I just wanted to message as I gave birth to my baby boy on 21st July and if it wasn’t for your book and hypnobirthing, I can honestly say I don’t think I would have been able to get through it as successfully.
The labour started on Monday evening and my contractions were instantly 5 minutes apart and stayed that way during the whole night. I turned on my music and the affirmations and had that playing whilst I had a bath and breathed through the contractions. I lasted like that until 2pm the following day when I went into hospital.
Because of Corona I couldn’t have my husband come in with me until they confirmed I was in established labour which they shortly confirmed I was.
I requested the Midwife Led Unit from the outset and had explained I was hypnobirthing. Unfortunately, again because of Corona they told me they didn’t have sufficient staff to open it and so I could only be in the main delivery ward. My husband understood how important hypnobirthing was to me so was very prepared. He was so great in taking the hypnobirthing tools to create an amazing room to evoke all the senses.
I was labouring in the pool until about 7pm when I was 7cm dilated when they told me that due to Corona I couldn’t actually give birth in the pool unless I had a negative test results come back in time and they had forgotten to test me as I came in for assessment. Rather than get annoyed, I stayed calm remembering how important it was to keep Oxytocin flowing and my husband reassured me that we could still have a natural, easy birth out of the pool.
I adopted the UFO position wherever possible and by 9pm I was 10cm dilated and was in the second stage of labour. After an hour of pushing, I was getting very exhausted and they discussed giving me an episiotomy to help baby come out as they could see the head. Given I was so close, we chose to keep going with the pushing and my husband read out the affirmations to me. I had the visualisation of the beautiful countryside from the ‘Colour and Calmness’ MP3 I had listened to every night, in my mind the entire time and I believe this helped me immensely. At 22:22 on the Tuesday I finally gave birth naturally. I requested delayed cord clamping and skin to skin undisturbed for an hour whilst baby immediately latched on.
It was the hardest 24 hours and I used every ounce of energy I had. Even with all the drawbacks due to Corona, it was undoubtedly the hypnobirthing techniques and knowledge which really helped me through and for that I am forever grateful.
I won’t hesitate to recommend hypnobirthing to everyone I know!
