I did The Calm Hypnobirthing 1 day course in August, I had 2 previous births which were induced with epidurals, although both positive births that I will treasure I really wanted to have an incredible birth with no pain relief this time, I wanted to be able to move around a room, and not be hooked up etc.
I was working through some disappointment at the end of this pregnancy as I learned I would be induced again. Part of me resigned to the fact that I would potentially end up with Pitocin and maybe/probably need an epidural but I was hopeful that maybe I could still have a pain relief free birth.
I just want to say that because of hypnobirthing I was able to have the most powerful, and incredible experience of my entire life.
I feel like I will be on a high from this labour for my entire life.
This is what I wrote for my visualisation for birth:
Baby engages. Labour begins and then I go into labour feeling relaxed. And we head into Birthcare later that night. My body knows what to do and I intuitively know what to do. The breathing all works beautifully, relaxation working beautifully, and the feelings of unconditional love and joy and peace are at the centre of the whole experience. I am a clearing for unconditional love, and my kids and everyone around me feels it especially my new baby T. He is beautiful and I feel joy, love and peace with him. It is a closeness that just feels right. A natural love. A completion of our family. It’s as if he has always been here. We all love him so much and he enriches our life. His brother and sister come to meet him in the morning and they are so excited and fall in love with him. They get their gifts and are so excited about their baby.
And then this is what I wrote the next morning after giving birth:
We went in to be induced at 11am and got some gel around 1pm to start it off and went for a walk around the domain and had some lunch.
No cervix change at the next check so had more gel at 6pm and plan was to check again at midnight and have some more gel again if needed.
We both had showers and went for a 10 min walk up and down the corridors. Around 9pm I started to have a couple of painful tightenings and within 20 minutes labour was in full swing.
We used our hypnobirthing techniques and some of the tools from our antenatal class through the next contractions and after another 10 minutes I called the midwife to let her know I was in proper labour. She said to call her back when felt like I needed to poo and that she would check me every 5 mins for the next hour or so.
About 10 minutes later I called her back and said I felt like I needed to poo and they checked and I had quickly gone from closed to 7cm. They said there was no staff to move me to delivery yet and they called our midwife back to hospital.
Within minutes I needed to push and they said ok looks like we are having a baby in women’s assessment unit as there wasn’t time to move.
I was kneeling on the bed and the midwives checked and yes baby was on his way.
I remember crying twice between contractions over the active labour phase because I was feeling so held and in love, and I remember just feeling so grateful for my husband, our children and our new baby.
One of the times I cried the background song was “a thousand years”. We had a beautiful playlist on.
There came a stage which felt like a crescendo where I was very loud and during the surges I was yelling and doubting myself and said “I can’t do this”, but the midwives and my husband assured me that I already was.
They told me to feel between my legs for the top of his head. I gathered myself and came back to the hypnobirthing tools and breathed him out, they kept telling me to slow down every so often and I kind of felt like I had no control but tried to listen to them and slow down.
I remember saying at this stage “I am doing this!!!! I can do this”
Then his head came out and I think gravity did the rest because I was kneeling he came out en caul, in his bags still. At this stage I said “oh my god I did it!!!”
They took the bags off his face and passed him to me and I was like this naked animal kneeling on the bed holding him and I joyously bawled my eyes out for a long time kneeling with him. It felt like a movie. After a while I turned around and sat down with him in my arms and cried some more.
Delivering the placenta was much more sore this time without the epidural. I didn’t need any stitches which was great and my midwife arrived after he was born, just after the placenta came out. She said she sped down the motorway but it all happened just so fast. We had 2 hours of skin to skin which was lucky and he fed like a hungry little thing for 1.5 of those hours.
Mum came up to see him. I've never cried so much joy after meeting one of our babies. He was born to Trinity roots “little things”. Over the 2 hours of me holding him we just recounted the labour, took photos and talked to our new baby. My midwife made us toast and milo. Then we headed out the door to Birthcare.
We got to Birthcare and went into our room and the midwife came and talked us through everything and then baby fed for an hour and we got some sleep after that.
Thank you very much for all of the tools as you helped us create an experience that has been incredibly life changing. And it was such a loving experience between me and my husband because of the beautiful experience, we are all just so overjoyed.