Hi Janet,
We’d love to share our birthing story with you, as we believe that without our hypnobirthing experience, we wouldn’t have had the best birth possible.
At 38 weeks I had to be induced due to constantly high blood pressure, which wasn’t ideal but we accepted that baby’s and mother’s health is top priority.
Prior to going the hospital, we had spoken to Janet and also prepared ourselves for the hospital environment so that my focus wasn’t broken or deterred. We also created a new birth plan the night before, as we could now tailor this to some extent. We requested side rooms, low lights and for the induction process to be as natural as possible. This for me meant that I would try to avoid the drip, and be able to labour as natural and as relaxed as possible.
It took 3 pessaries for me to go into labour naturally, with my contractions properly starting early hours on Tuesday morning. I did allow the midwife to complete an examination as I understood that they would need to know progression before sending me down to Delivery Suite. I had got to 3cm, which was enough for me to be sent down.
During this time, I had been listening to the empowering statements and River Dawn and rotating on my birthing ball in between sleeping and received some light touch massage from my other half. Once we went to Delivery Suite, we immediately lowered the lights, put on our playlist and I tried to actually get some sleep before the contractions started to strengthen.
With gas and air and some diamorphine, I actually laboured extremely quickly for a first baby and after 3 hours, they had examined me to see that I had fully dilated to 10cm. I requested the examination as I’d felt my body urge me to push, and my waters had also broken. Using our tools from hypnobirthing enabled us to labour how we’d wished to and imagined it to be. I must have been on that magic carpet visualisation for hours, but I absolutely loved it.
After a short break, my contractions seemed to speed up to every 2 minutes, lasting around a minute or more. I started to breathe the baby out, focusing on my J breathing and also my end goal. However, after an hour and a half of pushing, there was no baby and I didn’t actually feel like I was moving anything downwards or progressing.
The consultant was called, and this could have sent me into a panic, but I stayed as calm and relaxed as I could, and listened carefully to my options. They explained that baby was in a very difficult position, and I was also exhausted. As baby was starting to show some signs of distress, they decided it would be best for me to have an assisted delivery with a spinal block, in theatre. Once in there, after two doctors trying, they could not get baby out due to her position. She did then get distressed, so the best and safest option was then to have an emergency c-section.
It wasn’t our dream birth, nor was it the planned birth. But it was perfect to us, as we both felt so relaxed and we knew that we had done the best we could. The consultant commented on the fact that we were both so calm, happy and even laughing with them in theatre, and the day after we were so content. My body even feels positive, happy and strong and I do believe this was because I didn’t tense my body and I didn’t let the stresses get to me.
Without hypnobirthing, I can only imagine how stressful that would be to any mother. But with, it made it a serene experience the whole way through. Explaining it to all my caregivers, enabled them to tailor it to me and make me feel relaxed and calm. Hence our beautiful new little girl being so calm and relaxed after attempted delivery, forceps and then a c-section.
We want to thank you Janet, as you’ve given us a treasured memory, and only furthered our desire for another baby and to still have a natural birth.
Lots of love,
Sian and John xxx