Hannah & Kieran’s Birth Story

From Kieran:

Our birth was induced at 41 weeks and 1 day. Waters were broken at 730am and we waited nearly 2hrs for something to happen but nothing did. So they put Hannah on the lowest dose of oxytocin drip to get things going at 915am. Contractions followed soon after and Hannah seemed to be handling them very well with bearable discomfort. Then, as if someone flicked a switch, she felt she all of a sudden needed to start pushing around midday. That’s where things got quite intense and painful for Hannah, including some tearing, but thankfully didn’t need to endure too long before giving birth to our little Aoife Grace at 115pm.

From Hannah:

The breathing was powerful in labour.. I didn’t realise how important and powerful breath work could be. I had minimal pain relief and the breathing worked so so well. I tried to use tens machine but stuffed around with it on a painful contraction.. and then I used gas for 2 contractions in transition.

Whilst giving birth was not easy, I think we found the aftermath of our hospital stay harder. Our little one was hard to settle with constant feeding demands which was difficult when learning how to breastfeed for the first time but also how to endure the initial pain of it. The midwives and support were amazing. But the confined space of a hospital room with minimal sunlight and fresh air coupled with sleep deprivation & hormonal effects following an intense & physical labour definitely had us feeling like we were struggling. In saying that we battled through to try to learn what works and what doesn’t as well as the behaviours and cues of our little one.

We are now back in the comfort of home, which feels great. After Day 1 at home we felt much more like normal humans again. it’s by no means perfect but we already feel we’re achieving more success with the little one step by step. Just thought I’d share as for us there was so much anticipation around the birth but how we felt and adapted after the birth was more challenging for us, particularly days 2-4 and maybe we didn’t plan enough for some challenges we faced in that phase as well as we did for the birth. But things are now looking up and we’re finally enjoying our time at home with our little one. If I could give anyone advice it would be focus on getting BF support early on and if something is off trust your gut..if I could go back in time I would have done some research.