HypnoBirthing® UK

[Cbarker]

Hi

Not sure if you remember me, but I was expecting baby no.1 in February - and guess what, she's now here!

I went to HB classes from around 22 weeks and practiced and followed the regime throughout my pregnancy. I was terrified of giving birth before I went to these classes, and suffered a minor relapse of fear towards the end of the pregnancy, which I did overcome. However...

I went into labour in the early hours of 19 Feb, and right from the start, the surges were unbelievably painful. I was a little miffed as I truly believed, without question, that it wouldn't hurt (or hurt in the traditional sense of the word anyway). But it did, a lot! I thought perhaps I wasn't relaxed enough, so i listened to the rainbow relaxation (had never failed to relax me completely during pg), and I did totally relax, as I kept almost falling asleep and drifting off, until another immensely painful surge came, every 4 minutes or so. I tried the slow breathing, but the pain was so much, it literally took my breath away and I had to suck in air more frequently. My labour lasted 16 hours in total, and that included 3 hours of pushing. I again tried the J-breathing at this point, but it did nothing, baby was stuck in my birth canal, back-to-back through most of it. I never felt the need to bear down though. It was just all pain. Even when her head was coming out, there was no need to push (like I heard I would feel).

I felt a little dissapointed that I didn't achieve a HB - I really practiced and totally believed I could do it. So, my questions are, why was my labour so painful? I was relaxed if I was falling asleep between surges, so why did it hurt like it did?

I do hope to more babies, and I would really like to try a HB again, so would like advice on this.

Saying all this though, thanks to the HB course, I felt confident enough to have a home birth (which I did), and I used absolutely no pain relief, not even gas and air and this was my first baby! I managed to give birth squatting and it was still the most amazing and addictive experience of my life and I would do it every day if I could, despite the incredible pain (I've been told I actually have a high pain threshhold!).

Has anyone else had an experience like this when using HB techniques during birth?

Thanks all!

[ockysmith]

Hi, congratulations on the birth of your baby and well done you for getting a home birth and without pain relief - wow!! that's some feat for a first baby!

I've been in your shoes. My first baby was a 14hour labour (though I had to transfer into hospital in an ambulance after 12hrs - it was a planned homebirth - because the pain was making me physically ill and my midwives were deeply concerned about me being strong enough to get the baby out). Interestingly, like yours my baby was also posterior. Sadly, like you, I didn't do a HypnoBirthing course so our very similar labours had very different endings - me, flat on my back in a hospital bed with a drip, syntocin and an epidural (the pain was so bad due to my lack of control that if somebody had given me a gun I would have shot and killed myself, I sobbed and screamed so loudly that even the ambulance drivers complained and asked the midwife to give me enotonox to keep me quiet ), whereas you got your empowering homebirth! - without drugs!!!! - what I would have given to have known about HypnoBirthing then!

Remember back right at the start of the first class we talked about birth being a normal, physiological event and muscles doing their job normally not causing pain (pain being a warning sign something is wrong). I would be willing to bet that your discomfort was due to having a posterior baby, your body has to do a *huge* amount of extra work to rotate a posterior lying baby, and even more to birth back to back. I would wager that the majority of your "pain" was due to that. I don't want to "analyse" your experience and pinpoint parts that may have caused your discomfort because I don't think that would be beneficial to anyone and at the end of the day you did do FANTASTICALLY well and you have a beautiful daughter!!! I'm sure with knowledge and hindsight when you do go on to have another child there are things that you can do to make a difference (bookmark www.spinningbabies.com now!!!!).

For what it's worth, I did get my dream homebirth in the end - thanks to HypnoBirthing (and doing everything in my power not to have another posterior baby!) - I had my 11lb son at home with no pain relief (and *truly( no need for any) and what a difference experience it was compared to birthing without HypnoBirthing!!!! and compared to birthing in a hospital.

Enjoy your daughter

Sarah
www.birthfriendly.co.uk

[Cbarker]

Thanks for the reply! Actually, you may be right, as all the *pain* I felt was in the back, I can honestly say I felt nothing anywhere else (of course I didn't know at the time what was *normal*!). I do believe HB helped me in every other way though, and at no pint did I feel out of control, scared, ill or that pain relief ever occurred to me.

Better go,,,little baby moaning in the background!

[ockysmith]

Actually, you may be right, as all the *pain* I felt was in the back, !

*definitely* due to a posterior lie then, they're commonly known as "backache labours" and sadly because they aren't the body working at optimum normal efficiency nothing could have removed the pain naturally, there was a physiological reason for it.

I still think you did brilliant to have your daughter at home with no pain relief with a posterior baby - I bet you were the talk of your community midwives for quite a while.

If you do have another and use HypnoBirthing again there's no reason to expect that you couldn't have a totally calm and comfortable experience!

Sarah

www.birthfriendly.co.uk

[TracyD]

Hello,

I'm a practitioner in Ireland and I've had similar stories from mums who have posterior babies. One couple had a posterior baby, transferred to hospital and even had pitocin.....but still managed with her HypnoBirthing. As Sarah said, as long as things progress normally then comfortable birthing is very possible.

Congratulations !

Tracy

[Glynes]

Good article see link for full report, hope this helps

'Optimal Foetal Positioning' is a theory developed by a midwife, Jean Sutton, and Pauline Scott, an antenatal teacher, who found that the mother's position and movement could influence the way her baby lay in the womb in the final weeks of pregnancy. Many difficult labours result from 'malpresentation', where the baby's position makes it hard for the head to move through the pelvis, so changing the way the baby lies could make birth easier for mother and child.

http://www.homebirth.org.uk/ofp.htm

Glynes

Glynes Mewton
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