HypnoBirthing® UK

[Jo Capper]

On Tuesday 5th June having finally gone into labour 10 days past EDD, I was all set to have the home birth I had really hoped for. This was to be my second birth and after being induced with my first birth and having not such a positive experience, I had made as many preparations as possible to have a less medically led birth.

I had attended the hypnobirthing course and had practiced daily my relaxation and breathing techniques, my sister and partner were both in on the event and we were all prepared for birthing at home. I went into labour around 4pm in ASDA of all places, the surges started coming every 15 -20 mins at first. I used the breathing techniques and was able to continue with my day for a couple of hours – at this point I wasn’t really sure if I was in labour or not! Around 6pm the surges started to come every 10 mins and I decided to ring my sister to come over, I was still extremely calm and felt very comfortable breathing through the surges. When my sister arrived the surges were now every 5-10 mins and we decided to call the midwife to let her know. She said that as I was coping fine she would call again in 30 mins. And so I continued to potter around house feeling fine and able to cope. The surges were regularly coming and the midwife suggested a bath and she was going to come round to monitor me. I still at this point wondered wether I was actually in labour and was these Braxton hicks? I guess I was so able to cope using breathing and relaxation that I wasn’t really worried. At approximately 8.30pm the midwife came and did an internal examination we were all surprised to find that I was 7cm dilated. The midwife immediately called for her back up and she thought that baby would be born in 2 hours. However this is where events took a slightly strange turn (literally speaking). So there we all were me bouncing on birth ball, my sister, partner and 2 midwifes plus a student midwife sat around drinking tea, chatting waiting. The surges started to speed up, I continued to use deep breathing and was very relaxed. However the baby turned around back to back, and immediately I started to find breathing techniques were not so effective, I started to feel discomfort and for the following few hours there was no progress and surges began to be erratic. The midwives however were happy for me to continue at home as I was still able to cope with the surges and baby’s heart rate was fine. By 4am (12 hours of labour – so starting to feel very tired) the midwives were concerned that further progress hadn’t been made, after another IE I had not dilated any further and they rang the hospital for advice, the hospital said that I should be transferred. The midwives were extremely supportive of my birth plan and left me as long as possible, however the breathing techniques were really not working any more and I was extremely uncomfortable. So at 6am I was transferred to hospital.

I obviously was feeling disappointed but was able to remain calm using the hypnobirthing techniques as much as possible. Once at hospital I was examined and doctors were concerned at time spent in labour and position of baby, they put me on syntocin to see if this would make baby move round and assist in cervix dilating to 10cm. I was unable to cope with the surges and felt like bearing down when I knew that I wasn’t fully dilated and asked for an epidural to help as I was to be on the drip for two hours. After this time the doctor examined me and whilst I had dilated to 9cm baby was still head up and back to back so they said the safest way for me and baby to deliver was C-section. This was obviously very difficult as this was the furthest possible thing imagined in my birth plan, however this is a circumstance when medical intervention is necessary and I resigned myself to this. I began to put myself into deep relaxation so to cope with going into theater. My sister and partner were beside themselves and remarked afterwards with my calm and matter of factness when reassuring them that every thing would be alright. And it was, Cerys Mary was born at 12.04pm on Wed 6th June 2007 and she was beautiful.

Whilst the experience was not typical textbook afterwards when discussing events with my midwives they remarked at how well I had coped with labour and that I had achieved 14 hours of labour with no pain relied which they had not experienced before. Whilst I was unable to birth my baby naturally and as planned at home, hypnobirthing had enabled me to turn what some may describe as horrific into something that was calm, considered and controlled. Therefore I hope to have further children and again would practice the hypnobirthing technique because it helped me through pregnancy, birth and post natal. I have a very happy baby who eats and sleeps well, which I completely relate to my relaxed state.

[eleanorcopp]

well done jo , its fantastic you have such a brilliant perspective on youre labour and birth and can see how youre daughter has benefited from youre work and focus on her during youre pregnancy and during the labour. this is what hypnobirthing is about . congratulaions . eleanor

[ockysmith]

Hi Jo,

Many congratulations on the birth of your daughter! I'm really pleased that HypnoBirthing helped you to cope with the unexpected events of her birth.

Sarahx