I avoided an induction
My due date was 21st December and the Doctors were adamant they wanted me to be induced because I was high risk with one kidney, I had swollen fingers and high blood pressure. I had been quite insistent I didn’t want to be induced as I really wanted to use my Hypnobirthing and avoid drugs if possible but on our 36 week scan they spotted that baby may have an issue with her bladder so after a few more conversations I agreed to be induced for her sake.
A week before my due date I went for a stretch and sweep this was pretty handy really as it gave me a chance to practice my breathing and it worked a treat and was relatively painless. Shock came when the midwife told me I was already 2-3cm dilated... I hadn’t experienced any pain up until that point so was pretty pleased. She told me she would book me in for another stretch and sweep in 4 days, but she didn't think I would still be pregnant then seeing as my body had started the process already!
She was wrong! I rang the hospital on my due date at 8am and was told that labour ward was full so call back in two hours. I called back and was told the same thing. This went on all day with me getting so frustrated as I had psyched myself up for this day that by 3pm my husband dragged me out for a 2 hour walk to take my mind off of it and to help my body along (we had been eating chillies like they were going out of fashion, scoffing pineapples, pounding the pavements and having sex - all the old wives tales to help it along for the past week to no avail, so figured it would distract me if nothing else.
Finally at 9pm they told me to go in but said Labour ward was still full so I would be going to ward 21 the ‘holding ward’ until they found space for me. I arrived, was given a stretch and sweep and baby’s heart rate was monitored. I was 3cm still but they couldn’t break my waters until they could get me to labour ward so to get some sleep as it was 2am by the time this was all done. Steve went home and I had the fairly standard rubbish hospital sleep and was woken for another stretch and sweep at 6am at which point I was 3-4cm. Steve arrived and we were told that labour ward was very busy, so it could be midnight before my waters were broken so we pounded the corridors and grounds of the hospital and played cards. By the early evening I started to get what I thought might be contractions but couldn’t be sure as they weren't that painful. We decided we should both have a nap but then Steve decided he should do the Christmas food shop first as it was the 22nd December and the dream of getting home two days before Christmas was slowly fading so off he went to Waitrose, after which he would have a nap and come back. However shortly after my contractions started getting closer together, roughly 5 minutes apart so Steve skipped the nap and headed back to the hospital.
They were getting stronger and I was kneeling over the ball practicing my breathing - I had told Steve to get some sleep so he was napping on the floor using his trainers as a pillow (he refused to use the bed in case I needed it despite me insisting I was comfier on the floor!). By 2am I was pretty tired so accepted some paracetamol and dihydrocodeine tablet to help me go to sleep. It definitely took the edge off the contractions and I fell asleep but woke up in the morning to my contractions having slowed right down (7/8cm apart!) - I was gutted!! The midwife said that wasn’t anything to do with the tablets but I decided then I didn't want any more drugs just in case!
It was now Saturday 23rd December and I was praying we would get to go to labour ward today but they said they were still busy. So we carried on playing cards and walking. By about 5pm I asked the Midwife to check how I was getting on as the contractions were getting closer together and I was feeling a bit of pressure in my bum. The midwives refused they said they preferred not to check too often because of risk of infection and that I didn’t look like I was too far along. Steve explained a few times that I was doing hypnobirthing and not to read too much from my demeanour. They insisted their years of experience meant they knew I wasn't too far along. So I took myself off for a bath, where my contractions were definitely coming more frequently. Once out I asked again if the midwife could check me and reluctantly they agreed to put me on the CTG machine to see if my contractions were strong.’ They looked at my trace and were surprised that they were in fact close together and finally agreed to check me. I was 6cm and therefore in established labour so they all of a sudden started rushing around telling me to eat something, whilst they shoved a cannula in my arm (as I was strep b positive) as I had to get to labour ward ASAP! It took all I had to not smirk and tell them I told them so! It was 9pm so Steve ran and got us a chicken burger and chips which we both scoffed whilst packing all my stuff and then left for labour ward. I asked if there was a room with a pool which thankfully there was. The birthing suite was a lovely rooms with gorgeous down lighters that changed colours so I hopped in the pool with the lights low and relaxed. I was in there for a few hours (I lost track of time), but contractions were coming thick and fast. I had a little bit of gas and air for the last bit but other than that my breathing got me through my contractions quite comfortably. My husband stayed with me holding my shoulders, reminding me to relax and breathing with me when I needed it - he was fantastic and really felt part of it. I took myself away to the beach in my head and really didn’t struggle getting to 10cm, although I was listening to Michael Buble Christmas songs instead of scripts - I was just in that kind of mood! When I felt the urge to push however I could the resist and wasn't able to do the ‘breathing the baby out’, I just had to give in and push.
After a while of pushing in the pool my knees started hurting (old netball injuries means I can’t kneel for long on hard surfaces) but the midwives were baffled that whilst trying to push out a baby it was my knees that were hurting, so I hopped on the bed and knelt there for a while but then decided to try lying on my side. After a while my back was hurting so I lay straight with my feet on little paddles to give me something to push against and therefore get a stronger push. I was pushing for about an hour and a half in total and was so exhausted but when eventually the head popped out I didn't even realise, I felt something but it wasn't a pain! She came out with the next contraction and our baby Willow was born at 4.55am on Christmas Eve.
I was so amazed by the whole experience. I had been in control of my body throughout and my husband was absolutely incredible and part of it the whole way, reassuring me I was doing amazingly, explaining anything I couldn’t to the midwives and just being incredibly calm and supportive.
My birth that was absolutely magical, so calm and controlled that it really was quite a wonderful experience and something I don't think I would have achieved without Hypnobirthing! Thank you Annette.
Second baby
Will and I have a lovely baby boy, who we named Ralph. He is 6 months old now (nearly 7m) and a very smiley young man.
At about 9pm on the day before my due date, I turned to my husband and said to him "you should get yourself to bed on time, I think tonight might be the night". We went to bed as normal at around 10pm, and though I was lying in the dark and dozing a little, I was beginning to feel some squeezing through my tummy. I did wonder if it was imagined because I'd had mild tummy pains before and it was the day before due date after all.
At 10.30pm I decided to call my parents. They live a 2 hour drive away and we had agreed that they would come up if I thought I was in labour so that they could be in the house to look after my toddler, as I was planning a hospital birth. The squeezing was continuing, and although it was completely manageable I was feeling the need to get out of bed and do some relaxing breathing. At this point I was unsure still whether I was in labour and if so, how pronounced it was, but I decided I would rather be safe than sorry. They arrived at around midnight. I had been in and out of bed, sometimes lying in the foetal position in the darkness next to my sleeping husband, listening to hypnobirthing scripts on my headphones and breathing along, sometimes pacing the bathroom.
My labour progressed until I was having some trouble keeping the breathing smooth. At the peak of contractions I would lose focus and instead end up catching my breath and the "mooing" noises I had been using to regulate my breathing were becoming more and more like screams! At around 3am I asked my husband to take me into the hospital. By that point the contractions were very strong and I was starting to feel as if they were a bit much. I was managing still, but felt I wanted to be nearer to midwives. By now there was no doubt that I was in labour. This was my second labour, and my toddler was also born using hypnobirthing techniques. My first labour was over 30 hours and I coped really well all the way through, using some gas & air in the last 10 hours. As I was only about 4 hours into this labour when I was starting to lose the breathing control, I was worried that I wasn't coping as well as I had the first time, and was a little apprehensive of how I would manage in the hours to come. With a toddler around we had not been practising nearly as much as we had before the birth of our first child.
I need not have lost confidence in myself. On the way down the stairs I got on my hands and knees and started to feel as though I was bearing down. My husband later told me that he saw my parents' alarmed faces, concerned that I might have a baby on the staircase. We got in the car and I found the contractions really strong, and felt that I needed to shout my way through them. My husband was driving, very relaxed, to the hospital. We later have laughed together that he just thought I was being a bit melodramatic, so he was driving quite calmly to hospital. When we arrived, I was at the stage of labour where I couldn't do anything else except focus on managing contractions, which meant I was making a mess of the intercom, so the midwife came out to the car park to meet us. She took one look at me, and took me to the nearest bed. I got undressed immediately and to my great surprise (I thought I was just at the beginning of my birth) the midwives told me that they could see my baby's head! They had no need to examine me. My waters broke as I climbed up onto the bed, and immediately began birthing in earnest. I had only been in hospital 20 minutes before my son came into the world.
I remember laying on the bed after his birth, suddenly aware of the bright lights, the room full of staff, and the fact that I was small, naked, messy, pale and flabby. I repeated over and over "I'm very shocked, I'm very shocked". Due to my previous long labour, I hadn't been mentally prepared that my baby would some so soon. But, on reflection, my second birth was just what I wanted. I had given birth with no pain relief, no examinations and no interference. The only improvement would have been a little more time to acclimatise in hospital before his arrival! Kind regards Amy
First baby a normal birth.
I wanted to thank you for giving us the tools to get through the labour with Hypnobirthing. I have no doubt that Hypnobirthing played a huge part of the safe arrival and development of our little boy. Chris and I went into the sessions sceptical but wanting some sort of educational understanding of what labour might entail and how to cope. Finishing the course we both felt like we had all the tools to get us through it and I had a sense of calm and acceptance of labour. And that my body really would know what to do. I was almost looking forward to it.
So one gloomy Saturday morning I woke up early and decided to have a long shower and pamper myself. Chris and I had brunch planned in Windsor and then a walk around the Great Park. Finally by 10:30am I was ready and walking down the stairs to leave. Within minutes I had started to have my first surge. So Hypnobirthing was called into action and I got the living room ready for a relaxing ambiance. I told Chris I needed reassurance and rang the Birth Centre. I got a very nice midwife on the phone who talked me through what I was feeling. While my surges were regular their duration was inconsistent. So I was advised to take two panadol and have a bath. With this reassurance Chris ran we a warm bath, put our relaxation music on. I was using a colour changing duck for my visualisation. I was having stronger surges and struggling on the first breathe of these, Chris would count me into the out breathe and I would be able to control the in and out after that. He was fantastic and coaching me through my breathing and reassuring me I was doing everything right and was amazing. During this time he had taken over the timing of surges and was told to call the hospital back when we were having 4 in 10 minutes. He was up to 3 in 5 minutes so he called them again at 1pm. The midwife on the phone decided they would like to assess me and to bring me in. We got to the hospital at 2ish. Chris helped me out and grabbed my notes, Surge after surge, we finally got to the door and was buzzed into the Birthing Centre where we were asked to take a seat. I instantly had another surge and clung to Chris. The midwife saw this and took us straight to the assessment room, while she went to gather her things I had got on the floor on my all fours and was breathing through my next surge. The midwife offered me gas and air which I accepted. Then that was it, labour suddenly became bearable. Surges were easy. My head felt good and everything was alright. The midwife wanted to do a check to see how dilated I was, once all my clothes were off the next surge I had brought with it a natural urge to push, so through gritted teeth I was shouting 'pushing, I'm pushing'.
Chris was by my side counting and telling me positive things. By this point it was just noise but safe noise, his hand firmly in mine and in that second my entire world had changed and I was holding something so precious. I looked at Chris and he looked at me, we didn't say anything our eyes told the story. Harrison William was born at 3:23pm by natural birth. I was in the hospital just over an hour and in labour for just over 5 hours.
I have no doubt that Hypnobirthing played a part in the safe, quick birth of our son. I was fully dilated with no pain relief using breathing to get me through it. I couldn't have done it without Chris, he coached me to the end. I'd say it's almost more important for the partners to know than it is the mothers. Hypnobirthing is an amazing team effort and I recommend it to anyone who is pregnant.
Thank you so much for giving us the greatest tool to get through childbirth.
Love Alice, Chris & Harrison (January 2016).
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Birth an enjoyable experience
Thank you so much for your help!! The breathing techniques were amazing and I couldn't have done so well early on as I did without them! My waters broke at 3am and unfortunately they were green so I had to go in and be monitored. This in turn meant that I had to have the drug (I can never remember the name) to make it all quicken up to get her out. As I told you I'm not good with needles but again the breathing and kind of meditation that I practiced really, really helped!!! Once my waters break my contractions come quick and strong from the start anyway - this happened with my first baby too (every 2-3 mins), so I had an epidural as with the drug making them stronger anyway I was losing it a little. The midwives were amazing! When it was time to push I could feel everything. Visualising what you had taught me about the birth and how the baby works its way round, I really didn't do much pushing and she did most of it by herself! It was truly amazing!!! So although my birth wasn't as drug free as I would have liked at first I actually couldn't have asked for better in the end. Thank you again! It just goes to show, even if it isn't as perfect as you had pictured it to be (in the amazing birthing centre that looked more like a spa than anything else) it can still just be as positive.
Claire
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Pain Free Birth
My waters broke the night before, and contractions started a few hours later. The hypnobirthing really helped with the breathing. We decided to go into Royal Berks because I felt a reduction in fetal movement. I was actually having contractions and didn't realise. We took the team by surprise as I went from 5cm to delivery in less than an hour with some gas and air.
We gave birth in triage as there was no time to get me to a delivery bed.
Thank you for your great support and confidence, it made a huge difference to us. We were totally overwhelmed with the experience of the labour and feel very grateful for her safe, quick and almost pain free arrival.
Thank you Tara.
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Birth With Haemolytic Strep B
With my first baby I had a horrible birth and I left it 4 years to try for another baby as I was so scared of labour again. Thank goodness I found Annette and I attended Annette's 'women only' hypnobirthing course. I am so thankful that I did! I listened to the CD frequently and practised my breathing every day. After reading the book I could see how my first labour had gone so horribly wrong. I was determined that my second would be completely different, and I am pleased to say that it was!
I began having cramps on the Monday after having my show in the morning. On the Tuesday morning I was having surges every 15 minutes but they were not strong. My husband and I took the dog for a long walk to move things along but the surges kept coming and going. My mum arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we took a long walk to our local pub with the rest of the family and sat in the pub garden, then a long walk home again. By Tuesday evening I was having surges every 5 minutes and we went to Reading birth centre. They confirmed that I was not yet in established labour so I decided to go home again. On Wednesday, my surges were 4 mins apart so we decided to go back, and I felt myself panic that I wouldn't be dilated and would be sent home again. The adrenaline made all the surges stop and by the time we got to Reading I had not had any surges for 20 minutes so we turned straight back round and went home. I felt very deflated by this point and thought that labour would never properly start! We went home and I had a short sleep and some dinner and then everything started again. This time they were much stronger and I created a calm environment at home and sniffed my clary sage and bounced on my birthing ball. We decided not to make another trip to hospital until we were certain I was in established labour, so once surges were 2 minutes apart we set off.
They examined me upon arrival and I was so relieved when they said I was 5 cm and could have a room in the birth centre. I had Group B Strep so I had my intravenous drip and once it was finished they allowed me into the bath and gave me gas and air to take the edge off the surges. I stayed in the bath for what must have been a couple of hours and then I was keen to change position. I got out and the midwife helped me try some different positions as I felt at this stage I was beginning to struggle. I know now that this was the transitional stage and before long my waters broke and I was ready to start pushing.
Louis George was born just 4.5 hours after arriving at the birth centre and I had no other pain relief besides gas and air. My birth went exactly as I had imagined it during my hypnobirthing and the breathing techniques proved invaluable. Its amazing how breathing properly during surges can make them so much more bearable and keep you calm and relaxed.
Thank you Annette for all of your knowledge and support. It helped prepare me for birth and made my calm, natural birth possible.
Sophie, 2015.
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A perfect birth.
Stewart and I thought the techniques you showed us were more than invaluable. They allowed us to have a straight forward natural birth without any medical intervention, apart from a little gas and air.
I went in to labour in the early hours of Monday 22nd September, it was very slow going and I was only having a few surges an hour.. By midday on Monday I was having more regular surges and managed to stay relaxed by breathing through each surge and taking the edge off with a tens machine. Stewart and I were very excited; at last we would be meeting our baby. The midwife at Wexham hospital confirmed that the first phase could be slow and take up to several days.
On Tuesday, it was pretty much the same. I managed to go for a walk with Stewart in the afternoon and that helped take my mind off what was happening. We ate and drank to keep our strength up and it did feel like the last 2 days had really slowed down. At 4pm my waters broke after having a bath and the surges picked up their intensity, by 6pm they were coming every few minutes and lasting 60 to 90 seconds long. I felt ready to go to the hospital and so Stewart phoned Wexham. I admit once the waters broke I did feel quite anxious and fearful of having the baby at home.
The drive took 20 mins or so and once we got to the birthing unit at Wycombe, I was just relieved. They made us feel very welcome and the birthing room was really nice and the place was quiet and dim, just as we wanted.
At around 8.30pm the midwife and trainee midwife confirmed I was only 2cm dilated. I was extremely tired and deflated by then, this first phase of labour had been dragging on for 2 whole days and we just wanted to meet our baby. They left us alone for several hours and I managed to get back into my zone and we listened to music. The next couple of hours, the surges got more intense and I was pushing the boost button on my tens machine at this stage. However I never felt out of control and Stewart was an immense help, keeping me focused on my breathing and massaging me. At 10pm, the midwife examined me again and said I was now 3cm dilated but very soft and so she suggested I sit on a birthing stool and then have a soak in the bath to help ease the pain. The birthing pool was occupied by another admission, who was 10cm dilated and so I had to wait for her to deliver etc.
The birthing stool and the soak in the birth did the trick, I felt a deep bearing down feeling that I had not experienced before. I did feel that I needed some pain relief at this stage and called for the midwife. She examined me at 10pm and said I was now 8cm but suggested I carry on for a bit longer as I was nearly now. Eventually they did give me some gas and air during the final stage. In the end I adopted the position of being on my hands and knees and thankfully Evelyn Kaur Rose Sidey was born on Weds 24th Sept at 3.02am.
It was absolutely magical, meeting our baby daughter as she let out a cry and then appeared to look at us. She was so calm and content when I put her to my chest.
Thanks again for the wonderful course you really did help us achieve a manageable birth.
Take care
Mindy & Stewart
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First baby
Jake William Barrett arrived last Saturday, one week earlier than expected. He is just perfect and Darren and I are very proud parents. We had a fairly straight forward birth, as things go. I started having cramps on Wednesday night and into Thursday. On Thursday afternoon I had 'the show' and by Thurs evening I was contracting every 10 mins. This carried on for about 24 hours, during which time I laboured at home listening to hypnobirthing tapes and my spotify playlist, taking baths and watching snippets of Glastonbury. Darren read me some scripts and I used the breathing techniques and a clary sage soaked napkin to keep me comfortable at home for as long as possible (that stuff is seriously amazing, it's like a natural sedative).
We went to Stoke Mandeville at 2am on Saturday morning and I was 6cm dilated on arrival. The pool room was available from 3am so we were able to create a lovely relaxed environment with aromatherapy oils in the pool, electric candles and chilled music. I laboured in the pool for 2 hours with very strong contractions. the breathing techniques, Darren's support and a little gas and air were brilliant at this point. my waters broke at 5am and from here my body completely took over, pushing on it's own. I tried to do J breathing to breathe him down but the little man had his hands up by his head so he needed some old fashioned pushing to encourage him into the world.
I needed some stitching due to the little man coming out like a boxer with his hands around his face, but the perineum massage definitely worked, no tearage in that area!
I definitely credit the hypnobirthing for helping me feel relaxed during the whole process and to manage the pain without extra pain relief. It also meant Darren played a really active role in helping to keep me relaxed and breathing, which really helped.
Annette, thank you for the education, techniques and advice. It's greatly appreciated!
Andrea and Darren
____________________________________________________________________________________________We were not ready, but baby was ready to join us
We were looking forward to spending a few days alone in our new home, before our baby arrives!
Our baby was due on 18th of July (Saturday) so we decided to move into our new place on Thursday night, as the building work hadn't finished on some areas of the house but we got the annex finished and had some of our stuff in there so we could live there temporarily. We thought moving in a couple of days before baby was due would give us some time to adapt and to get things settled. Thursday at 4am I woke up and I was having irregular surges and part of my plug (the show) was gone. I googled It and it said that if surges were irregular it didn't mean you were in labour, so because I was moving that day and I wanted to predict things I kept tracking my surges on an app, and was up until about 10am and then I fell asleep for like 30 minutes…..
The whole day I had irregular surges, sometimes they were more regular and sometimes irregular, and then the rest of my plug came out during the day. I kept tract of my surges on an app the whole day, which was a big mistake.
At 8pm Sama arrived home from work, we decided to go to the birth centre just to check my progress and I was 3cm dilated (I was a bit disappointed as I thought I would be further along so I stopped tracking the surges). We didn’t stay at the birth centre we went home to our new house (we had been staying with Sama’s grandparents before) and see if things would progress. I had a bath, and at around 12pm Sama said we should go back to the birth centre, I was refusing to go because I thought I hadn't progressed. When the midwife examined me I was 7cm dilated. I was so glad to hear my progress, we stayed at the birth centre and I used the birth pool.
At 3:50am our little one was born, I did push towards the end, I didn't know that pushing could affect the baby (he had a bloodshot eye and the midwife said it was due to all the pushing). I wouldn't have pushed so hard, if I had known. I was very tired probably because I had spent the whole day tracking my contractions (totally what hypnobirthing is not about) I just wanted to hold my precious one in my arms. I did have a tear and needed stitches but it wasn't on the perineal it was up on the vulva, thanks to the perineal massage.
I'm happy I got to have a natural water birth and I’m thankful my baby is healthy and feeds well.
Now that I look back it was very quick and I was relaxing through my surges, when I didn’t do the breathing it was painful but bearable, when I relaxed and did the breathing I would nearly fall asleep in the birthing pool......
Giovanna and Sama
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First baby “a fantastic experience” Kate’s experience of how she birthed her son.
In my true style of cutting it fine, I started my surges 06.50am on the first day of mat leave (39w+5d) at home in bed, assumed they were Braxton Hicks, as I hadn't had any of them yet & had quite fancied a couple of days to finish sorting the house. Assuming we'd have a long labour 'the bag' was still not packed & poor J was running around grabbing bits for me (needless to say we never even opened the bag before I gave birth!) I found the on fours position on stairs, kitchen & dining room (w pillow under knees for a bit of comfort) worked for me during contractions. The surges were surprisingly regular so I asked J to write down & look for a pattern, turned out we were having contractions every 4mins lasting 45-90sec (from what we can remember) by half 7, so we called Stoke labour ward, who suggested eating/shower ... 45m later I decided to call Wycombe Birth Centre (5min door to door from home) they said I could go in & be checked there, so we went.
I had a contraction in the street & 2or 3 in car during rush hour (8.44am) ! Within 15m of leaving home I was settled in Wycombe birth centres room being checked out by midwives (who were superb I would like to add) they did my checks between surges. I kept myself so relaxed (with reassuring words from Jonny & me truly believing 'each surge brings me closer to meeting baby ' & I also choose to keep my eyes closed for 99% of the birthing experience to block out anything else going on) I was fully dilated by 9am. Well done hypnobirthing classes!
They filled the pool & as soon as I got in the pains I'd been feeling in my back were alleviated. I went in the frog position grabbing bars & Jonny supporting my head from going in water (I was v tired by this point) for the next maybe hour & then at the very end flipped over to my back for the head & shoulders popping out, a 'new position' did help me with the last few pushes. Baby Freddy's head appeared at 11.44am & with one last big push he was born & passed straight up to my chest, to be cuddled :) after that I got out pool & laid on my back for skin to skin & fed baby whilst midwives checked out downstairs, the placenta was delivered naturally (hardly noticed & gravity helped on birthing stool). I got a few tears, so in hindsight I'd recommend perennial massage.
Anyhow this our story, we were incredibly lucky & I got through the whole experience without any drugs/gas… as I'd wanted to, I think it's important share the good stories.
Kate, Jonny & Baby Freddy __________________________________________________________________________________________
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My due date was 21st December and the Doctors were adamant they wanted me to be induced because I was high risk with one kidney, I had swollen fingers and high blood pressure. I had been quite insistent I didn’t want to be induced as I really wanted to use my Hypnobirthing and avoid drugs if possible but on our 36 week scan they spotted that baby may have an issue with her bladder so after a few more conversations I agreed to be induced for her sake.
A week before my due date I went for a stretch and sweep this was pretty handy really as it gave me a chance to practice my breathing and it worked a treat and was relatively painless. Shock came when the midwife told me I was already 2-3cm dilated... I hadn’t experienced any pain up until that point so was pretty pleased. She told me she would book me in for another stretch and sweep in 4 days, but she didn't think I would still be pregnant then seeing as my body had started the process already!
She was wrong! I rang the hospital on my due date at 8am and was told that labour ward was full so call back in two hours. I called back and was told the same thing. This went on all day with me getting so frustrated as I had psyched myself up for this day that by 3pm my husband dragged me out for a 2 hour walk to take my mind off of it and to help my body along (we had been eating chillies like they were going out of fashion, scoffing pineapples, pounding the pavements and having sex - all the old wives tales to help it along for the past week to no avail, so figured it would distract me if nothing else.
Finally at 9pm they told me to go in but said Labour ward was still full so I would be going to ward 21 the ‘holding ward’ until they found space for me. I arrived, was given a stretch and sweep and baby’s heart rate was monitored. I was 3cm still but they couldn’t break my waters until they could get me to labour ward so to get some sleep as it was 2am by the time this was all done. Steve went home and I had the fairly standard rubbish hospital sleep and was woken for another stretch and sweep at 6am at which point I was 3-4cm. Steve arrived and we were told that labour ward was very busy, so it could be midnight before my waters were broken so we pounded the corridors and grounds of the hospital and played cards. By the early evening I started to get what I thought might be contractions but couldn’t be sure as they weren't that painful. We decided we should both have a nap but then Steve decided he should do the Christmas food shop first as it was the 22nd December and the dream of getting home two days before Christmas was slowly fading so off he went to Waitrose, after which he would have a nap and come back. However shortly after my contractions started getting closer together, roughly 5 minutes apart so Steve skipped the nap and headed back to the hospital.
They were getting stronger and I was kneeling over the ball practicing my breathing - I had told Steve to get some sleep so he was napping on the floor using his trainers as a pillow (he refused to use the bed in case I needed it despite me insisting I was comfier on the floor!). By 2am I was pretty tired so accepted some paracetamol and dihydrocodeine tablet to help me go to sleep. It definitely took the edge off the contractions and I fell asleep but woke up in the morning to my contractions having slowed right down (7/8cm apart!) - I was gutted!! The midwife said that wasn’t anything to do with the tablets but I decided then I didn't want any more drugs just in case!
It was now Saturday 23rd December and I was praying we would get to go to labour ward today but they said they were still busy. So we carried on playing cards and walking. By about 5pm I asked the Midwife to check how I was getting on as the contractions were getting closer together and I was feeling a bit of pressure in my bum. The midwives refused they said they preferred not to check too often because of risk of infection and that I didn’t look like I was too far along. Steve explained a few times that I was doing hypnobirthing and not to read too much from my demeanour. They insisted their years of experience meant they knew I wasn't too far along. So I took myself off for a bath, where my contractions were definitely coming more frequently. Once out I asked again if the midwife could check me and reluctantly they agreed to put me on the CTG machine to see if my contractions were strong.’ They looked at my trace and were surprised that they were in fact close together and finally agreed to check me. I was 6cm and therefore in established labour so they all of a sudden started rushing around telling me to eat something, whilst they shoved a cannula in my arm (as I was strep b positive) as I had to get to labour ward ASAP! It took all I had to not smirk and tell them I told them so! It was 9pm so Steve ran and got us a chicken burger and chips which we both scoffed whilst packing all my stuff and then left for labour ward. I asked if there was a room with a pool which thankfully there was. The birthing suite was a lovely rooms with gorgeous down lighters that changed colours so I hopped in the pool with the lights low and relaxed. I was in there for a few hours (I lost track of time), but contractions were coming thick and fast. I had a little bit of gas and air for the last bit but other than that my breathing got me through my contractions quite comfortably. My husband stayed with me holding my shoulders, reminding me to relax and breathing with me when I needed it - he was fantastic and really felt part of it. I took myself away to the beach in my head and really didn’t struggle getting to 10cm, although I was listening to Michael Buble Christmas songs instead of scripts - I was just in that kind of mood! When I felt the urge to push however I could the resist and wasn't able to do the ‘breathing the baby out’, I just had to give in and push.
After a while of pushing in the pool my knees started hurting (old netball injuries means I can’t kneel for long on hard surfaces) but the midwives were baffled that whilst trying to push out a baby it was my knees that were hurting, so I hopped on the bed and knelt there for a while but then decided to try lying on my side. After a while my back was hurting so I lay straight with my feet on little paddles to give me something to push against and therefore get a stronger push. I was pushing for about an hour and a half in total and was so exhausted but when eventually the head popped out I didn't even realise, I felt something but it wasn't a pain! She came out with the next contraction and our baby Willow was born at 4.55am on Christmas Eve.
I was so amazed by the whole experience. I had been in control of my body throughout and my husband was absolutely incredible and part of it the whole way, reassuring me I was doing amazingly, explaining anything I couldn’t to the midwives and just being incredibly calm and supportive.
My birth that was absolutely magical, so calm and controlled that it really was quite a wonderful experience and something I don't think I would have achieved without Hypnobirthing! Thank you Annette.
Second baby
Will and I have a lovely baby boy, who we named Ralph. He is 6 months old now (nearly 7m) and a very smiley young man.
At about 9pm on the day before my due date, I turned to my husband and said to him "you should get yourself to bed on time, I think tonight might be the night". We went to bed as normal at around 10pm, and though I was lying in the dark and dozing a little, I was beginning to feel some squeezing through my tummy. I did wonder if it was imagined because I'd had mild tummy pains before and it was the day before due date after all.
At 10.30pm I decided to call my parents. They live a 2 hour drive away and we had agreed that they would come up if I thought I was in labour so that they could be in the house to look after my toddler, as I was planning a hospital birth. The squeezing was continuing, and although it was completely manageable I was feeling the need to get out of bed and do some relaxing breathing. At this point I was unsure still whether I was in labour and if so, how pronounced it was, but I decided I would rather be safe than sorry. They arrived at around midnight. I had been in and out of bed, sometimes lying in the foetal position in the darkness next to my sleeping husband, listening to hypnobirthing scripts on my headphones and breathing along, sometimes pacing the bathroom.
My labour progressed until I was having some trouble keeping the breathing smooth. At the peak of contractions I would lose focus and instead end up catching my breath and the "mooing" noises I had been using to regulate my breathing were becoming more and more like screams! At around 3am I asked my husband to take me into the hospital. By that point the contractions were very strong and I was starting to feel as if they were a bit much. I was managing still, but felt I wanted to be nearer to midwives. By now there was no doubt that I was in labour. This was my second labour, and my toddler was also born using hypnobirthing techniques. My first labour was over 30 hours and I coped really well all the way through, using some gas & air in the last 10 hours. As I was only about 4 hours into this labour when I was starting to lose the breathing control, I was worried that I wasn't coping as well as I had the first time, and was a little apprehensive of how I would manage in the hours to come. With a toddler around we had not been practising nearly as much as we had before the birth of our first child.
I need not have lost confidence in myself. On the way down the stairs I got on my hands and knees and started to feel as though I was bearing down. My husband later told me that he saw my parents' alarmed faces, concerned that I might have a baby on the staircase. We got in the car and I found the contractions really strong, and felt that I needed to shout my way through them. My husband was driving, very relaxed, to the hospital. We later have laughed together that he just thought I was being a bit melodramatic, so he was driving quite calmly to hospital. When we arrived, I was at the stage of labour where I couldn't do anything else except focus on managing contractions, which meant I was making a mess of the intercom, so the midwife came out to the car park to meet us. She took one look at me, and took me to the nearest bed. I got undressed immediately and to my great surprise (I thought I was just at the beginning of my birth) the midwives told me that they could see my baby's head! They had no need to examine me. My waters broke as I climbed up onto the bed, and immediately began birthing in earnest. I had only been in hospital 20 minutes before my son came into the world.
I remember laying on the bed after his birth, suddenly aware of the bright lights, the room full of staff, and the fact that I was small, naked, messy, pale and flabby. I repeated over and over "I'm very shocked, I'm very shocked". Due to my previous long labour, I hadn't been mentally prepared that my baby would some so soon. But, on reflection, my second birth was just what I wanted. I had given birth with no pain relief, no examinations and no interference. The only improvement would have been a little more time to acclimatise in hospital before his arrival! Kind regards Amy
First baby a normal birth.
I wanted to thank you for giving us the tools to get through the labour with Hypnobirthing. I have no doubt that Hypnobirthing played a huge part of the safe arrival and development of our little boy. Chris and I went into the sessions sceptical but wanting some sort of educational understanding of what labour might entail and how to cope. Finishing the course we both felt like we had all the tools to get us through it and I had a sense of calm and acceptance of labour. And that my body really would know what to do. I was almost looking forward to it.
So one gloomy Saturday morning I woke up early and decided to have a long shower and pamper myself. Chris and I had brunch planned in Windsor and then a walk around the Great Park. Finally by 10:30am I was ready and walking down the stairs to leave. Within minutes I had started to have my first surge. So Hypnobirthing was called into action and I got the living room ready for a relaxing ambiance. I told Chris I needed reassurance and rang the Birth Centre. I got a very nice midwife on the phone who talked me through what I was feeling. While my surges were regular their duration was inconsistent. So I was advised to take two panadol and have a bath. With this reassurance Chris ran we a warm bath, put our relaxation music on. I was using a colour changing duck for my visualisation. I was having stronger surges and struggling on the first breathe of these, Chris would count me into the out breathe and I would be able to control the in and out after that. He was fantastic and coaching me through my breathing and reassuring me I was doing everything right and was amazing. During this time he had taken over the timing of surges and was told to call the hospital back when we were having 4 in 10 minutes. He was up to 3 in 5 minutes so he called them again at 1pm. The midwife on the phone decided they would like to assess me and to bring me in. We got to the hospital at 2ish. Chris helped me out and grabbed my notes, Surge after surge, we finally got to the door and was buzzed into the Birthing Centre where we were asked to take a seat. I instantly had another surge and clung to Chris. The midwife saw this and took us straight to the assessment room, while she went to gather her things I had got on the floor on my all fours and was breathing through my next surge. The midwife offered me gas and air which I accepted. Then that was it, labour suddenly became bearable. Surges were easy. My head felt good and everything was alright. The midwife wanted to do a check to see how dilated I was, once all my clothes were off the next surge I had brought with it a natural urge to push, so through gritted teeth I was shouting 'pushing, I'm pushing'.
Chris was by my side counting and telling me positive things. By this point it was just noise but safe noise, his hand firmly in mine and in that second my entire world had changed and I was holding something so precious. I looked at Chris and he looked at me, we didn't say anything our eyes told the story. Harrison William was born at 3:23pm by natural birth. I was in the hospital just over an hour and in labour for just over 5 hours.
I have no doubt that Hypnobirthing played a part in the safe, quick birth of our son. I was fully dilated with no pain relief using breathing to get me through it. I couldn't have done it without Chris, he coached me to the end. I'd say it's almost more important for the partners to know than it is the mothers. Hypnobirthing is an amazing team effort and I recommend it to anyone who is pregnant.
Thank you so much for giving us the greatest tool to get through childbirth.
Love Alice, Chris & Harrison (January 2016).
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Birth an enjoyable experience
Thank you so much for your help!! The breathing techniques were amazing and I couldn't have done so well early on as I did without them! My waters broke at 3am and unfortunately they were green so I had to go in and be monitored. This in turn meant that I had to have the drug (I can never remember the name) to make it all quicken up to get her out. As I told you I'm not good with needles but again the breathing and kind of meditation that I practiced really, really helped!!! Once my waters break my contractions come quick and strong from the start anyway - this happened with my first baby too (every 2-3 mins), so I had an epidural as with the drug making them stronger anyway I was losing it a little. The midwives were amazing! When it was time to push I could feel everything. Visualising what you had taught me about the birth and how the baby works its way round, I really didn't do much pushing and she did most of it by herself! It was truly amazing!!! So although my birth wasn't as drug free as I would have liked at first I actually couldn't have asked for better in the end. Thank you again! It just goes to show, even if it isn't as perfect as you had pictured it to be (in the amazing birthing centre that looked more like a spa than anything else) it can still just be as positive.
Claire
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Pain Free Birth
My waters broke the night before, and contractions started a few hours later. The hypnobirthing really helped with the breathing. We decided to go into Royal Berks because I felt a reduction in fetal movement. I was actually having contractions and didn't realise. We took the team by surprise as I went from 5cm to delivery in less than an hour with some gas and air.
We gave birth in triage as there was no time to get me to a delivery bed.
Thank you for your great support and confidence, it made a huge difference to us. We were totally overwhelmed with the experience of the labour and feel very grateful for her safe, quick and almost pain free arrival.
Thank you Tara.
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Birth With Haemolytic Strep B
With my first baby I had a horrible birth and I left it 4 years to try for another baby as I was so scared of labour again. Thank goodness I found Annette and I attended Annette's 'women only' hypnobirthing course. I am so thankful that I did! I listened to the CD frequently and practised my breathing every day. After reading the book I could see how my first labour had gone so horribly wrong. I was determined that my second would be completely different, and I am pleased to say that it was!
I began having cramps on the Monday after having my show in the morning. On the Tuesday morning I was having surges every 15 minutes but they were not strong. My husband and I took the dog for a long walk to move things along but the surges kept coming and going. My mum arrived on Tuesday afternoon and we took a long walk to our local pub with the rest of the family and sat in the pub garden, then a long walk home again. By Tuesday evening I was having surges every 5 minutes and we went to Reading birth centre. They confirmed that I was not yet in established labour so I decided to go home again. On Wednesday, my surges were 4 mins apart so we decided to go back, and I felt myself panic that I wouldn't be dilated and would be sent home again. The adrenaline made all the surges stop and by the time we got to Reading I had not had any surges for 20 minutes so we turned straight back round and went home. I felt very deflated by this point and thought that labour would never properly start! We went home and I had a short sleep and some dinner and then everything started again. This time they were much stronger and I created a calm environment at home and sniffed my clary sage and bounced on my birthing ball. We decided not to make another trip to hospital until we were certain I was in established labour, so once surges were 2 minutes apart we set off.
They examined me upon arrival and I was so relieved when they said I was 5 cm and could have a room in the birth centre. I had Group B Strep so I had my intravenous drip and once it was finished they allowed me into the bath and gave me gas and air to take the edge off the surges. I stayed in the bath for what must have been a couple of hours and then I was keen to change position. I got out and the midwife helped me try some different positions as I felt at this stage I was beginning to struggle. I know now that this was the transitional stage and before long my waters broke and I was ready to start pushing.
Louis George was born just 4.5 hours after arriving at the birth centre and I had no other pain relief besides gas and air. My birth went exactly as I had imagined it during my hypnobirthing and the breathing techniques proved invaluable. Its amazing how breathing properly during surges can make them so much more bearable and keep you calm and relaxed.
Thank you Annette for all of your knowledge and support. It helped prepare me for birth and made my calm, natural birth possible.
Sophie, 2015.
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A perfect birth.
Stewart and I thought the techniques you showed us were more than invaluable. They allowed us to have a straight forward natural birth without any medical intervention, apart from a little gas and air.
I went in to labour in the early hours of Monday 22nd September, it was very slow going and I was only having a few surges an hour.. By midday on Monday I was having more regular surges and managed to stay relaxed by breathing through each surge and taking the edge off with a tens machine. Stewart and I were very excited; at last we would be meeting our baby. The midwife at Wexham hospital confirmed that the first phase could be slow and take up to several days.
On Tuesday, it was pretty much the same. I managed to go for a walk with Stewart in the afternoon and that helped take my mind off what was happening. We ate and drank to keep our strength up and it did feel like the last 2 days had really slowed down. At 4pm my waters broke after having a bath and the surges picked up their intensity, by 6pm they were coming every few minutes and lasting 60 to 90 seconds long. I felt ready to go to the hospital and so Stewart phoned Wexham. I admit once the waters broke I did feel quite anxious and fearful of having the baby at home.
The drive took 20 mins or so and once we got to the birthing unit at Wycombe, I was just relieved. They made us feel very welcome and the birthing room was really nice and the place was quiet and dim, just as we wanted.
At around 8.30pm the midwife and trainee midwife confirmed I was only 2cm dilated. I was extremely tired and deflated by then, this first phase of labour had been dragging on for 2 whole days and we just wanted to meet our baby. They left us alone for several hours and I managed to get back into my zone and we listened to music. The next couple of hours, the surges got more intense and I was pushing the boost button on my tens machine at this stage. However I never felt out of control and Stewart was an immense help, keeping me focused on my breathing and massaging me. At 10pm, the midwife examined me again and said I was now 3cm dilated but very soft and so she suggested I sit on a birthing stool and then have a soak in the bath to help ease the pain. The birthing pool was occupied by another admission, who was 10cm dilated and so I had to wait for her to deliver etc.
The birthing stool and the soak in the birth did the trick, I felt a deep bearing down feeling that I had not experienced before. I did feel that I needed some pain relief at this stage and called for the midwife. She examined me at 10pm and said I was now 8cm but suggested I carry on for a bit longer as I was nearly now. Eventually they did give me some gas and air during the final stage. In the end I adopted the position of being on my hands and knees and thankfully Evelyn Kaur Rose Sidey was born on Weds 24th Sept at 3.02am.
It was absolutely magical, meeting our baby daughter as she let out a cry and then appeared to look at us. She was so calm and content when I put her to my chest.
Thanks again for the wonderful course you really did help us achieve a manageable birth.
Take care
Mindy & Stewart
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First baby
Jake William Barrett arrived last Saturday, one week earlier than expected. He is just perfect and Darren and I are very proud parents. We had a fairly straight forward birth, as things go. I started having cramps on Wednesday night and into Thursday. On Thursday afternoon I had 'the show' and by Thurs evening I was contracting every 10 mins. This carried on for about 24 hours, during which time I laboured at home listening to hypnobirthing tapes and my spotify playlist, taking baths and watching snippets of Glastonbury. Darren read me some scripts and I used the breathing techniques and a clary sage soaked napkin to keep me comfortable at home for as long as possible (that stuff is seriously amazing, it's like a natural sedative).
We went to Stoke Mandeville at 2am on Saturday morning and I was 6cm dilated on arrival. The pool room was available from 3am so we were able to create a lovely relaxed environment with aromatherapy oils in the pool, electric candles and chilled music. I laboured in the pool for 2 hours with very strong contractions. the breathing techniques, Darren's support and a little gas and air were brilliant at this point. my waters broke at 5am and from here my body completely took over, pushing on it's own. I tried to do J breathing to breathe him down but the little man had his hands up by his head so he needed some old fashioned pushing to encourage him into the world.
I needed some stitching due to the little man coming out like a boxer with his hands around his face, but the perineum massage definitely worked, no tearage in that area!
I definitely credit the hypnobirthing for helping me feel relaxed during the whole process and to manage the pain without extra pain relief. It also meant Darren played a really active role in helping to keep me relaxed and breathing, which really helped.
Annette, thank you for the education, techniques and advice. It's greatly appreciated!
Andrea and Darren
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We were looking forward to spending a few days alone in our new home, before our baby arrives!
Our baby was due on 18th of July (Saturday) so we decided to move into our new place on Thursday night, as the building work hadn't finished on some areas of the house but we got the annex finished and had some of our stuff in there so we could live there temporarily. We thought moving in a couple of days before baby was due would give us some time to adapt and to get things settled. Thursday at 4am I woke up and I was having irregular surges and part of my plug (the show) was gone. I googled It and it said that if surges were irregular it didn't mean you were in labour, so because I was moving that day and I wanted to predict things I kept tracking my surges on an app, and was up until about 10am and then I fell asleep for like 30 minutes…..
The whole day I had irregular surges, sometimes they were more regular and sometimes irregular, and then the rest of my plug came out during the day. I kept tract of my surges on an app the whole day, which was a big mistake.
At 8pm Sama arrived home from work, we decided to go to the birth centre just to check my progress and I was 3cm dilated (I was a bit disappointed as I thought I would be further along so I stopped tracking the surges). We didn’t stay at the birth centre we went home to our new house (we had been staying with Sama’s grandparents before) and see if things would progress. I had a bath, and at around 12pm Sama said we should go back to the birth centre, I was refusing to go because I thought I hadn't progressed. When the midwife examined me I was 7cm dilated. I was so glad to hear my progress, we stayed at the birth centre and I used the birth pool.
At 3:50am our little one was born, I did push towards the end, I didn't know that pushing could affect the baby (he had a bloodshot eye and the midwife said it was due to all the pushing). I wouldn't have pushed so hard, if I had known. I was very tired probably because I had spent the whole day tracking my contractions (totally what hypnobirthing is not about) I just wanted to hold my precious one in my arms. I did have a tear and needed stitches but it wasn't on the perineal it was up on the vulva, thanks to the perineal massage.
I'm happy I got to have a natural water birth and I’m thankful my baby is healthy and feeds well.
Now that I look back it was very quick and I was relaxing through my surges, when I didn’t do the breathing it was painful but bearable, when I relaxed and did the breathing I would nearly fall asleep in the birthing pool......
Giovanna and Sama
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First baby “a fantastic experience” Kate’s experience of how she birthed her son.
In my true style of cutting it fine, I started my surges 06.50am on the first day of mat leave (39w+5d) at home in bed, assumed they were Braxton Hicks, as I hadn't had any of them yet & had quite fancied a couple of days to finish sorting the house. Assuming we'd have a long labour 'the bag' was still not packed & poor J was running around grabbing bits for me (needless to say we never even opened the bag before I gave birth!) I found the on fours position on stairs, kitchen & dining room (w pillow under knees for a bit of comfort) worked for me during contractions. The surges were surprisingly regular so I asked J to write down & look for a pattern, turned out we were having contractions every 4mins lasting 45-90sec (from what we can remember) by half 7, so we called Stoke labour ward, who suggested eating/shower ... 45m later I decided to call Wycombe Birth Centre (5min door to door from home) they said I could go in & be checked there, so we went.
I had a contraction in the street & 2or 3 in car during rush hour (8.44am) ! Within 15m of leaving home I was settled in Wycombe birth centres room being checked out by midwives (who were superb I would like to add) they did my checks between surges. I kept myself so relaxed (with reassuring words from Jonny & me truly believing 'each surge brings me closer to meeting baby ' & I also choose to keep my eyes closed for 99% of the birthing experience to block out anything else going on) I was fully dilated by 9am. Well done hypnobirthing classes!
They filled the pool & as soon as I got in the pains I'd been feeling in my back were alleviated. I went in the frog position grabbing bars & Jonny supporting my head from going in water (I was v tired by this point) for the next maybe hour & then at the very end flipped over to my back for the head & shoulders popping out, a 'new position' did help me with the last few pushes. Baby Freddy's head appeared at 11.44am & with one last big push he was born & passed straight up to my chest, to be cuddled :) after that I got out pool & laid on my back for skin to skin & fed baby whilst midwives checked out downstairs, the placenta was delivered naturally (hardly noticed & gravity helped on birthing stool). I got a few tears, so in hindsight I'd recommend perennial massage.
Anyhow this our story, we were incredibly lucky & I got through the whole experience without any drugs/gas… as I'd wanted to, I think it's important share the good stories.
Kate, Jonny & Baby Freddy __________________________________________________________________________________________
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Induction and a normal birth of a 10ib 4oz baby girl.
Anouk is our second child, and we read up on and practised hypnobirthing and natural birthing from quite early on in the pregnancy to have a more positive birth experience this time round.
But as with most things, you cannot plan every detail your child's birth, and many of our wishes and hopes for Anouk's birth went out the window when my blood pressure was consistently high for the last few days of my pregnancy and I was strongly recommended getting induced at 40+5, and after many tears and much consideration we agreed that this would be the best for our daughter and me.
We had a long wait at the antenatal ward and the first prostaglandin pessary fell out after an unknown amount of hours, but once I had a new one put in I quite quickly started cramping. Neil had gone home for a nap after sitting on a hard plastic chair and not sleeping all night while we had waited to start the induction. As I got increasingly more crampy, I started listening to some scripts on my phone. The cramps got more regular and started to resemble surges, and as they developed quite quickly I asked Neil to come back to the hospital. I would sit and rotate my hips on a birth ball and walk around the room. By the time Neil arrived I had started feeling like I was losing control as I was having strong surges on top of each other with no or very little rest in between.
As it had only been a few hours since the pessary had been inserted I thought I could only be in the very early stages of labour and felt like I couldn't cope with it all getting more intense than it already was. Neil was FANTASTIC all the way through and kept calm which helped me tremendously.
In the space of a few hours I had gone from no cramps to surges every 1-2 minutes, but as our first labour experience was an extremely long one, I convinced myself this wasn't the real thing and demanded having the pessary taken out as I couldn't cope with it. The doctor examined me, told me I was six centimetres dilated and took the pessary out. From then on it all went very quickly; we moved to a private labour room, my waters broke spontaneously, and I was using gas and air for the surges, though I actually asked for (well, demanded!) an epidural, but it was 'luckily' already too late.
While I was squatting and leaning against the raised back of the bed Neil and I improvised on most of the hypnobirthing methods -we didn't do much of what we had planned, but followed our intuition and found new ways to use the hypnobirthing techniques - Neil would tell me positive stories or memories -especially about our son- when the surges were at their peak and this would keep me positive. I also tried imagining my cervix opening like a voluptuous rose (I had been watching YouTube time lapse videos of this while Neil would do the perineal massage during pregnancy) which I found very useful.
Within 45 mins of moving to the labour room Anouk was born.
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I somehow had a one second dream about what would happen over the next couple of minutes and told our midwife and Neil this a minute prior to it happening: I was still squatting over the bed, our lovely, supportive midwife Vanessa caught our baby, and Neil cut the cord once it had stopped pulsating -and it all came true.
There was a moment when she came out, where Neil felt a bit shell shocked as she was quiet and not immediately responding, but I knew instinctively that she was fine, and told him this.
Even though our plan for a lovely water-hypnobirth in the midwifery- led suite went out the window, we definitely found hypnobirthing the most useful tool we had during labour, and had a very positive experience despite it being so different from what we had initially hoped for. We managed to tailor hypnobirthing techniques to fit out particular labour which was amazing. Neil was amazing, and I couldn't have done it without him as my birth partner.
Anouk was 10lbs 4oz at birth so quite a chunky monkey! I didn't feel pain but a lot of pressure and when I felt the urge I did push. I managed with gas and air and hypnobirthing techniques, so we are very pleased with that.
Karen, October 2014
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Anouk is our second child, and we read up on and practised hypnobirthing and natural birthing from quite early on in the pregnancy to have a more positive birth experience this time round.
But as with most things, you cannot plan every detail your child's birth, and many of our wishes and hopes for Anouk's birth went out the window when my blood pressure was consistently high for the last few days of my pregnancy and I was strongly recommended getting induced at 40+5, and after many tears and much consideration we agreed that this would be the best for our daughter and me.
We had a long wait at the antenatal ward and the first prostaglandin pessary fell out after an unknown amount of hours, but once I had a new one put in I quite quickly started cramping. Neil had gone home for a nap after sitting on a hard plastic chair and not sleeping all night while we had waited to start the induction. As I got increasingly more crampy, I started listening to some scripts on my phone. The cramps got more regular and started to resemble surges, and as they developed quite quickly I asked Neil to come back to the hospital. I would sit and rotate my hips on a birth ball and walk around the room. By the time Neil arrived I had started feeling like I was losing control as I was having strong surges on top of each other with no or very little rest in between.
As it had only been a few hours since the pessary had been inserted I thought I could only be in the very early stages of labour and felt like I couldn't cope with it all getting more intense than it already was. Neil was FANTASTIC all the way through and kept calm which helped me tremendously.
In the space of a few hours I had gone from no cramps to surges every 1-2 minutes, but as our first labour experience was an extremely long one, I convinced myself this wasn't the real thing and demanded having the pessary taken out as I couldn't cope with it. The doctor examined me, told me I was six centimetres dilated and took the pessary out. From then on it all went very quickly; we moved to a private labour room, my waters broke spontaneously, and I was using gas and air for the surges, though I actually asked for (well, demanded!) an epidural, but it was 'luckily' already too late.
While I was squatting and leaning against the raised back of the bed Neil and I improvised on most of the hypnobirthing methods -we didn't do much of what we had planned, but followed our intuition and found new ways to use the hypnobirthing techniques - Neil would tell me positive stories or memories -especially about our son- when the surges were at their peak and this would keep me positive. I also tried imagining my cervix opening like a voluptuous rose (I had been watching YouTube time lapse videos of this while Neil would do the perineal massage during pregnancy) which I found very useful.
Within 45 mins of moving to the labour room Anouk was born.
.
I somehow had a one second dream about what would happen over the next couple of minutes and told our midwife and Neil this a minute prior to it happening: I was still squatting over the bed, our lovely, supportive midwife Vanessa caught our baby, and Neil cut the cord once it had stopped pulsating -and it all came true.
There was a moment when she came out, where Neil felt a bit shell shocked as she was quiet and not immediately responding, but I knew instinctively that she was fine, and told him this.
Even though our plan for a lovely water-hypnobirth in the midwifery- led suite went out the window, we definitely found hypnobirthing the most useful tool we had during labour, and had a very positive experience despite it being so different from what we had initially hoped for. We managed to tailor hypnobirthing techniques to fit out particular labour which was amazing. Neil was amazing, and I couldn't have done it without him as my birth partner.
Anouk was 10lbs 4oz at birth so quite a chunky monkey! I didn't feel pain but a lot of pressure and when I felt the urge I did push. I managed with gas and air and hypnobirthing techniques, so we are very pleased with that.
Karen, October 2014
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I laboured whilst eating dinner in the Blue River Café
Luke and I were expecting our first child, our NHS dating scan give us an expected date of delivery as the 06.09.2014. We did the hypnobirth course to feel more prepared for the birth and reduce our anxieties. We practiced the skills learnt during the course at home and I listened to the relaxation CD regularly. We ended up having an independent midwife in my third trimester, because we wanted continuity of care. She recalculated my dates based on the likely date of conception and she gave me an expected date of delivery as the 13th September, therefore a week later than my NHS dating scan.
This only became an issue when I was approaching two weeks over my NHS dating scan date. We were receiving constant messages from friends and family wondering why he hadn’t been born yet and asking if I was going into hospital for a medical induction. We were very fortunate to have a brilliant midwife, who had no concerns with mine or babies health. A lot of family members started to become anxious when I was approaching 3 weeks past my NHS dating scan date (but 2 weeks with my new EDD), which made it more stressful for us. The hypnobirth course was extremely useful during this stage, because it provided us with a lot of useful information to aid our decision-making, kept me relaxed during stressful times. Also, our midwife was amazing and provided us with the support we needed and felt there were no concerns to justify medical intervention. I was also reassured feeling my baby move around in my stomach.
On Monday 28TH September, my midwife gave me a second stretch and sweep at home and I have gone from 1cm dilated (not effaced) to nearly 1.5-2cm dilated (almost fully effaced) in 3 days. Following this appointment, my midwife was in the process of arranging for us to speak to a supervisor of midwives that week, because I didn’t want to go over 43 weeks based on my new EDD (44 weeks by my NHS dates) to discuss a plan. By this point I have tried, acupuncture, reflexology, natural induction program that included homeopathy medication and two stretch and sweeps.
However, the following day on the 29th September at 5am, I woke up with stomach cramps which were happening every 9-10 minutes and lasting approx 35-40 seconds. I used my breathing techniques learnt at the hypnobirth course, while Luke was sleeping. The cramps stopped when I started to get stressed about the possibility of needing a medical induction and restarted when I became relaxed again. Later that afternoon, I was out having our car cleaned with Luke and doing some last minute shopping. At this stage the stomach cramps were happening every 8 minutes and about 35-40 seconds long. Luke and I went for late lunch at 3pm when my stomach cramps where about 7-8 mins and about 30-40 seconds long. I felt really relaxed and in control, thanks to the hypnobirth course. I was doing my breathing techniques while having dinner and looking back I was having worried looks from the waiter. We travelled home in the car while stopping off for some magazines (which I didn’t get to read), because things just progressed extremely quickly. I went into the bath to relax and Luke put my hypnobirth CD on, until I got uncomfortable. By 5.30pm my surges were about 4 minutes apart and my waters broke about 8pm in the bedroom. By 8.30pm by surges were a lot more intense and quickly went to 2 minutes apart and lasting 45-50 seconds. Luke had started to fill the water pool up in the living room, while I sat on the sofa, but I had the urge to push at about 21.20pm. I remained calm and focused and Luke was extremely calm and supportive, even though he could visually see the surges pushing our baby down and the midwife hadn’t arrived yet. The midwife got here as he started to crown at 22.00pm and I asked for gas and air, but she said it was too late because he was on his way out ( our midwife didn’t want to leave me to fetch the gas and air from the car, due to the stage I was at). The midwife positioned me squatted over the settee and I focused on her voice and breathed our baby out slowly, until she told me to push and then she passed him straight into my arms. Luke watched our baby come into the world and he was the first to touch his head. Rhys was born at 22.29pm weighing 8 pounds 5.5 ozs, which was 29 minutes after the midwife arriving. Rhys was very calm and very alert, he had no signs of prolonged pregnancy, no dry skin, placenta was really healthy and he had amazing head control. Luke cut the cord when it had stopped pulsating and then I pushed the placenta out. I didn't have time to have any pain relief and Rhys attached to the breast like a little pro. The crowning stage was intense, but I didn’t find this too hard, because I knew I was minutes away from meeting my son. I required stitches, but I had skin to skin with Rhys and gas & air while having this done. Rhys and I then had a soak in the birthing pool, which was lovely. My sister arrived at midnight and was amazed to see that her nephew had come into the world so quickly. Following the birth I was very hungry so ate some food and then my midwife and my sister tucked me up in bed at about 03.30am.
I can honestly say the hypnobirth course helped me so much, because it give me understanding of what to expect, put trust in my body and kept me relaxed. Also, having a midwife that I trusted and a husband that was supportive and calm was hugely beneficial to me.
Kelly. October 2014
Luke and I were expecting our first child, our NHS dating scan give us an expected date of delivery as the 06.09.2014. We did the hypnobirth course to feel more prepared for the birth and reduce our anxieties. We practiced the skills learnt during the course at home and I listened to the relaxation CD regularly. We ended up having an independent midwife in my third trimester, because we wanted continuity of care. She recalculated my dates based on the likely date of conception and she gave me an expected date of delivery as the 13th September, therefore a week later than my NHS dating scan.
This only became an issue when I was approaching two weeks over my NHS dating scan date. We were receiving constant messages from friends and family wondering why he hadn’t been born yet and asking if I was going into hospital for a medical induction. We were very fortunate to have a brilliant midwife, who had no concerns with mine or babies health. A lot of family members started to become anxious when I was approaching 3 weeks past my NHS dating scan date (but 2 weeks with my new EDD), which made it more stressful for us. The hypnobirth course was extremely useful during this stage, because it provided us with a lot of useful information to aid our decision-making, kept me relaxed during stressful times. Also, our midwife was amazing and provided us with the support we needed and felt there were no concerns to justify medical intervention. I was also reassured feeling my baby move around in my stomach.
On Monday 28TH September, my midwife gave me a second stretch and sweep at home and I have gone from 1cm dilated (not effaced) to nearly 1.5-2cm dilated (almost fully effaced) in 3 days. Following this appointment, my midwife was in the process of arranging for us to speak to a supervisor of midwives that week, because I didn’t want to go over 43 weeks based on my new EDD (44 weeks by my NHS dates) to discuss a plan. By this point I have tried, acupuncture, reflexology, natural induction program that included homeopathy medication and two stretch and sweeps.
However, the following day on the 29th September at 5am, I woke up with stomach cramps which were happening every 9-10 minutes and lasting approx 35-40 seconds. I used my breathing techniques learnt at the hypnobirth course, while Luke was sleeping. The cramps stopped when I started to get stressed about the possibility of needing a medical induction and restarted when I became relaxed again. Later that afternoon, I was out having our car cleaned with Luke and doing some last minute shopping. At this stage the stomach cramps were happening every 8 minutes and about 35-40 seconds long. Luke and I went for late lunch at 3pm when my stomach cramps where about 7-8 mins and about 30-40 seconds long. I felt really relaxed and in control, thanks to the hypnobirth course. I was doing my breathing techniques while having dinner and looking back I was having worried looks from the waiter. We travelled home in the car while stopping off for some magazines (which I didn’t get to read), because things just progressed extremely quickly. I went into the bath to relax and Luke put my hypnobirth CD on, until I got uncomfortable. By 5.30pm my surges were about 4 minutes apart and my waters broke about 8pm in the bedroom. By 8.30pm by surges were a lot more intense and quickly went to 2 minutes apart and lasting 45-50 seconds. Luke had started to fill the water pool up in the living room, while I sat on the sofa, but I had the urge to push at about 21.20pm. I remained calm and focused and Luke was extremely calm and supportive, even though he could visually see the surges pushing our baby down and the midwife hadn’t arrived yet. The midwife got here as he started to crown at 22.00pm and I asked for gas and air, but she said it was too late because he was on his way out ( our midwife didn’t want to leave me to fetch the gas and air from the car, due to the stage I was at). The midwife positioned me squatted over the settee and I focused on her voice and breathed our baby out slowly, until she told me to push and then she passed him straight into my arms. Luke watched our baby come into the world and he was the first to touch his head. Rhys was born at 22.29pm weighing 8 pounds 5.5 ozs, which was 29 minutes after the midwife arriving. Rhys was very calm and very alert, he had no signs of prolonged pregnancy, no dry skin, placenta was really healthy and he had amazing head control. Luke cut the cord when it had stopped pulsating and then I pushed the placenta out. I didn't have time to have any pain relief and Rhys attached to the breast like a little pro. The crowning stage was intense, but I didn’t find this too hard, because I knew I was minutes away from meeting my son. I required stitches, but I had skin to skin with Rhys and gas & air while having this done. Rhys and I then had a soak in the birthing pool, which was lovely. My sister arrived at midnight and was amazed to see that her nephew had come into the world so quickly. Following the birth I was very hungry so ate some food and then my midwife and my sister tucked me up in bed at about 03.30am.
I can honestly say the hypnobirth course helped me so much, because it give me understanding of what to expect, put trust in my body and kept me relaxed. Also, having a midwife that I trusted and a husband that was supportive and calm was hugely beneficial to me.
Kelly. October 2014