“Hi Janet, Just wanted to let you know we had our baby girl and we had such a brilliant birth. We’d done lots of practising and had just had a really relaxing weekend with Epsom salt baths and nice meals and I was feeling really ready and happy.
When my waters broke in the morning I was really excited and not scared and did my “Up” breathing with every surge as they got stronger throughout the day. We had a little walk on the beach and lots of relaxing at home. At 8pm we arrived at the hospital and straight away my husband put on “River Dawn” (Hypnobirthing Music) and kept the lights low and we felt safe and settled.
My husband was brilliant, reminding me about visualisations and having my chin up and keeping me going. The “Up” breathing was so effective and the midwives commented on how good it was. Things sped up pretty fast and I did have a bit of a wobble as the surges were coming quickly and strongly, but the last bit happened really quickly (I think because of all the preparation we’d done) and our baby girl was born at just over 3 hours later.
I can honestly say that until about 9pm the surges were pain free, almost pleasurable as I knew each one was getting closer to the baby arriving. I had some gas and air when things became intense but that was all I needed. I never imagined we could have such a positive birth experience after our first.
Our first baby was back to back and his head was tilted – after lots of pain and pushing we were transferred from the birth centre to hospital and had an epidural and forceps. I felt panicked and had no control. I didn’t heal well and it was quite traumatic for both me and my husband. Because of this there were times we’d considered an elective Caesarean this time and I’d been very scared about labour.
So, a massive thank you for your course and your advice and for helping us achieve a magical birth experience which I would never have believed possible. My husband felt confident in being able to offer me effective help and that was a really big part of me being able to stay strong. It’s been wonderful for our relationship to have gone through all the preparation and the birth together as a team. Our baby was so calm when she was born, it was lovely
Thanks so much Janet.” Born in a North West England Hospital.