I’ve always taken the view that child birth is natural. Women have been doing it for a pretty long time so it shouldn’t be something we are scared of. 3 months ago I started the KG Hypnobirthing course and a few weeks ago I had my 3rd baby. My baby boy was born at home in the middle of the night in a dark room. It was an empowering and special birth.
All 3 of my births have been good experiences which I think is because, without knowing it, I have followed many of the hypnobirthing principles. While watching the online KG Hypnobirthing modules I nodded along while Katharine talked about the ideas, history and science behind hypnobirthing. It all made sense to me.
With two children already I struggled to find the time to practice the visualisations and affirmations which are so key to hypnobirthing, but what I did take away gave me the confidence to be clear on what I needed and wanted for my labour and birth.
The afternoon I went into labour I had a strange sensation in my belly which gradually built into surges by the time I put my older children to bed. I spent a couple of hours with my partner before deciding to try and rest. The frequency and intensity of the surges prevented me from sleeping so I soon decided to get up again, make my “nest” for giving birth and then have a warm bath. My partner had to support me through this because I needed to stop every few minutes to focus.
The warm water of the bath helped to further relax me and due to the intensity of the surges we decided to call the midwives. By the time they arrived around 45 minutes later I had moved to my nest and I was on my hands and knees breathing through regular waves, confident that my baby would arrive very soon. I found it painful when anyone touched my belly or my back so the midwives stayed back and waited. The midwives watched me to understand how I was progressing and responded to my cues and requests. Half an hour after they arrived I was holding my baby boy to my chest.
There were times I forgot to breathe and my partner helpfully reminded me (that will be my fault for the lack of practice), but on the whole I was left to focus on my body and what it needed to do. Hypnobirthing helped me listen to my body and to have the birth I wanted. My only negative is that due to my choice to have the lights dimmed I have no good photographs from delivery or my early moments with Baby Boy. As a blogger who captures most of my life in photographs I regret this, but I know I did what was right for my body and my baby and I have made up for it with 1000s of photographs since.
– Kate
