Baby Jennifer

When Sarah sent us her birth story, she wrote "I don't think it sounds nearly as good as the experience was, but please feel free to use it".

"When I found out I was pregnant some of my earliest thoughts were about having a natural birth, as free from medication and intervention as possible, I was just unsure how to make this happen. I started to research on the internet, where I found the classes run by Mia. I read the book and knew immediately that Hypnobirthing was how I wanted my birth to be, safe, comfortable and relaxed. I attended the 5 weeks classes and practised most of the techniques through to the day of my baby’s birth.

On the morning of 20^th August 2008 my waters released at 6:40am and I went to the hospital for assessment at 8:30am. I was extremely relaxed and looking forward to meeting my baby, in fact when the waters released all I could do was laugh. I had no surges so the hospital checked my blood pressure and temperature and sent me home advising me to see if things progressed. At the hospital the staff talked of induction, stress, pain and medical intervention. My way of dealing with this was to look as if I was listening, but actually drift off somewhere thinking relaxed thoughts and visualising my perfect birth. It works!

I got home at 10:30am, had a cup of tea, watched the Olympics on TV and had a bath. I decided to listen to my hypnobirthing CD and went to lie in bed. Just before 2pm in the afternoon I awoke and started to feel some sensation in my lower back that I could only describe as constipation. I started to feel a heavy pressure and insisted to my husband that I needed to cure this so my labour could progress in the relaxed way I had anticipated and kept telling him ‘hypnobirthing isn’t working with this constipation’. The hospital advised me to go in at this point as I had some bleeding. I travelled in the car using the breathing techniques learned in the class and got to the labour suite to tell the waiting midwife ‘I need an enema then I can go home and continue with my labour’.

I was having surges close together at this point, I was not fully aware of what they were (still complaining it was constipation). The midwife asked if she could examine me and I don’t know who was more surprised to find I was fully dilated! I gave birth to my beautiful daughter just 2 hours later, lying on my side with a leg in the air, using what I can only describe as a combination of birth breathing and small pushes. The midwife was fantastic when she knew we had planned a Hypnobirth, and apparently had been talking to my husband all the way through, I never noticed as between surges I would drift into sleep. My baby was placed on my stomach and the cord allowed to finish pulsating before being cut. I had no tearing at all, no stitches and was very comfortable in a short time. Another big plus for me was the fact I needed no pain relief at all throughout labour or after. I was something of an oddity for the staff on the ward that kept coming round offering me painkillers and asking where my drug card was – I didn’t need one. They seemed not to understand that I was comfortable and happy and looking forward to going home quickly.

My baby was alert and looking at me straight away, I was full of energy and baby tried feeding almost immediately. I was able to get up and shower and eat and was on a ward within 3 hours. My partner enjoyed the time he could spend alone with our baby when I was showering and felt he was part of the whole birth experience, despite the only thing me remembering was him telling me to breath at the right moments during the delivery.

Looking back I feel that the weeks of practice I did were vital. I spent most nights sitting on a birthing ball, visualising the ‘opening of the rose’ – one of the techniques I had actually thought would be less useful. I have even used the sleep breathing and deepening techniques to relax me post birth, particularly when I haven’t had much sleep, or have had difficulty getting to sleep between feeds. It was so unlike the ‘text book’, medicalised version of labour so many people tell you about. I pretty much sailed through it, seemingly missing the whole 1^st stage completely.

I would definitely use Hypnobirthing again. Nothing beats the feeling of being able to look in your baby’s eyes and know that you did it together."