“I think just being so positive throughout and staying calm really made all the difference. Thanks again for the skills you taught us, you run a fantastic course and have been so great all the way through. “
Looking back now i can say i had a really good birth. It was hard at times but i stayed focused and managed to have the drug free natural birth that i wanted…minus the water birth. I really do believe that the Hypnobirthing skills played a big part in my calmness leading up to and during my birth. Thinking back, it was probably the hardest thing i’ve ever had to do but also the most rewarding. I remember during class you saying that you’d told your husband that it was “no walk in the park” and i agree!
We’d just gotten home from our evening walk and i was just starting to make dinner when i my waters started to slowly leak. Unsure of if it was my waters breaking or not, i contacted my birth centre midwife and we agreed we’d meet at the hospital to assess them. My suspicion was correct and after a brief period of monitoring to make sure the baby was happy we were sent on our way with instructions to contact her when things were happening. I felt my first small twinge of a surge at around 4am on the Friday morning, tim and i hadn’t been sleeping much anyway as we were too excited. We got up fairly early that morning and gave the house a clean and popped to the shops to grab some supplies. By 11am my surges were coming every 5 mins or so, we went for a couple of walks around the neighbourhood and i remember saying to tim that if this is all it’s going to be then it’ll be a breeze. By 2pm things were really picking up and suddenly i wasn’t quite so comfortable as i was having pretty full on back pains (later i’d discover this is because Eligh was slightly posterior). At this stage i was using my slow breathing, tim and i did a few scripts and I was also using the rose bud visualisation. Unfortunately as i was having such bad back pains i was unable to sit or lie down so wasn’t able to get myself in to as much of a deep relaxation as i’d have liked. I was also having to circle/grind my hips during surges to try to turn Eligh. As my waters had already started leaking i couldn’t get in to the bath either. By 4pm things were really getting pretty full on. I had spoken to my midwife around 2pm and then again at 4pm and as you’d warned us i don’t think she believed i was as far along as i was as i could still hold a conversation with her. Come 5.30pm we’d decided that we’d all leave our houses at 6pm to miss the worst of the rush hour traffic and meet at the birth centre. At 5.45pm i had tim call again to tell her we’d be there and to pretty much not be late as i couldn’t wait much longer. The car ride is a bit of a blur, i tried to keep up my breathing even though the surges would take my breath away. Even though i wasn’t doing it as i practiced i think just having it to concentrate on helped a lot. When we arrived at the birth centre my surges started going a bit all over the place. I think Sharon my midwife doubted i was very far along and wanted to hold off examining me as my waters were already leaking and wanted to avoid infection. Around this time I had IV antibiotics administered to ensure there were no infections seeing as it had been almost 24 hours since my waters started to break. My surges were really strong and i remember telling tim that i didn’t think i could do it. I now realise that i must have been going through transition as shortly after Sharon did an internal on me and happily reported i was 8cm dilated and very close to having the baby. She broke the rest of my waters at this time and unfortunately we found that they were meconium stained. This meant i had to be transferred in to the regular labour suites to birth. By this stage i really didn’t care where i had the baby so walked myself down the hall to the new room. We got in to the room at about 8.30pm and i started to breath Eligh down. I had to go slowly as i needed to wait til at least 9pm to deliver seeing as i needed 2 hours for the antibiotics to kick in otherwise they’d have wanted to inject Eligh with them instead when he was born..we really didn’t want that. At 9pm Sharon gave me the all clear and at this stage i started to put a bit more in to my birth breathing…i was bearing down more than actually pushing though. 26 minutes later Eligh was born, he weighed 7lb 12oz and was 51cm long. He was immediately put on my stomach and i delivered the placenta within around 10 minutes and that’s without getting the injection to speed things up. We did skin to skin for quite a while and Eligh crawled his way to my breast to feed…it was truly amazing! He’s been a fantastic feeder ever since and is such a alert wee man. We stayed in hospital overnight but were home by lunch time the next day.
As you can see, i’m not sure i can say i had a text book Hypnobirth but the skills you taught us helped a lot and we’d like to thank you so much!
I’ve attached a photo of Eligh for you…he’s already got the most beautiful smile!
Kirsty & Tim, Mermaid Waters, Gold Coast
You can find your closest Hypnobirthing Australia Classes HERE.
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