Mil: Second Birth, Healing After Traumatic First, Water Birth, Shoulder Dystocia, Birth Centre

About this episode

Mil shares her healing journey through her second birth experience after a traumatic first birth.

  What does it feel like to go back into labour knowing everything that went wrong the first time — and come out the other side feeling like you got your birth back? In this episode of British Birthing Stories, Mil returns to share the birth of her son Billy: an NHS birth centre water birth, a shoulder dystocia, and the most healing experience of her life.   After her first birth left her with a postpartum haemorrhage, a serious infection, birth trauma, and postnatal depression, Mil was determined to do things differently second time around. She switched hospitals, switched her birth plan from a list of preferences to a set of feelings — safe, heard, in control — and fought to be approved for a birth centre birth despite her history. What followed was a labour that started calmly, progressed quickly, and then threw one final curveball: Billy's shoulder got stuck, and the midwives hauled Mil out of the bath, laid her on the floor, and freed him in what she can only describe as a wrestling move. He was briefly given oxygen, then handed over screaming. She was stitched up in ten minutes and eating toast in a fairy-lit room while her husband fell asleep beside her. &nbsp…

People in this episode

Host: Georgia McGivern

Guest: Mil

Topics covered

• birth experience
• water birth
• traumatic birth
• postpartum recovery
• shoulder dystocia
• birth centre

Keywords

• water birth
• shoulder dystocia
• birth trauma
• postnatal depression
• NHS birth centre

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NHS

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