Hospital Birth – 2nd Sept 13

This is a very personal post as it is about the arrival of my gorgeous nephew:

Here is Suzi’s story …..

Before my husband and I were trying for a baby the idea of giving birth filled me with fear, I even had to turn over when ‘one born every minute’ was on in case it put me off for life! When the miracle moment happened and we went for our 12 week scan and saw the little one in my belly, I knew it was time to face up to the inevitable.  Luckily my wonderful sister in law was on hand who had experienced an amazing birth the year previous, and introduced us to Hypnobirthing.

A little sceptical at first, I kept an open mind and started to read the Hypnobirthing book – two chapters in and I had already bought in; the theory that fear could counteract everything that the body and birthing muscles were trying to do, did make total sense.

We began to see Lee our Hynobirthing instructor at 28 weeks and she guided us through the relaxation and breathing techniques. She also filled us with the confidence and the knowledge to make sure we would have the best possible birth experience. With much practise behind us, we approached the final weeks of pregnancy and began to look forward to the day rather than fear it. We opted to have our baby at our local hospital where they had two water birth rooms, and so my birth plan was written – I would have a water birth, without pain relief, interventions and ‘instructions’ from the midwives, and use the Hypnobirthing techniques with the support from my husband to let my body do what nature intended. The only lingering question – would the hospital environment allow us this experience considering the stats for births without medical interventions in our modern day hospitals would suggest this was unlikely?

So, this is how the story goes… the evening before my due date, after consuming a spicy curry, my waters break (very cliché!), I have mild surges shortly after and the hospital call me in to be assessed. At 12am they are stronger and frequent so I start to listen to my music and use the breathing techniques, I am relaxed and in control, so much so that the midwife ensures me that ‘I would know it’ if I was in labour and suggests we may be going home shortly. She examines me and we are not going anywhere apart from the water birthing room! I birth and deliver my baby in the water as I had planned, I was not examined further or instructed, and we were left by the midwives to birth as I and my husband had intended. Although this was my first pregnancy, my body told me when I was entering the final stages and needed to ‘breath’ the baby down. I didn’t speak or open my eyes for nearly the entire time and the only voice I heard was my husband’s.

Our beautiful baby boy arrived 7 hours after getting to the hospital, and in such a calm atmosphere that the head midwife stayed past the end of her shift just to see him arrive! That is our story, that was our plan and this is what I believe is nature’s intent.

Welcome to the world Sidney Jack!

Sidney Jack

Hypnobirth – 21-Sept-12

Inspiring birth story from Clair J …..

I was 38 weeks pregnant and had only been on maternity leave for one week when I was in the living room tidying up and looked down and found my feet in a pool of water!   I instantly thought it was my waters and luckily the midwife was due to come and see me later that morning.  She advised to go for a walk and labour might start in a couple of days.  Nothing had happend overnight or the next day and so I went to Good Hope Hospital to get checked out.  I was advised that it wasn’t my waters and so went home.  The two days that followed that visit to the hospital I had started to loose the “plug” and so was positive labour was going to happen in the next few days – which it did roughly around 7pm Thursday 20th September.  My surges had no pattern to them initially until much later that night.  When by 5am they were every 15- 20 mins.  During that night I tried to get as much rest as possible.  By 9am the next morning I felt I needed to go to the hospital just to get checked out really and to make sure this was really labour!  They told me I was 2-3cm and to go home.  Once home I drank water/lucazade and ate toast only.  I walked around alot, used the gym ball (which was great because it took the pressure off my back) and concentrated on breathing techniques.  My husband was very supportive and we used the techniques we had learned during the hypnobirthing class.  We were both relaxed at home in our own environment and so my labour progressed and my surges were coming every 6-7 mins by 8pm.

We were back at Good Hope by 8.30-8.45 where I was assessed and was 5-6cm and considered to be in established labour and so was admitted.   I was put on a heart monitor because they were a bit concerned about baby’s heartrate being a little high but I was only on there for 40 mins and everying seemed fine.  I planned on a waterbirth and so the midwife then went off to prepare the pool for me.  Before getting into the pool the midwife examined me and found she could feel baby’s head and asked if I wanted her to break my waters which she did, the surges then became alot stronger.  Unfortunately my waters were green and so she advised baby had a bowel movement and so I was not able to get into the pool.  Around 10.30 I was using gas and air through my surges which were every minute and lasting one minute.  My body took over and I started breathing the baby out.  Before I knew it baby’s head was out and was told one last good push would do it …and so baby Toby Elliot was born Friday 21 September at 11.24 weighing 7Ibs 12 oz.

I would strongly recommend moms-to-be to explore hypnobirthing and take classes.  As a first time mom I had watched birthing programmes such as ‘One Born Every Minute’ and attended the NHS anenatal classes which gave me alot of information but hypnobirthing gave me so much more knowledge and power in order for me to cope with my birth which was invaluable and a positive experience!

Water Birth – 25-Apr-12

Birth Story by Sarah J ….

“I had a hypnobirth at home, in my own living room, in a birthing pool, only my husband and the midwives were present.  There was a student midwife also who attended and this was her very first birth – she was absolutely amazed.
The early labour wasn’t as straight foreword as I’d hoped as I had had 6 days of early, latent labour and pretty much constant contractions for the whole 6 days.  They stopped for the odd hour but it was pretty gruelling – these contractions were fairly strong in my back and would last up to 60 seconds but would not get any closer than 6-7 minutes apart.  Due to the long latent phase, I had started to doubt myself whether I could actually do the hypnobirthing and whether I could maintain a relaxed state for long enough.
When labour day arrived, I woke up and thought my waters had broken in the early hours, these were slightly tinged red and so the midwife had suggested I go to hospital but came and assessed me first, the fluid had started to run clear by the time she arrived at my house so agreed that I was OK not to go to hospital. Throughout the day, the same contractions I’d been experiencing for the 6 days continued, and even stopped for a few hours, so I was very frustrated, as my waters had broken there is a 24 hour window for a home birth otherwise there is a risk of infection and delivery has be done in hospital.  However, at 6.30 pm I experienced a pop and a gush and my main waters broke – again they appeared to be tinged with blood so it looked like I may have to deliver in hospital.  By the time the midwife arrived the fluids were again running clear and my contractions had quickly got to 4 minutes apart and lasting 60 seconds.  It was decided that everything was fine and that I was ok to go ahead with my home birth and my husband began filling the birthing pool.
By the time the second midwife arrived, the surges were now very powerful.  I was managing the surges really well using my hynobirthing ‘up’ breathing techniques, I don’t quite know what happened.  I didn’t do anything consciously, I never needed to use any of the birthing or relaxation scripts to help to get me into the ‘zone’.  David and I had done a lot of practicing, every day for the last few weeks, we had practiced the relaxation scripts, to help me get into a deep state of relaxation, and help with the breathing up to assist the opening of the cervix.  I found that as soon as I needed them, my body just took over, on arrival the midwife commented how calm and relaxed I was and how I was handling the surges incredibly well.  I was assessed internally at around 9pm and was found to be around 5cm.
I was not aware of a lot of my surroundings, I was just so deeply relaxed and concentrating on managing the arrival of my little baby, I was just aware of a deep sense of calm excitement and I couldn’t wait for the arrival of my little girl.  The labour progressed really well, and while I was concentrating deeply during the surges, I was still able to talk and communicate effectively with the midwives and my husband when needed.  The pool was ready just in time, I entered the pool at around 10.30 and began to experience much stronger surges, but instead of feeling more pain, I was able to relax more deeply and found myself getting more excited with every surge as it meant my baby was getting closer to arriving.  The relief of the warm water was incredible, its like any existing tension in my body just disappeared.  The increased power of the surges told my body that my baby was on its way and I automatically began breathing my baby down, visualising my baby making its way through the birth canal, I used a visualisation of a powerful water fall to help ‘see’ my baby coming down through the canal.  I don’t recall having to use any strong pushes and I didn’t experience any strong sense of pain.  It wasn’t exactly easy but it was actually quite enjoyable.
The midwives had given me no coaching, they didn’t tell me when to push or how hard etc, they just allowed my body to do what it needed to do, and nature took over.  I was aware that the midwife was telling me that the baby was crowning and that if I reached down, I could deliver my baby.  I reached down and just a second later I was lifting my own baby gently to my chest.  She was perfect, quiet and completely calm.  It was the most beautiful, awesome experience I could ever have imagined and the absolutely perfect welcome to the world that I had dreamt of for my baby.


Esmae was born at 11.54pm on Wednesday 25th April 2012.”