HypnoBirthing® UK

[ockysmith]

My fourth baby was born peacefully into my own arms, in my own home in the spring of 2007, another big 11 pounder!

As with my third baby, I used HypnoBirthing techniques, a birth pool and Homeopathy and it was another wonderful, very easy, very quick and joyful experience. I hope you find my story inspiring, I certainly enjoyed it and would give birth every day if I could.



I had spent all day and early evening gardening and after putting my 3 older children to bed and relaxing in a bath, had settled down to watch television with my husband. My labour then began to play out something like this:

10pm: I was really hoping that the Braxton Hicks I was feeling would turn into labour so that I could get out of doing the school run the next morning, not an easy chore with 3 small children and an enormous bump! - so I spent a few minutes chatting with the baby and visualising labour starting.


11:30pm: I packed my husband off to bed as I wanted him to get some sleep “just in case” things progressed.
11:45pm: Two strong surges (HypnoBirthing speak for “contraction”) later and a feeling that “this is it”, I called my husband back downstairs and asked him to fill the birth pool as I was pretty hopeful I was in labour and the pool took around half an hour to fill. I was hopeful that we would have a baby by 8:30am when the older children had to be taken to school.
12:15am: Now 80% sure I was in labour, but as everything was still very mild I dithered for a bit about phoning for a midwife as the surges seemed to be every 2-3minutes (indicative of quite advanced labour) but not remotely painful and I didn’t want to look a fool if it was all a false alarm and everything stopped! eventually I asked my husband to call the hospital to request a midwife.
12:30am: Finally sure I was in labour, with surges now every two minutes, I was still coping well with just my “slow breathing” (a type of breathing taught in HypnoBirthing for use during labour) and now the birth pool was really calling to me, so I got in and put my CD of HypnoBirthing Birth Affirmations on (a CD given out in HypnoBirthing classes full of positive imagery about labour and birth), I must admit at this point I thought I had around 4-5 hours of labour left and did fleetingly worry about getting in the pool too early.
12:45am: I began to start “the birth moo” (a deep guttural - impossible to stop -instinctive noise indicating the baby is on its way!) and much to my husband’s relief (I was quite keen on an unassisted/free birth but he wasn't at all!) the midwife arrived and began to unpack her equipment.
12:52am: My membranes released (HypnoBirthing speak for “waters breaking”) and were quickly followed by my baby’s entire head (but no tears and no stitches needed) – at no point did I actively push the baby out, my body did all the work whilst I remained relaxed and focussed on my breathing.
12:54am: Keen to get the rest of the baby out in the next surge, I moved into a squatting position and felt the whole of my baby’s body slither out and then instinctively reached down under the water to lift my newborn baby up into my arms for our first cuddle. We remained that way for 20minutes, getting to know each other until the cord stopped pulsating and my husband cut it, then we snuggled down on the sofa to wait for the placenta to arrive.

By 4am we were all tucked up with our eldest children and new baby, in our own comfortable bed, a new family of six! Just as nature intended every birth to be: calm, comfortable, easy and safe.

[Scallie]

Fabulous story - congratulations! I've just been reading another forum that's full of posts about how labour and terrible pain goes hand in hand, and that you're deluded if you believe anything else - it's very reassuring to read positive stories like this one.

Congrats again.

[kirsti]

Congratulations on your new baby,
Your birth sounds wonderful, you are obviously very intune with your body and your baby. This is what it's all about, these amazing birth stories. I imagine you must be feeling pretty fantastic at the moment. I bet your older 3 children were surprised at the sudden new arrival!
Best wishes,
Kirsti

[babyboos]

congratulations
does it get easier with subsequent births?

sadly after considerable expense i never got to use my hypnobirthing and had an emergency c-section

hasn't put me off having another try though and maybe in a year will be hoping to conceive again - maybe will get a chance that time round but will probably have forgotten it all by then

[Danielle]

babyboos-every birth is different so some women may have easier 2nd and 3rd etc babies so may find the next baby harder, I know one woman who had vaginal birth, c-section then another vaginal birth. And don't think about the course you took as being a huge expense that you never really used as the relaxation techniques will have benefitted you and your baby during you pregnancy and you will find that you continue using them (even though you may not realise it), I often do the progressive relaxation so that I don't get stressed. And when you get pregnant again and start to read the book and listen to the cd it will all come back to you. Hope this helps, Danielle