I am truely grateful for taking Sandie’s HypnoBirthing course. It taught us so much and made us so ready and excited for the birth of our first child. Here is our wonderful natural water birth story that all along I felt positive that we would get.
At 39 weeks and 2 days my waters broke at 4pm so we called the hospital to let them know we would be coming in at some stage. By 7pm my surges had started so I jumped in the shower as the water was nice and relaxing. We then played my soothing music and lay on the bed doing my calm breathing and my partner did light touch massage. Unfortunately after an hour or so my body reacted quite badly to the over load of hormones rushing throughout my body and I started to feel very nauseous and ended up in the bathroom with vomiting and diarrhoea which I never expected as I had a really good pregnancy with no morning sickness!
At 12.30am I felt we had held out as long as possible and just needed to get to the hospital so that we could get the room set up and I could relax completely knowing i was where I needed to be. Previous to my labour, I always imagined the car ride would be the most uncomfortable part but it turned out it was where I could be most focused on relaxing myself. I closed my eyes and listened to my HypnoBirthing tracks and just did my calm breathing. By then my surges were getting pretty intense and they were very close together.
We arrived at the hospital at 1am and my partner ran in to get some help as we were at the after hours door. After what seemed like a life time of labouring in the car (5-10 minutes) my partner and a nurse came rushing out with a wheelchair. I was beyond being able to walk all that way and thank god they did wheel me in as I could continue to keep my eyes closed and focus on my breathing all the way into the birthing suite.
The next 5 minutes I felt was the only time I almost lost my calmness as we were alone in the room waiting for the midwife and I felt very close and that I needed her there and I was getting impatient and almost snapped at my partner. The only comfortable position I could find was sitting on the toilet!
The midwife arrived and I jumped straight into the shower where my partner trickled warm water over my back while I lay over a Swiss ball and continued my breathing but I was feeling a lot of urges to push or poo! I knew I had to start with my birth breathing and started to breath downwards.
The whole time I remember thinking it was so great knowing all the stages of birth that Sandie had taught us and I was just waiting for that transition stage which people had said was always the most intense part. I was feeling like I didn’t think I could get through that, especially if I was only in the early stages which is what I assumed as I opted for only 1 internal examination which was to be done just before hopping into the spa. I finally gave in and asked to have the internal to see where things where at. I hopped onto the bed, had one surge then the midwife quickly did the internal and the head was right there! She said I was fully dilated! I had been through the transition stage! I couldn’t believe it. It was like music to my ears and it felt like it was now the home stretch which gave me a big burst of energy and empowerment knowing I was in the last stage and that we would be meeting our daughter soon!
It was time to hop into the spa with my partner. The lights were dimmed and there were beautiful candles lined along the spa edge with my calm tranquil music playing. Once in the warm water I felt my surges subside a bit and I was getting longer breaks between them. The crowning started and the midwives got the mirror out so my partner and I could take a peep. I felt so strong and amazing that I was doing this. It was the best feeling and I knew that once the head was out the baby would do its turn and then come out with the next surge… which she did and might I add was the strangest feeling having your baby do a little turn inside you but again, I loved that Sandie had taught me all these stages and I knew what was happening. My partner was great, he was facing me while I was on my knees and I held onto him the entire time and lay in his arms in between each surge while he comforted me and reminded me to just breath and not push.
After 45 minutes of being in the spa our beautiful little girl came out and into her daddy’s arms. Then he placed onto my chest where she quietly just looked at me until I gently blew on her face to encourage her breathing. She let out a cute little cry and I just took every moment in. After a couple of minutes we got out of the spa and lay on the bed together where she crawled to my breast to try and feed. She needed a little help but latched with the help of the midwives.
We had skin to skin until the umbilical cord was white and had stopped pulsing so my partner cut the cord. I started to get another surge so I knew the placenta was ready to be birthed so while my partner did skin to skin I sat on a little bucket with a seat and basically coughed and the placenta came out… one of the weirdest yet most satisfying feelings I’ve ever had! Haha. I got back onto the bed for more skin to skin while the midwives tended to the grazing I received which I required stitches for. I remember them offering me the gas as they thought the local injection would hurt, I was like lady, I just birthed my child drug free and naturally, I don’t think I’ll need anything for a needle! Haha
Throughout my labour my midwife only monitored the baby’s heart rate which was beating perfectly the whole time and not once was she in stress. I believe HypnoBirthing and the natural, drug-free waterbirth has given us the most amazing, calm baby who has been an absolute dream.
I am so grateful we got the exact kind of birth that I had envisioned throughout the HypnoBirthing course. I truely do believe that being positive and believing you will get what you want has a huge impact on what you actually get. Sandie’s course taught us to not fear birth but to be excited about it and to focus on what you want. I love our birth story and I’m so proud of it. I know it was long but thank you for reading it and I hope it will bring other expectant mums reassurance that there is such a thing as beautiful births and that they are not as scary and horrific like so many stories out there. We would never have known this if we had not attended Sandie’s Essential HypnoBirthing Course. Xx
