As a Registered Midwife and being pregnant with my first baby a lot of people thought that I would be the most prepared and relaxed about birth. Not the case! I was petrified! Yes, I’ve done all the training and study and looked after heaps of women in childbirth so I should be pretty calm about going through it myself. But, unfortunately this was not the case. My last rotation in birth suite was a tough one and at 25 weeks pregnant myself I found myself only able to remember those unfortunate events; and the comments of “oh you’re a Midwife, you’ll be right” only made my anxiety grow!
Then while talking to my lovely friend Sandie at work about it she suggested her Hypnobirthing Classes, just 5 sessions at my home to prepare me and husband for the birth. YES!! Each session helped me expel the fear I had built up around birth and made me calm and ready. I especially loved the affirmations and rainbow relaxation that Sandie would read! So calming!! So here’s my birth story: Sunday night 27/8/17 at 38 weeks and 4 days just relaxing watching tv at about 8pm. My first tightening! It felt different to anything I’d felt before and I had to get up and have a little walk.
After about 45 mins of them coming every 10-15mins I gave my Midwife a quick call. Dan (my husband) sat with me and read the Rainbow Relaxation Script to me. Feeling very calm I sent him off to bed and I just sat on the couch and had a few little walks around the house. All with our beloved border collie Doug watching me This went on until about 11pm I think, breathing through the surges as they came and went, all while visualising my two favourite affirmation cards “believe you can and you will” and “I can do anything for a minute”.
While laying on the couch, Doug suddenly got up and started barking! There was a snake just outside on our shoe rack! I yelled out to Dan to wake up and come get rid of it, I was standing out on the porch pacing back and forth, breathing through each surge but never took my eyes off that snake! I was all worked up after this and felt my control slip so I decided to hop into the shower for a bit. I must have been in there for a while because we ran out of hot water! At 2am I woke Dan again and asked him to ring our Midwife. I got very emotional about there not being any more hot water and started to lose my control again. However, with Dan’s calming voice, light back massage and a heat pack I was back into my rhythm.
Our Midwife arrived and sat with us for a little while before suggesting we head into the hospital. My waters broke on the way to hospital. It felt weird walking into birth suite as a patient but I was so relieved that two of my favourite colleagues were on shift and they gave me a little cheer when I walked in at 4:30 in the morning I hopped straight into the bath when we arrived and I could feel myself involuntary pushing.
There was complete silence in the room and every now and then I’d hear Dans voice praising me and telling me how well I was doing and giving me a sip of water. I stayed in the bath for a while, & soft breathing & my affirmations were my focus. I think I became so relaxed that everything slowed down for a few surges and I rested for just a short time. I got out of the bath and everything picked up again & after about 30-40 minutes of pushing our beautiful baby was delivered by daddy at 06:26am. It’s a BOY, I felt so proud and overwhelmed with joy!! I did it, we did it! And thanks to those 5 calm, relaxing classes with Sandie in the comfort of my own home I can truly say that they brought birth back to ‘normal’ for me and empowered me to a physiological birth!
Looking back and reflecting on how things went, I was faced with a few challenges that could have sent my labour in a different direction but thanks to the tools I learnt with Sandie’s Hypnobirthing technique I was able calm down, relax and re-focus. I cannot thank her enough!! xxx
