My labour started on a Sunday morning on my baby’s due date. We used many of the techniques used in our Hypnobirthing course, including the deep breathing and visualisation, Rebozo techniques, gentle movements and using the birth ball. These all helped to get me through until it was time to go to the hospital, at about 7pm that night.
It’s very clear that HypnoBirthing has become well-known and accepted, as all the midwives knew what to expect and weren’t surprised when we whipped out the essential oil diffuser, LED candles (a gift from lovely Sandie!), affirmations and meditative music!
Once I was settled in the hospital I found that I naturally just wanted to be still. I did try to move around the room but my body kept telling me to return to the bed. I realise this probably slowed my labour, but I went deep into a meditative state using my breathing and found that time just flew by.
By 2am I was in the water (which felt amazing) and started my birth breathing. The whole experience was amazing. I found that I just went totally inside myself, to the point that I almost felt guilty afterwards that I didn’t say a word to Greig through the whole thing!
I was oh-so very close to having my baby in the water, but it turns out her little hand was pressed right up against her cheek so in the final stages of my labour when she was crowning, I just couldn’t manage to get her all the way out and to our frustration, she kept going back in! Eventually I had to come out of the water and have an episiotomy.
Aside from this last 20 minutes – which were a little more intense – the entire birth experience was so calm and peaceful. I can only imagine how different things would have been without having done the HypnoBirthing course – I feel like I would not have coped nearly as well and would probably have ended up asking for intervention at some stage. Instead I just went with the ebs and flows and ‘breathed’ my way through it!
I was always someone who was afraid of childbirth (like, seriously!) and so to now be able to say that I went through it without feeling scared, hyperventilating OR needing any pain relief… is incredible.
I wish every couple could do this course! Thank you Sandie xx
