My son turned 1 in August, and my husband and I attended your course in May 2019. It was honestly the best thing we did to prepare for the birth of our beautiful baby. We have had the most wonderful year with our son and it all began with the calm, natural birth we had hoped for.
Our boy was born at 7.03am on August 7th, at 39 weeks + 1 . It was all rather quick and unexpected as I was totally convinced I’d be late, and had even put a lot into my birth plan about avoiding induction if I was overdue!
August 6th was our wedding anniversary, and we walked down to a restaurant for dinner about 1.5 miles from home…perhaps the walk got things moving? We got home later that evening and I started having what I thought were Braxton Hicks once we were in bed, having just listened to the ‘Magic Carpet’ relaxation. I really didn’t think they were the real thing so I just went to sleep, but that plan did not last for long and by the early AM on the 7th the surges were strong and regular. I used the KGH breathing & visualisation techniques and really felt in a good zone. I was keen to stay at home as long as possible so we lingered a bit after we had called the birth centre and they had said to come in, so when we finally got there about 4am things were already quite advanced.
We got settled in our room (very dim lights, relaxing music, lots of pillows etc – fortunately our midwife was very supportive of our wishes), and I felt the natural urge to push not long after. The surges were pretty intense but the breathing and visualisations I’d learnt really kept me on track. I did try a couple of puffs of gas and air but it didn’t do anything for me and was more distracting than anything, so I just got back to the breathing. I used the birth pool for a bit as well. The water was lovely and relaxing but in the end I felt that I needed to come out for the final stage to get in a different position. My son was born just after 7am- just a few hours after we got there.
I had a natural delivery of the placenta and delayed cord clamping which gave us lots of time immediately after the birth for skin to skin cuddles with the little man, which was lovely.
We were really fortunate to have had the natural birth that we had hoped for. The hypnobirthing was such a big part of that – the course itself, but also all of the preparation we did after the course, the daily relaxations etc. And now, a year on, I look back at that experience as the most intense and wonderful experience of my life.
We were also really lucky to meet another couple on your course who we became really good friends with, so thank you for that too!
I hope you are both keeping well in these strange times, and thanks again for the part you played in our positive birth story.
Natalie, Jon and our little guy!
