George's birth story and my introduction to hypnobirthing.
During my first pregnancy I did absolutely no research or preparation when it came to birth; oh wait…… I watched a series of One Born Every Minute although I now know this definitely does not count. This “preparation” reflected the birth that was to come; I felt a little traumatised, slightly guilty, overwhelmed and the recovery that followed was slow and painful. I’ve always put my first birth story down to the fact that I wasn’t in control during labour.
Second time round I was adamant it had to be different
As soon as I found out I was pregnant again I knew I wanted to practice hypnobirthing. My husband and I signed up to a course and practiced the techniques from December (George was due in March). To me, hypnobirthing just made sense and I was feeling really positive and was even looking forward to labour. I’d also been lucky enough to have been assigned to a case loading team of midwives so got to know my midwife really well throughout my pregnancy. We’d even planned to have a home birth.
Fast forward to mid March and I had an inkling things were kicking off on the morning of Tuesday 13th March. I went on with my day as usual; went to the park with Arthur, my oldest son, and out for lunch with him and my mum (who just happened to be visiting). I wasn’t having any regular surges so thought it would still be a while away until I went into labour properly.
That evening I was still having the odd surge but had been so preoccupied with Arthur who was ill (and clearing up the projectile vomit from all over his bed!) that I still hadn’t thought to time them. At around 8.00pm my husband had finished inflating the birth pool and we were also discussing when would be best to take Arthur and my mum over to his parents as I didn’t want him to be at home if we were to have a home birth.
Thank goodness we all stayed put because at about 9.30pm I went to the loo and noticed a lot of blood. We called my midwife who was at another home birth and advised us to call an ambulance. Now I was focused on it I timed my surges to 1 every 10 minutes. The paramedics arrived and decided to take me to the labour ward. We quickly packed some things for the baby but I completely forgot anything for me. I wasn’t too bothered either as I just presumed I’d be able to come home after I’d been checked out.
By the time I got into the ambulance the surges were 1 every 5 minutes and by the time I arrived at the hospital (which is less than a 5 minute drive away) they were 3 every 10 minutes. Despite the surges coming on so quickly and the disruption of transferring to hospital, in an ambulance, I maintained my up breathing throughout which instantly helped me to feel calm and in control.
When I arrived on the labour ward they decided I needed to be monitored which meant I was staying put; no home birth, I wasn’t even allowed to go onto the midwife led unit but do you know what, it didn’t matter where I was because I still felt so in control. And thankfully my wonderful midwife soon joined us at the hospital when it was confirmed that I was in active labour.
The surges seemed to be every few minutes but I can honestly say that they were not painful, they were intense but each one felt like a step closer to the end goal and they felt completely different to the ones I’d experienced in my previous birth. At this point of my labour I relied heavily on visualisations, interestingly, not the ones I’d used when practicing and I found the breathing techniques to be much more effective than the gas and air. I must admit, even though I was really on board with hypnobirthing, I remember thinking mid surge, I can’t quite believe the power of these breathing exercises and the clarity of mind I felt throughout each one.
After about half an hour of pushing, George was born just before 3am, after only 6 hours of active labour. The whole experience, both in the lead up and the actual birth could not have been any more different to my first experience of childbirth and I would put this largely down to hypnobirthing and the positive outlook it gave us. After a tricky labour with Arthur I never thought I would be able to feel this way about birth and I felt so completely empowered, I still do. And because I had such a great labour my recovery was so much better which set us up well to look after a newborn and a 2 year old!
I feel so lucky that I’ve now had the opportunity to experience such a positive birth. And even though I didn’t get the water birth at home that I wanted I would not change a thing about the experience.
Post birth I found myself raving about how amazing hypnobirthing is to anyone and everyone that would listen and, with a bit of encouragement from my husband and mother in law I decided to train as a hypnobirthing teacher! I signed up to do a course with KGHypnobirthing last year and haven’t looked back since!
