Sophia’s Hypnobirth

Despite my best efforts to get everything moving naturally, my date to go into the hospital for induction rolled around. I had already asked for the date to be pushed back a few days so even though I knew I had a choice not to do the induction, I didn’t want to put my baby’s health at risk by holding out any longer.

I was induced with gels on Wednesday morning but due to a couple of dips in baby’s heart rate in the afternoon, they didn’t want to proceed with the second dose and instead opted for the balloon at which point I was only 1cm dilated. Throughout the night I could feel my contractions coming and going but used the breathing techniques to help and even got a bit of sleep.

By mid Thursday morning, they came to check on me and were super surprised to find I was 6cm dilated. We got moved to the birthing unit and put on syntosin. I was offered an epidural which I declined.

For the next few hours as the contractions ramped up, I used a combination of breathing and visualization to calmly work through the contractions. All of the doctors and nurses couldn’t believe how calm I was and every new person kept doubting how far into labour I was. My midwife had to keep explaining it all to the medical people coming into the room.

Eventually we were ready for the final stage but bubs has a few more surprises for us. Although she was in the right position, her head was turned looking to the side making it difficult for me to get her out. They also suspected that there was a tiny lip of the cervix still there making it hard for her to get past this point. After about 45 minutes of trying, the doctors recommended a C section and called the anaesthetist for an epidural.

Unfortunately after the epidural, the theatre got held up with an emergency and we were delayed going in however the doctors used this to give her another chance to come out...but no luck.

After a couple of hours of more trying, theatre was back on and we were all prepped to go in. The doctors wanted to try ventouse before the C section so upon getting into the theatre, I was re-examined. With all the delays, bubs had decided that maybe she better make it easier for mum and she had turned herself into a better position. There was much exclamation and delight in the theatre and I was given one last opportunity to push her out. Only about 3 or 4 birth breaths were needed and she came flying out at great speed! And she was finally here!!

A beautiful little girl (it was a surprise) who we have called Sophia. She weighed 3.9kg.

In the last fews days before induction, I really worked on the fear release methods over and over again. The day before the induction, I had a really emotional day but come the day or and all during the induction and labour, I managed to remain calm even when I thought I was going to have to have a C section.

The calm hypnobirthing tools really helped with the anxiety and fear around this. As I said, the medical staff were in amazement about how well I dealt with the intense contractions from syntosin without an epidural and the calm demeanour throughout.

So glad I signed up for The Calm Hypnobirthing Course. I think without it, it would have been a really scary experience. But with the techniques I could calmly work through the labour and accept the changes to my desired birth plan without fear.