I really believe that the Hypnobirthing Australia™ techniques just allowed me to stay calm to let my body work it’s magic – almost a little too well ?.  Due to it all being so fast, the photos are very raw and I literally had to yell at my mum to grab her camera, otherwise we would have had none!

My birth was such an amazing experience – 40 mins of active labour, resulting in an unplanned home birth!!! I definitely credit much of my wonderful birth, to hypnobirthing skills.

I had no inkling when I went to bed last Thursday night that things were about to kick off. I woke 2 hrs later at 2am to go to the bathroom and noticed a bit more wetness than usual, but not enough for me to think my waters had broken. I felt a bit gassy and uncomfortable but thought it could have been the lentils I ate for dinner ?. I went back to bed and started listening to the surge of the sea track.

After about 10 mins I felt too uncomfortable to lie down and stayed on the toilet listening to the track. I’d started to feel mild period cramps, but just thought I’d use them as a chance to practice. This went on til 3 when my husband woke up, but it was all very manageable and I still wasn’t sure if it was really happening. We decided to slowly get things organised, but by 3.20 things had started to get a bit more intense, so we rang the birth centre to let them know we were coming, as well as my mum, to come and look after our daughter.

At 3.26 my husband went to put our bags in the car and when he did, I felt the intensity of my surges go from 0-100 and felt myself transitioning – shakes, sudden temperature drop and I started to feel panicky. Luckily, I was able to recognise these signs and keep focusing on my breathing to calm myself down. I felt an uncontrollable urge to go to the toilet, but once there I had to stand up and it was then I realised the head was coming and after listening to my body and allowing it to feel the urge to push, after 1 push the head was out!!!

My husband came back from packing the car to me with baby’s head out! I knew to wait for the next surge and not to panic. This was at 3.36. My husband at this point was on the phone to 000 ( who very slowly kept asking him to repeat our address while I’m yelling “the head is here”). I felt the next urge to push come and went on all fours and out slid our beautiful baby girl Aria, with my husband catching her. She cried straight away and I put her straight to my chest. By the time the ambo’s arrived at 3.50, she was already 9 mins old!!!!

I always wanted a homebirth and I got one! It was such an amazing and empowering experience and a true testament to how powerful the mind-body connection is. In contrast to my first birth, I had some tools to try and stay calm and the knowledge to recognise what was happening to me physiologically.

I should also mention that I think it was no coincidence that I had finally done the fear release track (and packed the last thing in my hospital bag), just 2 hrs before – I had gone to sleep listening to it ?.  I only started doing the online course at 35 weeks and I am soooo glad that I did! I’m certain my birth wouldn’t have turned out quite the way it did!

Rebecca