I gave birth to my little boy on the 16th of May, he was around 2 weeks late but this never bothered me. I knew he was absolutely fine and my body just wasn’t ready, I had made his home far too comfortable for him!
At 41 weeks I went to see my midwife and she did a sweep, I had weighed up all the pros and cons of this, but I mainly wanted to know if anything was happening. When she performed it, she said I was already 2cm dilated with a very soft cervix, which in turn made me relax further knowing that things were progressing and the little man was preparing for his arrival. As the baby was sitting so low into my pelvis, the amniotic sack was tight around his head so they had mentioned to me that if my waters hadn’t broken by Saturday (41+5) then they would have to do it for me. Again I was OK with this as my cervix was soft and they would only break my waters- I didn’t want them to perform any other kind of induction.
41+5 came and went and at 41+6 they broke my waters and put me on a tiny amount of the oxytocin drip. I only needed a small amount as things were progressing nicely- my contractions were coming regularly. The way I described them to people was like riding a rollercoaster, you can feel yourself going up, up, up then you hit the top and ride it all the way down! This really helped me keep my focus on each one whilst using my up breathing I found them very manageable.
Not long after having regular contractions I felt the urge to push, so I started to use my down breathing- focusing all my breath and energy on the down motion. At this point, I had only used a bit of gas and air as I was able to control everything with my breathing and my visualisations. I was so calm and relaxed, my husband described me as being like a Tibetan monk- so in control and focused! He is the biggest hypnobirthing convert and he can’t stop telling everyone about how powerful it was to see it in action. It blew his mind!
Baby Boy was born after 2 hours of pushing. He was born with a shoulder displacer so at the very last minute we just needed some medical help as he also had the cord wrapped around his arm, but I remained truly calm, knowing that soon my baby would be in my arms.
I can’t tell you how amazing it all felt! Labour was such an adrenaline high then meeting him for the first time was amazing.
I just wanted to share this with you as it was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to share my story with other hypnobirthing mothers and spread the word!
– Georgina
