I feel like I could do this all again because of the incredible hypnobirthing techniques that I armed myself with.

My Hypnobirth Story

Zara Maeve born 29/10/20 at 2:49am. 2856grams and 47cm long.

I decided to sign up to the hypnobirthing Australia course online early on in my pregnancy as I knew I wanted a calm and controlled birth experience (I had heard many good things about the course). I committed to listening to the MP3s regularly and practiced my breathing throughout my third trimester. I was feeling confident and ready going into the birth of my first bub.

My labour started just before 5pm last Wednesday with surges that felt like period pain. I had similar surges at 3am that morning but they disappeared and I didn’t feel any for the rest of the day until now, so I wasn’t sure if this was the real thing or false labour pains so I carried on with my evening.

I started cooking dinner around 5:30pm but I could feel that the intensity of my surges was definitely building and they were getting longer. Then I noticed I had lost some of mucus plug while I was pottering around in the kitchen. As I was birthing in a hospital 25 mins away from home I called my midwife and she arranged for me to be checked by the midwife at our local hospital 2 mins away. We went to the local hospital at around 6:30pm where I requested to be checked and was told that I was already 2-3cm dilated. This gave me confidence that things were moving faster than I had thought.

We went home and I had a small dinner then relaxed through my surges, moving between the couch, shower, and fit-ball while listening to my hypnobirthing tracks. I was really loving the feeling of being upright in the shower, but then we ran out of hot water! My surges were building and were now 45 seconds and 1.5-2 mins apart so we decided to make the 25 min car journey to the hospital that I was birthing at.

We arrived at the hospital at 10:15pm. Once we got to the birth suite we set up the diffuser with lavender oil and bluetooth speaker. I played two meditation music tracks, Deep Within and Adrift by Christopher Lloyd Smith - these played on repeat for my entire labour. My midwife joked that they nearly put her to sleep.

I spent my labour switching between the fit ball while my partner and midwife massaged my back with oils and standing in the shower swaying through my surges.

Standing in the shower was a game changer for me, I swayed to the music we had playing while I thought about bringing my baby girl down through breath with every surge. I felt so in control. Looking back now I’m amazed at how natural and instinctual this swaying and breathing motion felt. Trust your instincts and your body, it knows what to do.

Just after 2am in the shower my waters broke and I immediately had the urge to bare down and push. The midwife set up a mattress on the floor outside of the shower where I got down on all fours and rested my head in my partners lap. My amazing midwife guided me through the pushing and assisted me to breathe to preserve my perenium as her head was crowning (which we achieved ). I also reached down and felt the top of her head - so much hair! Within 30 minutes my baby girl was born at 2:49am. She flew straight out into the world with one big push after crowning and I felt like I was superwoman! She was passed up to me through my legs, I turned over and put her straight onto my chest.

I am day 5 post birth now and my recovery has been amazing. I feel like I could do this all again because of the incredible hypnobirthing techniques that I armed myself with. This course was truly a game changer and I’m so grateful for my incredible birthing experience because of it 

Jessica