HypnoBirthing® UK

[clairejk75]

My lovely Home-HypnoBirth

I woke up on March 23rd thinking ‘today is the day I said he would come’ I was 40+3 but not in the least bit fed up with his lateness. Doing the HypnoBirthing course and then the practitioner training had conditioned me not to focus on my due date but to think in terms of ‘around the end of the month’ and to know that my baby would come when he was ready.

Around 11am I felt my bump harden and placed my hands on it and let myself be a little bit excited. I told my husband and said I thought the baby was going to arrive today.

We carried on as normal but decided to stay near home. We had lunch and then our almost 2 year old took a handful of soil out of a plant and scattered it all over the floor. I think this was the best thing that could’ve happened now!

I got down on all fours (fantastic position to give the baby the most room to get into the optimal position for birth) and noticed some dust under the cupboards. This led to a big spring clean! When the house was clean I was having surges (HypnoBirthing term for contractions, much more positive sounding) every 6 minutes. I went for a bath to see if the surges stopped as this would determine if they were real or not. They stopped! I was a little disappointed but still thought we’d have our new son soon so went for a sleep at around 2 pm.

Our son woke at 4ish and I told my husband the surges were back and were more crampy. I also rang my mum and asked if she’d come over after work. I sent my husband for a sleep as during the birth of our first son he was very tired and this time I wanted him to be there for me.

My mum was very excited when she arrived and I was stopping talking to breathe through the surges which were now every 5 minutes. They were not painful but I was using the opportunity to practise the slow breathing technique used in HypnoBirthing.

At around 7pm I asked my husband to start blowing up the birth pool. My mum brought my son back at around 7.30 and I was leaning over the kitchen worktop doing the wonderful slow breathing I had been taught. I had a chat with him and gave him a kiss goodnight.

The pool was ready at around nine and was so lovely and warm when I got in that I instantly relaxed even more. My husband put the cd on with the music and visualisations I was conditioned to relax to and it was bliss.

At around 10.30 I allowed my mum to ring the hospital saying ‘ok maybe we should just let them know’ I spoke to the midwife and she asked a few questions about pain and I just answered her as if the sensations I was experiencing were what she was referring to as pain as I knew there was little point in explaining otherwise and I just couldn’t be bothered.

She said she would send someone to ‘check on me but she’ll probably go home again’ I remember thinking ‘oh no she won’t!’ The midwife arrived at 11.15pm. She wanted to examine me and I was quite upset that she wanted me to lie down as I thought it would be painful. It turned out not to be and she was quite shocked I was 6 cms. ‘Most people call at 3!’ I got back into the pool and around 30 minutes later she said ‘are you pushing?’ I replied ‘urm a little bit’ I didn’t feel like I was, I just had a bearing down sensation. It was certainly nothing like the pushing I had been told to do in the hospital with my first son. She said ‘oh this is going to be quicker than I thought’ and went to call the second midwife. She had me stand up in the pool once to check the baby’s heartbeat which was fine. I went to the loo one more time and then after a surge leaning on the stairgate outside my son’s bedroom, at which time I thanked HypnoBirthing for not having me wake him up with screaming, I got back into the pool.

I told the midwife my waters had released and I could feel my sons head and she said ‘oh right’ and then whispered about my quietness with my mum.

I then leant over the side of the pool and my husband did light touch massage, another fantastic technique we were taught, on my arms and I started to breathe my baby down. I could feel his head begin to come out but then slip back in as the surge passed. This happened for a few surges but then at 12.25 his head was born. The rest of him came on the next surge at 12.30am

As I was climbing out of the pool the second midwife arrived and said ‘oh have I missed it?’

We all cuddled on the sofa and my mum went to make toast. The placenta came with another surge and the midwives went to examine it, very healthy apparently!

The midwives left at 1.30 the same time that Alfie James latched on for his first feed. My husband took care of the pool emptying and we all went to bed. Finley woke up at 8am and I gave Alfie to his daddy and went in to get him. I said ‘come and see what daddy has got in the bedroom’ He ran in, looked at them both and said ‘Alfie!’ he then touched his ear and said ‘ear!’ it was the most special moment and was the cherry on the top of my fantastic HypnoBirth Homebirth.

The only side effect of HypnoBirthing is that I’m desperate to do it again!

[kirsti]

Congratulations Claire, your birth sounds amazing, thank you for sharing it with us all.

Best Wishes