agreed so much of that positivity came from manifestation, visualisation and vocalisation. It’s very hard to appreciate its powers until you use them with conviction and trial out how they can bring you calm and control during birth.

Hi Claire,

The birth story of my second baby is a tale of patience and positivity. It’s also a positive birth story from the perspective of an induced birth, from a mum whose been induced twice and has had nothing but good experience with birth.

My first baby was ten days overdue, and I experienced every level of intervention by induction – so I knew what to expect if my second wasn’t in a rush to arrive. So when my due date came around this time, I wasn’t anticipating anything to happen, instead I tried to book out a week of calm, oxytocin fuelled activities and jobs to do to keep me busy.

But by the time I’d been given my second sweep 4 days overdue, I had genuinely started to think the baby was never going to come out. My midwife noticed how much I was talking about my toddler, and the endless things I needed to consider for her like packing her bags, dropping her at nursery and arranging different childcare for every day the baby wasn’t arriving. She suggested my mind was perhaps occupied in mum mode, and that having time away from my daughter would get me into the headspace for birth (apparently why many labours start when the first child has gone to bed or for a sleepover!). So I kissed my little one goodbye and sent her to my grandparents for the weekend, and had my induction booked for the Monday. I spent those last two days overdue child free and feeling much more mindful of what was coming. Having the induction booked also took the pressure off trying to make labour start spontaneously- instead I focused on self-care like warm baths, my favourite movies, and even went bowling! To be perfectly honest, having a whole weekend with my partner without our toddler felt like a bloody holiday!

That Monday morning I didn’t see needing an induction as a failure, because I had never felt more prepared for birth. I was organised, calm and laughing all morning with my partner. At midday I was taken to the induction ward and had an examination, where they saw the head was extremely low and I was already 3-4cm dilated. The baby’s position was as favourable as it could be – all that was missing was the contractions! It’s all down to luck – but living proof you can have an induction without complications.

So they only had to break my waters and were happy for me to continue my labour on the midwifery ward. After briefly unpacking my bags we headed straight out to the park for a walk, as I had six hours for contractions to start spontaneously before they’d consider further induction. An hour after my waters breaking whilst buying a coffee I had my first surge which just felt like a strong period cramp – we spent the rest of the walk giggling and laughing with excitement that he was finally on his way, and knew the induction had worked.

My partner knew his role was distraction, being my voice, and “reading the room” – if I wanted a laugh, he’d make jokes. If I wanted to listen to my body, he’d stop. If I couldn’t find the words he’d try to articulate them for me. By the time we’d returned to the hospital I couldn’t breathe through my contractions, and whilst the midwives left us to unpack in our delivery suite, they began to intensify rapidly. As my husband fiddled with music, lights and bits from our suitcase, I found myself sneaking away to the toilet every few minutes to labour alone on the loo. After twenty minutes my partner caught on, and quietly fetched the midwives as he heard I couldn’t get up from the toilet. I was hiding like a cat, subconsciously wanting to be alone with the realisation it was happening, and happening fast. Eventually a lovely midwife snuck in and said “I don’t think you’re having a poo, you’re having a baby. So should we have it out here?” I gingerly accepted her suggestion.

By this point I’d only been back from our walk thirty minutes, I still had my shoes on! So my partner requested the birthing pool was filled. Meanwhile I was given gas and air which reduced my panic and gave me respite to focus on my breathing and what I needed in the space to birth. I quietly whispered my preferences to my partner – I wanted low classical music, but the lights on so I could see, I wanted firm instructions from my midwives to navigate me through delivery and focus on relaxing my body through open mouth and mooing loudly.

I knew the key to entering active labour was Calm and Control both physically and mentally and found saying my manifestations out loud really helped both re-centre my thoughts when panic set in, and also communicated my thinking to the team in the room.

After ten minutes the pool was ready, and I felt the soothing relief of the water as soon as I went in. I had one big surge in the pool in silence as I took in my new surroundings, listening to the music my partner had put on and feeling each muscle begin to untangle – at this point my whole body felt in knots, and the water untied each one of them in a matter of seconds. I heard the midwife say, “just listen to your body, and if it wants to push.” I did exactly that and took the instruction as permission to say out loud what I knew I felt in the toilet but was too scared to accept: “We’re ready.”, I announced to the room. This manifestation was a phrase I repeated to myself each night during my pregnancy, so instantly filled me with a wave of feeling strong and confident.

The midwife calmly suggested changing position from sitting to all fours in the water. I could feel how much space my legs had to stretch and open up and felt so confident this was right. This was the time. I chose my weapons to hold for the big moment – the gas and air tube in one hand, a rolled up towel in the other. I took a puff and sank my head in towel for what felt like the biggest poo of my life. His head was out and in the water – the ring of fire was here. My instinct was to howl as loud as a could until my midwife stopped me to instruct me: “stop screaming. Put that energy into your bum and push.” I knew instinctively exactly what she meant. I squished my head into my towel, took a big breath in, and told myself “down, down, down”. Gravity, inner strength and my Lucazade zero joined forces in that one moment, and he was here. Less than hour after returning from our walk, four hours since we’d arrived for our induction, we met our son Jesse James – born underwater, born to be an outlaw.

Whilst the day started with an induction via breaking waters, that was where the intervention ended. I had about 15 minutes of gas and air during birth and some for delivering the placenta. I had no stitches from birth thanks to my favourable position in the pool. After coming round from being dried off and enjoying the famous maternity ward tea and toast, my first thoughts were how grateful I felt for a positive and fast birth experience, and my partner and I both agreed so much of that positivity came from manifestation, visualisation and vocalisation. It’s very hard to appreciate its powers until you use them with conviction and trial out how they can bring you calm and control during birth.

I hope this story helps anyone expecting to be induced or have specific fears and push back on inductions. It does not have to set you down a path of negative experience and complication. Sometimes it’s all your body needs to do the rest of the work.