Síle Seoige: ‘Our little boy arrived in a whoosh of pure love and utter relief’

What a whirlwind these past few weeks have been!

I am now adjusting to life as a new mom after welcoming the arrival of our little boy, Cathal. Here's how it happened: it was the night before my due date and I couldn’t sleep. I was in bad form and for some reason my tummy was sore all over. I went to bed that night with a maternity pad on; female intuition must’ve told me something was stirring as my waters broke in bed the next morning!

A post shared by Sile Seoige (@sileseoige) on Aug 22, 2017 at 5:45am PDT

Fast forward to that evening and my contractions had started. The first one felt like a hot flush and I wasn’t sure if that was the beginning or not so I got onto our Doula, the wonderful Becky Durnin from DublinFamilyDoulas.com and she confirmed that it did indeed sound like a contraction. Not long after that they became regular and there certainly wasn’t much time to enjoy all the suggestions we had heard of at our antenatal classes (eg. watch a comedy, have a sleep, take a bath, enjoy a takeaway!). By night the contractions were coming thick and fast and I felt like a wild caged animal in the car on the way into The Coombe. It was intense. Within 45 minutes of our arrival at the hospital I was 6cms dilated and the next thing I knew the midwife was running water in the birthing pool so I could get in.

A post shared by Sile Seoige (@sileseoige) on Aug 5, 2017 at 3:03pm PDT

A few hours later, I’m delighted to say that our little boy was born without the use of drugs or interventions in a whoosh of pure love and utter relief. I had such a brilliant birth team who were so supportive and respectful of my wishes to have a natural birth. My partner Damien, our doula Becky, Constanza, the midwife and my consultant Professor Deirdre Murphy. I really had the dream team. I felt cocooned in care, support and most importantly belief that I could do it, and I am so thankful and I feel so incredibly lucky to have had such a positive birthing experience.

A post shared by Sile Seoige (@sileseoige) on Aug 3, 2017 at 6:01am PDT

I had been warned not to become too attached to my birth preferences as I had been told ‘things may not work out the way you want’ but I am so delighted to say that we got what we typed up; a natural birth in the birthing pool suite in The Coombe and for that I feel really lucky. Don’t get me wrong, labour is tough - on every level. There’s no point in saying otherwise and I truly believe having experienced it, that it does women a disservice to dumb it down. But it can, and luckily in my case, it has been, a massively empowering and positive experience and one I wouldn’t change.

A post shared by Sile Seoige (@sileseoige) on Aug 6, 2017 at 8:17am PDT

Also having had a doula I would highly recommend investing in one; Becky was always at the end of the phone if I had a question or concern leading up to the birth and on the day my waters broke we were onto her often asking ‘is this normal’, ‘what should we do now’; it was great comfort to have her at the end of the phone whenever we needed for advice and reassurance. Follow Síle on… Instagam Twitter