Birth Stories

Read some recent birth Stories by some of our 'HypnoBirthing' mums:

NEW: birth story of the month!

Alison's Story

Our plans to have a home water birth changed when the waters broke and we had a further 2 days waiting at home, with no sleep, for labour to start. The waters were tinged brown and then a very strong colour – when we were strongly advised to go into hospital for induction of labour. Despite initial disappointment we were relieved to finally get labour underway! We were very excited that our long-awaited baby was soon to be with us. We treated the delivery as our own and took ownership of our labour and birth. We didn’t feel in any way undermined by hospital staff and the whole experience was just as we had wanted…calm, relaxed and dignified. We created a soft atmosphere – had calming music and low lights and used the breathing techniques throughout.

The birth itself was wonderful. I’d felt that enormous pressure and urge to bear down , but not told anyone. I literally breathed the baby down without straining or pushing, and had to ask if the head was out. One little push and the shoulders were out…..then Holly was straight on me for our first cuddle. It was truly amazing.

Tania's story

I was a week overdue and had been in hospital for a couple of days having traces because I hadn’t felt baby moving much, so they were monitoring me.

On the Sunday evening I had some stomach cramps and felt uncomfortable so I laid in the ward listening to Rainbow Relaxation and Affirmations on my Ipod! It relaxed me so much I drifted off to sleep and woke up the next morning! Pains had subsided so hospital agreed to let me go home and see how I was for the next few days.

Around 1pm, Allan and I decided to go to Tesco for some energy foods ready for labour! Lucozade, bananas etc!!! I had a few tummy cramps but didn't think anything of it. We came home from Tesco's, but I didn't feel like eating lunch so I just rested for a while ...

Around 3pm I started feeling more uncomfortable, so Al offered to run me a bath. I laid in the bath listening to Rainbow Relaxation and practising my breathing.We started timing the contractions, which to our amazement were 3 minutes apart, and lasting 90 seconds!! Al phoned the delivery suite, and they told us to come straight in. It took us another hour to get out of the house, as I had a show, contractions were almost on top of each other, and I couldn't stand up .... I was on all fours on the stairs and in the car on the way to hospital …. Plus my waters broke with ferocity all over the back seat of the new Golf!!

Got to the hospital at 4:45pm ... Rushed through to delivery, told the ladies I felt the urge to push, and they told me to wait until I was examined. The midwife quickly examined me and told us our daughter was minutes away as I was fully dilated!!!!!

I had just 4 puffs on the gas and air, and a few further contractions ... Kara came into the world at 5:35pm.

I cannot believe my labour was just 3-4 hours, and I had done it naturally! I still find it fabulous that I managed to get to 10cms at home! Although extremely intense, it was the most amazing experience of my life! Al and I honestly believe that Hypno-Birthing definitely played a huge part in our birthing experience … I just stayed home and tried to manage the labour. Had I not had this confidence I would have been running to the hospital at the first twinge!

Thanks very much for everything! Apologies for the delay in writing this too … Kara will be 6 months next week!! Where has the time gone?!                 
 Tania Hewitt, Caddington

Dinah's Story 

We decided to have an induction because we were 12days overdue. I was very nervous that the HypnoBirthing techniques would not work because an induction is such a “managed” birth. we had the first tablet of Pitocin at 12.30 and u responded very well going from 1-3 cm dilation. We went to have the waters broken at 10pm that night and from that moment I consider ‘real labour’ started. My body seemed to wake up and take over and I didn’t  go on the oxytocin drip.

The whole experience was amazing. My husband stayed with me for the birth and we were very lucky to have an independent midwife who stayed with us for the whole time.  Michelle – our independent midwife – had done the HypnoBirthing course so I had two people with me to support the HypnoBirthing techniques. I would say that I didn’t visualise very much during labour. I concentrated on breathing and I was listening to a CD walkman the whole time with the ‘Comfort Zone’ playing. This was invaluable as I could hear other women screaming in nearby rooms and listening to the CD helped me block out the noise and concentrate.

I don’t think I had a transition phase. There was one point where the tightenings were coming together without a break in between but then I went into the second stage fairly quickly. I didn’t find the second stage of labour painful, just very tiring. I was surprised it lasted so long (just over an hour).I had seen so many births on TV where the child just seemed to ‘pop out’ that I had a wrong impression of this stage. Again, Michelle was invaluable at this stage reassuring me that everything was normal and advising me at one point not to bear down so much, to take it easy. I believe that by listening to Michelle I avoided having to get stitches completely. Also doing the Perineal massage may have helped!                                                                                                                                       

 Seeing Dimitris, our son, for the first time was so moving. I think I was in shock because all I could do was stare at him. I delivered the placenta naturally and with the support of Michelle I checked myself out of the hospital at 7.30am. Dimitris was born at 3.15am. My mother was waiting at home for us and she looked after us all for the first two weeks. Now Dimitris is a month old and it feels like he was always with us. He is thriving and I am still using HypnoBirthing techniques to relax both of us.                       
 Dinah McCarthy, Milton Keynes

Hypnobirthing works!- even for a 'high-risk' birth; Susan's Story

On Friday evening about 9pm I was getting ready for bed and had a show. It was just like when I went into labour with my daughter. I decided not to say anything to my husband as I didn’t wan to tempt fate! I didn’t sleep well so I got up about 11pm to come downstairs so as not to disturb my daughter or my husband. As I went downstairs my waters broke. So as we had decided we wanted to have a home birth I contacted the hospital to let them know my waters had broken and so they could contact a community midwife. They said there weren’t any available as they were all at home births already and I had to go into hospital to check all was ok. So I had to wake my husband and call my mother in law to look after my daughter. My husband said he wished I had told him earlier as he’d have gone to bed earlier!

We then drove to the hospital where they thought I was developing pre-eclampsia as I had protein in my urine and my blood pressure was high.

Although very disappointed we decided to make the best of a bad situation and put on our music and my husband read the rainbow relaxation script.

At midnight my surges kicked in and I breathed up each surge with relaxing prompts from my husband. I found standing and swaying my hips also helped. At 3 am my surges were coming every 30seconds to a minute. However, I managed to stay relaxed. The midwives were great and respected our want for a natural birth and left us to our own devices. They only came back at the birthing phase.

During the birthing phase it became apparent that I had a shoulder dystocia which is where the baby’s shoulders were stuck on my pelvis. I had 2 midwives pulling my legs up around my head , one pushing the baby from my abdomen and one pulling on the baby. Although a horrendous procedure I stayed relaxed with support from my husband and focusing on my breathing.

Eventually I gave birth to Cameron Terry Jones 9lbs 15oz at 7.14am. He came out flat but bearing the ordeal he had just experienced he had high apgar scores at both 1 and 5minutes.

After he had been assessed I was left with Cameron and my husband and we had skin to skin for about an hour and I breastfed him.

Although not a straight forward birth I manages to stay in control and relaxed throughout the birth and Cameron recovered amazingly quickly. The midwives couldn’t believe how relaxed we both were.  
Susan Jones, Dunstable

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