“We had our Hypnobirthing baby Sunday morning at 1:14am, she made an early appearance on her own accord! My waters broke on Friday evening at 9pm and instead of worrying I did what every 2nd time mum most likely does and packed my hospital bag and tinted my eye brows.
I felt really calm and collected and ready to birth my baby. My contractions didn’t start until the day after and become a bit more regular towards afternoon time. The hospital “guidance” classes me as high risk due to my previous emergency C-section and strep b in my first pregnancy so they where getting onto me to come in to get “checked” and start my “plan” in case 24 hours went by after my waters breaking and I hadn’t had my baby.
I agreed to come in for observations, and whilst there I agreed to one examination so I could go back home if not in labour. I was 1cm when I got there and of course as the 24 hours was coming up, there was a pressure to perform and the consultant started to pressure me to book in for induction or C-section.
I left the hospital feeling really upset and spoke to Janet who got my oxytocin levels back up. I knew I didn’t want to go back to the hospital until I was ready to birth my baby. They had at this point also almost taken away the chance of me delivering in the MLU due to another “risk factor” of my waters.
Janet went through my options with me and sent me some fact based research (this wasn’t something the consultant was able to provide nor statistics around infection). At this point I had stopped contracting and my adrenaline was up. I was getting ptsd from the labour ward from my previous birth and wasn’t feeling listened to.I went home, put my KG audio on, got in the zone, nice lights and lied down with my partner and dog relaxing.
By 9pm I could feel things start to ramp up so I used all my hypnobirthing techniques and my partner supported me through the whole of it. Unfortunately he could not attend the hypnobirthing weekend I did with Janet but we had been practising most nights and he was fully onboard with advocating for me as well as understanding my birth plan.
Around 11pm I got in the shower and by 12-12;30 I was having regular intense contractions which I managed at home by using all my hypnobirthing techniques. My partner did start to time them and said he thought it was best we headed in, but because of how I was treated prior I started asking for a home birth and just to call an ambulance as I didn’t want to go back in!
He advocated for me and had no doubt in his mind I was going to birth this baby the way I wanted. He called the MLU giving them two options – we either home birth high risk previous emergency C-section or you let us in to a MLU room if available – they said we could go in and speak about our risks for the 388202 time!
We got there I refused any internal examinations and asked they got the birthing pool on. We arrived at the ward at 1am had a quick debrief with the midwife she left to have a snack (I don’t think believing I was about to push a baby out probably because I was using my hypnobirthing techniques) and I got on the couch.
They left me and my partner to it and before we knew it the head was coming – he ran straight for the midwife who came to catch the baby and our little girl was born at 1:14am.
After all the fear mongering she was absolutely fine and we were let home the same day.
After a completely different experience with my first making uniformed decisions and no support from the nhs who failed me, I am on cloud 9 for my second birth. It makes such a difference not having a poorly baby and all the anxiety and trauma that comes with a traumatic delivery.
I cannot thank Janet enough for her support in this time, being there to check in with me, support my birth plan and advocate for me when I had any doubts.
The Hypnobirthing course did not just support me in my birth but my pregnancy too I slept so much better after it I felt calm and my babies growth starting thriving. Me and my partner can’t thank Janet enough for what felt like almost a dream when we first fell pregnant.
I was never opposed to not taking any pain medication but the Hypnobirthing techniques worked better for me than any other pain relief. I had people telling me prior I’m ridiculous for writing such a detailed birth plan as you can “never prepare for birth” those same people now asking me how did I get through it.
My partner now wants a change in career and thinks he’s better suited to midwifery after practically delivering our baby girl and advocating for me. He really put the time in to support me and it paid off even though he couldn’t come to the course!
I am so proud of the 3 of us and the experience we created for ourselves because of the time we put into our Hypnobirthing experience and I cannot thank Janet enough for keeping me calm and collected even when things don’t go to plan and getting my oxytocin back up after I was pretty convinced I would be going back in for a C-section!”