I am a mom of 3 boys. For my first boy I took prep classes at the hospital. He was born by emergency C-section (I wasn’t prepared for this or anything at all in fact) because of fetal distress. They put me under full narcosis and I slept for 3 hours.
It was a big trauma for baby and me and I couldn’t help feeling guilty not noticing that my baby boy wasn’t ok.
For my second birth, I hired an independent midwife (who usually attended homebirths) who had an agreement with a hospital to attend VBACs there. She wanted to know what happened for Benjamin’s birth and with lots of arguing and negotiation, got my medical file concerning my C-section. The medical staff misread the monitoring and panicked, they decided way too early to send me to theater without even trying to understand what happened or to check on us first hand. So this was my first baby’s story, an emergency C-section for no reason at all. Now was the time to have the birth I wished for!
I prepared with my midwife (which was based on sophrology). I gave birth at the hospital unmedicated but my midwife released my waters and urged me to push because she felt pressured by the medical staff. At the hospital the clock is always ticking! I ended up lying on my back with another midwife pushing on my pregnant belly. How physiological is that? It left me bittersweet… again.
But here came my third baby boy. I planned for an assisted home waterbirth and this time no one would touch me or tell me what to do or how to give birth! Since the previous preparations didn’t prepare me at all, I decided to check for myself which method would soothe me best and stumbled upon KGHypnobirthing. I downloaded the mp3 (the blue one) and the book on Audible and diligently studied and listened to the track every night while falling asleep, starting at 35weeks. Without really believing hypnosis would work on me, I gave it a try.
While labouring, walking around in my beautiful garden with my 3 year old holding my hand, I plugged Katharine’s voice into my ears. I felt amazingly calm and confident in my ability to give birth and my baby being born easily. I had never been this cool, relaxed and calm. It was amazing! James was born in the water caught by my hubby. There we were, the 3 of us in the comfort and security of our home, feeling the rush of oxytocin flowing. We were happy and fulfilled.
Thanks to KGH I had the most incredible birth I could ever dream of.
Now I am willing to pass it on to the French speaking women here in France and am currently doing the KGH teacher training. It is a powerful tool that needs to be known by all women wishing to have a gentle, calm and respectful birth.
Many thanks to Katharine for enabling us to believe in our inner strength and power to give birth as we wish!
