From The Women We Support

Brydee & Baby Hallie

I found out I was pregnant the day after Valentine's Day. I am very much a planner, and I knew this journey was going to ask me to surrender control in ways I wasn't entirely comfortable with. So I prepared. I found our hypnobirthing teacher Mollie, our incredible doula Jen, and together with our midwife team, I worked towards the birth I wanted a totally unmedicated home birth.

At 40 plus 1, my waters broke in the early hours of a Saturday morning. Pete and I spent the day walking the dog, watching TV, eating a very spicy curry, and keeping the oxytocin flowing. By Sunday night, still waiting, we went to bed early. At 11:50pm I woke up knowing. I was in labour.

CONTINUE TO THE FULL STORY

Abby & Baby Francesca

Went into labour at 39+1 after a lovely pregnancy.

Woke up Saturday morning with a bit of back pain but thought nothing of it as I had been to a wedding the day before so thought I had over done it. Had a bath to try and relax my back muscles. Around 11 I realised I hadn’t felt baby moving all morning so called triage and we were invited in for monitoring. 30mins on the monitor and bubba hadn’t moved but everything else looked good, so the midwives got me to move around a bit and sure enough baby started moving, after another half an hour of monitoring we were all satisfied baby was okay and just having a relaxing morning. While I was on the monitors they picked up some tightenings but nothing more than standard Braxton hicks.

CONTINUE TO THE FULL STORY

Emily & Baby Nancy

My pregnancy with my second baby was a really smooth and straightforward journey, something I’m so grateful for. Everything went well throughout, and we were so excited when we found out we were expecting a baby girl.

During my pregnancy, Brydee was always there whenever I needed her — whether it was to talk through my plans, share my thoughts, or ease my worries. She really helped me stay as calm and relaxed as possible during what could have felt like a daunting time, and I’ll always be so thankful for that support.

CONTINUE TO THE FULL STORY

Brydee & Baby Hallie

I found out I was pregnant the day after Valentine's Day. I am very much a planner, and I knew this journey was going to ask me to surrender control in ways I wasn't entirely comfortable with. So I prepared. I found our hypnobirthing teacher Mollie, our incredible doula Jen, and together with our midwife team, I worked towards the birth I wanted a totally unmedicated home birth.

At 40 plus 1, my waters broke in the early hours of a Saturday morning. Pete and I spent the day walking the dog, watching TV, eating a very spicy curry, and keeping the oxytocin flowing. By Sunday night, still waiting, we went to bed early. At 11:50pm I woke up knowing. I was in labour.

I ran a bath and let Pete sleep for a little longer, breathing through each surge quietly in the dark. By 2am they were coming thick and fast. What I thought was every ten minutes was actually every three. Pete called Jen, who immediately said she was on her way. He called the midwife team straight after.

By 2:45am Jen and our midwife Penny had both walked through the door at exactly the same time. There was something so reassuring about that moment. Suddenly the room felt full of the right people. Jen took Pete into the kitchen to fill the pool while Penny checked my vitals. Pete, being completely and utterly Pete, had already put on the light projector, the fairy lights, and my playlist. Walking into that kitchen genuinely took my breath away. It was calm, it was beautiful, and it was exactly what I had imagined.

Getting into the pool was extraordinary. The water took every bit of pressure off my back and I felt myself sink into it completely. No pain relief. No gas and air. Just my breath, the warm water, and Pete’s voice beside me steady, calm, and constant. Every time I felt myself losing hold he brought me back. In for four, out for more. Over and over. I always thought hypnobirthing was something I was doing for myself. Watching Pete that night, I realised it had prepared him just as much as it had prepared me.

For five hours I worked through each surge in that pool, going completely into myself. I barely spoke. I just breathed and trusted my body to do what it knew how to do. And then, after five hours, came the most overwhelming, primal, unstoppable feeling the urge to push. It just took over. I didn’t decide to push. My body simply did it.

After two hours of pushing, Penny noticed the baby’s heartbeat was beginning to rise. She suggested we get out of the pool for an examination to see exactly where the baby was. I won’t lie, getting out of that water was the last thing I wanted to do. But Pete and Jen both felt it was the right call and I trusted them completely.

We moved into the living room and I got up onto the sofa for the examination. And there it was the news we needed. The baby’s head was right there. We were so close. What followed were around fifteen minutes of guided pushing on our sofa, Penny gently encouraging me, Pete’s hand never leaving mine, Jen quietly holding the space around us. And then, in our living room, on our sofa, in our home. Our baby arrived.

The moment Pete looked up at me and announced we had a girl is something I will carry with me forever. Our Hallie. Born at home, on our sofa, completely unmedicated. Not even gas and air.

I consider myself deeply lucky, but I also know that luck had very little to do with it. I trusted my body, I trusted my team, and I trusted the process. Birth doesn’t have to be something you simply endure. With the right preparation and the right people beside you, it can be one of the most empowering, beautiful experiences of your entire life.

It’s exactly why I do what I do.

Emily & Baby Nancy

My pregnancy with my second baby was a really smooth and straightforward journey, something I’m so grateful for. Everything went well throughout, and we were so excited when we found out we were expecting a baby girl.

During my pregnancy, Brydee was always there whenever I needed her — whether it was to talk through my plans, share my thoughts, or ease my worries. She really helped me stay as calm and relaxed as possible during what could have felt like a daunting time, and I’ll always be so thankful for that support.

Towards the end of my pregnancy, some of my later scans showed that she was measuring quite big, right up in the 100th centile. Because of this, I was advised about my options and the possible risks that could come with having a larger baby. I was given the choice of being induced or having a C-section, but I decided I wanted to wait as long as possible to see if our little girl would arrive in her own time.

She was due on the 24th of March, and I had an induction booked for the 21st of March just in case.

Then on the 20th of March, things started to happen on their own. I began having contractions that gradually became stronger and closer together. Me and my partner called triage, and they advised us to come into the maternity ward at Musgrove. When we arrived at around 4pm, everything started moving quite quickly. Within about 20 minutes we were in a labour room, and I was told I was already 5cm dilated.

My contractions were definitely ramping up by this point, but I tried to stay calm and focused on my breathing. I had my favourite music playing in the background and the lights dimmed, which helped create the calmest and most relaxed environment possible.

Labour progressed quite quickly after that. By around 10pm, I was 8cm dilated. I had access to a birthing pool in my labour suite, and I spent some time in there, which really helped ease the contractions and kept me feeling as calm and relaxed as I could.

Around 1am, I was told I had reached 10cm and it was nearly time to push. I used gas and air to manage the pain, which helped me so much through those final stages.

When it was time, I began pushing during my contractions, and after around 27 minutes, at 1:51am on the 21st of March, our beautiful baby girl Nancy arrived.

She weighed a healthy 8lb 14oz, and we were completely in love the moment we saw her. Thankfully she was happy and healthy, and we were both doing well. After a few hours of soaking it all in, we were able to leave the hospital at 10am and head home to Nancy’s older brother to start our family as a four.

It was such a special and empowering experience that I’ll never forget.

Abby & Baby Francesca

Went into labour at 39+1 after a lovely pregnancy.

Woke up Saturday morning with a bit of back pain but thought nothing of it as I had been to a wedding the day before so thought I had over done it. Had a bath to try and relax my back muscles. Around 11 I realised I hadn’t felt baby moving all morning so called triage and we were invited in for monitoring. 30mins on the monitor and bubba hadn’t moved but everything else looked good, so the midwives got me to move around a bit and sure enough baby started moving, after another half an hour of monitoring we were all satisfied baby was okay and just having a relaxing morning. While I was on the monitors they picked up some tightenings but nothing more than standard Braxton hicks.

I was offered an exam after the monitoring which I agreed to and found out I was 1-2cm dilated so accepted a sweep at the same time. Midwives advised me to go home and get some rest and expect things to start happening in the next 24/36hrs.

On the 20min journey home I was in a bit of discomfort but put that down to the sweep and just being a bit uncomfortable in the car (Marcus’ dodgy driving!). Once we got home I couldn’t get comfy and the pain had stepped up a bit so after observing for 30/45 mins we made the decision to call triage and head back in.

I managed to walk up to the lift and get back up to triage with Marcus’ help where we were told baby was on her way and wasn’t hanging around and they would try to get us up to delivery ward between contractions. We made it to the delivery ward where I made use of the gas and air and had an injection of pethidine. Ideally I wanted a water birth but the pool was in use so that wasn’t an option.

At this point I had another exam where they confirmed I was 9 cm dilated and soon enough it was time to start pushing. Baby arrived with not long after and I was lucky enough to only receive some grazing and no tears. My total labour and delivery time, including placenta was 3.5hrs, not bad for a first time!

I was lucky to have a very straightforward pregnancy, delivery and recovery and have to thank Brydee for her support and guidance along the way! Let’s hope it goes as smoothly second time around!

You're Not Alone

Radiant Bloom

Menu

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy is for this website radiantbloom.co.uk and served by Radiant Bloom and governs the privacy of its users who choose to use it. The policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations & requirements of the users, the website and website owners. Furthermore, the way this website processes, stores and protects user data and information will also be detailed within this policy.

The Website
This website and its owners take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of its users throughout their visiting experience. This website complies to all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy. 

Use of Cookies
This website uses cookies to better the users experience while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device. 

Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computer’s hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website. 

Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors. 

This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information http://www.google.com/privacy.html. 

Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected. 

Contact & Communication
Users contacting this website, and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the Data Protection Act 1998. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form to email submission process but advise users using such form to email processes that they do so at their own risk. 

This website and its owners use any information submitted to provide you with further information about the products / services they offer or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to any email newsletter program the website operates but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted when submitting any form to email process. Or whereby you the consumer have previously purchased from or enquired about purchasing from the company a product or service that the email newsletter relates to. This is by no means an entire list of your user rights in regard to receiving email marketing material. Your details are not passed on to any third parties.

External Links
Although this website only looks to include quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website. (External links are clickable text / banner / image links to other websites.) 

The owners of this website cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite their best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned. 

Adverts and Sponsored Links
This website may contain sponsored links and adverts. These will typically be served through our advertising partners, to whom may have detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve. 

Clicking on any such adverts will send you to the advertiser’s website through a referral program which may use cookies and will track the number of referrals sent from this website. This may include the use of cookies which may in turn be saved on your computer’s hard drive. Users should therefore note they click on sponsored external links at their own risk and this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned. 

Social Media Platforms
Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are custom to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively. 

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate/engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. This website nor its owners will ever ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email. 

This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account. 

Shortened Links in Social Media
This website and its owners through their social media platform accounts may share web links to relevant web pages. By default, some social media platforms shorten lengthy URLs [web addresses] (this is an example: http://bit.ly/). 

Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened URLs published on social media platforms by this website and its owners. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine URLs are published many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.