Because of hypnobirthing, I knew my rights and I understood more thoroughly the process of birth.

This was my first pregnancy and our beautiful baby is thanks to IVF. For most of my pregnancy, I played out my own mother’s birth story as though it would also become mine... I had fears and beliefs around caesareans, inductions and not being able to breastfeed. I was wrong and was able to move past those beliefs and hypnobirthing is the main reason why.

 

Firstly, because of my strong preference to not be induced, I did have three acupuncture appointments in the three days leading up to my due date and it certainly ramped things up with my tightenings and discomfort I could feel a change going up a notch after each appointment.

 

Then at 2.30 am Tuesday 12th January 2021 ( exactly 40 weeks ) my membranes released. I hopped in the shower and my husband called the midwives to let them know. At this point I had no pains at all so the midwives asked us to come in for monitoring for an hour. By the time we left the hospital at 4.30 am I was having some mild period like discomfort and we went home to wait for labour to get going.

 

My husband set up the fairy lights and my affirmations, I had the ball, my music and a tens machine. By 7.30am we were back at the hospital with 4 contractions in 10 minutes lasting a minute each .. so our quiet at home hypnobirthing set up only lasted 2 hours, though once at the hospital our birthing suite was also quiet and dark and the midwives respected that I was hypnobirthing. There was no yelling, noises or drama I just quietly breathed my way through.

 

Each surge was manageable with the tens machine for a few hours ( would recommend hiring one ) but after a while the midwives suggested to try the shower for some relief which was nice for a while and I started to feel ‘pushy’ so out of the shower they checked my dilation and I was at 5cm. After a while of no water or tens I asked for gas which did help take the edge off but I also only used it every second contraction because I didn’t want to over do it.

 

My husband did the anchor touch, rubbed my back, reminded me to slow down my breathing and relax my jaw, applied my clary sage, used the water in the shower and told me how great I was the whole time. I spent my whole labour standing slightly bent over the raised bed or on all fours on the ground while using the affirmations ‘I can do hard things’ and ‘the pain is not bigger than me, it is me’.

 

By the time I was very pushy the midwives called the Dr because the babies heart rate seemed low. The on call Dr wanted me on the bed straight away which I refused and the midwives let me try pushing through a few more surges but a vacuum delivery with an episiotomy was suggested . I refused an episiotomy three times while he ran through all the risks. I was happy for a kiwi delivery if the baby was a little bit stuck but definitely no episiotomy. Up on the bed in stirrups ( this is not how I wanted to deliver by baby ) I thought here we go I’ll be torn to pieces. But after 4 or 5 more surges our beautiful baby boy was born at 12.41pm. I had only a graze and needed no stitches.

 

We requested delayed cord clamping and no needle for the placenta delivery. The dr then went through the risks of not having the needle and I asked that we negotiate a time frame, he continued to push the point until a midwife stepped in front of him and said ‘you can wait and we can get you into the shower if we need to’ 10 minutes later the placenta was delivered naturally with no problems.

 

Because of hypnobirthing, I knew my rights, I understood more thoroughly the process of birth and all the possible outcomes and therefore was able to stand my ground, I had a calm and positive pregnancy and a calm and beautiful birthing experience. We were so happy that our midwives were very much pro-natural birth and were totally on board with hypnobirthing and respecting our preferences.

 

Knowledge is power and I am so grateful for the wonderful birth of our precious Spencer William Tunstall.

 

Corinne