This is Tessa’s amazing birth story to inspire you! An induction that she managed marvellously. And here is Mark doing skin to skin with Remy.

“Dear Jo

Our baby has arrived!

As you know we were hoping for a homebirth but the baby was too snug in the womb and didn’t seem to want to come out (in spite of every effort on our part). So we were booked for induction at 40wks+12 days on Sat 26th April at Whipps Cross.

We had the induction gels done at 4.45pm. We had been told we could go home after the gels on the basis that they rarely work first time around for first time mums, so we could come back in the morning to have a 2nd round done). But we bought our hospital bags in the car in case – and thank heavens we did!

I could feel the gels get to work immediately and in less than half an hour I was having 6 contractions every 10 mins. We did the surge breathing and Mark was an absolute superstar support with each one. I stood at the side of the bed and with each wave lent down on my elbows, which worked very well for me.

In what seemed like no time at all the baby was bearing down (I’d gone from 1cm to 10cm in about 2.5 hours). So we went down to the labour ward where I got on all fours on the bed (leaning on the headboard) and began birth breathing – again with the help of darling Mark who was right there with his ‘Jobs for the Boys’ and calm encouragement.

I expected the second part to be more uncomfortable but it was a total release – it felt fantastic to feel him moving down and starting to crown – much easier than the surge stage (which in itself was manageable). We did birth breathing throughout and the midwives were wonderfully supportive (having read our birth plan they were very positive and followed Mark’s lead in encouraging me to breath the baby down).

So the long and short of it is 8.6lb baby boy born 4h15m after the induction gels were put in! No gas and air, no paracetamol even and no other intervention. We just used our Hypno breathing, music and the tens machine which was a winning combo for us. Apparently there was a little bit of tearing down below but I didn’t feel it at the time in any way.

So a huge thank you Jo for all you’ve done and for teaching us so much, so well. We are delighted with how it went!

Also a massive hats off to everyone who helped us along the way such as Chloe Redmond (Pilates), Vera Wong (reflexology & acupuncture), my midwife Jacqui Irwin and the team at Whipps Cross who did a stellar job.

And to all the Hypnomums who I met along the way, if you are still awaiting your babies rest assured you have nothing to fear – as Jo promised. See you down the pub soon! Xx :)”