Especially for Mums wanting to have a vaginal birth after c section!

My little Isla Raine was born 2 months ago and I feel ready to share my hypnobirthing story with you all and hopefully inspire more positivity, especially for Mums wanting to have a vaginal birth after c section! Love reading everyone else’s positive stories!

Isla is my second baby and I had successful and very fast VBAC birth! I had been listening to the birth affirmations and meditation tracks all throughout my pregnancy right from about 18 weeks and also really visualised body opening easily. I would stand in the shower and close my eyes and “feel” my body softening and opening and would try and picture a quick and simple birth. I would also close my eyes and see and feel all my different muscles and visualise them all working together perfectly.. and it worked!

Also because I had A LOT of anxiety about the birth and worried constantly about how hard life would be with another baby the meditation helped with that anxiety and whenever I was having a good cry or a stress cleaning session (lol anyone else OCD when pregnant?) I used them to calm myself down. I also danced a lot to music I found uplifting and happy at the end and bounced and rolled on my ball. So by the time I was 40 weeks my midwife did a stretch and sweep and told me I was already 2cm dilated and had no idea!

I had been getting period type pains all week, even some nights they were quite regular although not painful at all and I thought to myself this could be the start of something! And would take myself to bed to get some sleep and be so disappointed in the morning when the period pains had disappeared…. I was doomed to be pregnant forever!!

Then at 41 weeks exactly I was so sad because my Dad was leaving the next morning at 5am so I accepted the fact he probably wasn’t going to meet his grandchild and went to go out for dinner with him. I bent down to kiss my oldest goodbye at about 6.45pm and felt a huge POP! And instant strong surge. Being my first labour I was a bit naive and still didn’t know what was happening so still got in the car to go to dinner. By the time I was at the end of my street I was having VERY strong surges about a minute long and 3/ 2 and half minutes apart! My waters broke like in the movies in a huge gush all over the seat! Mum was driving thank god, and I started shaking and letting myself get upset as I was quite shocked at the sensations of the surges (dare I say pain…) before mum put the hypnobirthing affirmations on in the car and I instantly calmed.. stopped shaking and just focused on my breathing and felt so much better. I really used that same track all through my labour.

In the car we rang the midwife and she sort of laughed and said no it will be a while yet head home and relax. By the time we had turned around and got home my partner had the bath ready with a dark room lit with candles and aromatherapy diffuser and was the perfect atmosphere to be calm in the bath. I couldn’t walk from the car to the house without stopping and “flopping” on the way for surges. The atmosphere at my house was beautiful and I felt strong and empowered and really felt my baby move down with each surge. I was using all the hypnobirthing techniques, especially ‘bubble of comfort’ I visualised a beautiful beach and surrounded myself with white warming sunlight and imagined it sinking into my skin it did wonders along with the surge of the sea track.

However after some time in the bath I got to a point where I started to panic and my mum called my midwife again as I couldn’t talk and was asking for an epidural and was so sure I couldn’t do it anymore. Midwife just said “take deep breaths and bounce on the ball” by then I yelled to her that I was bearing down and I couldn’t stop it my body just took over! So I was in transition hence why I may have been doubting myself! She was shocked as it was only 45 mins since my surges started! When the midwife arrived only 5mins later as she lives close I was 10cm dilated in 1 hour. She called an ambulance because she wanted me to birth in the hospital as it was a VBAC and wanted to be best prepared for any complications. This completely freaked me out and the ambos busted into my bathroom turned on all the lights and turned off my music! They put a cannula in my arm and kept asking me what I did for work, how old is my toddler ect ect at the time I was scared, panicked and unable to focus because these clueless ambo men kept trying to ‘distract me’ haha as if it would ever work! And my partner wasn’t even able to hold my hand or sit next to me so I felt surrounded by strangers and scared. I just kept closing my eyes, breathing and thinking about the affirmation I am ready for whatever turn my birthing takes. They were telling my not to push all the way to the hospital but my body just completely took over and was bearing down hard and I had no control to stop it (how awesome are our bodies!?) but baby held out until we got the birth suite.

Birth suite was a nice dimly lit room with a simple mat on the floor. My partner put some beautiful calming music on and being with him and away from all the bright lights where I could really focus on my breathing I calmed and became focused again. No more fear I was ready! I stood and squatted over the mat in the middle of the room and my beautiful baby was here 10.20pm! Born with me in a deep lunge position over the mat. 3 and a half hours from start to finish! I believe hypnobirthing is to thank for this quick labour and my body was just completely ready and knew what to do, my instincts truly took over. I’m also amazed at what a calm relaxed baby Isla is ???

Thankyou Melissa Spilsted!! For showing me what my body knew all along. Would definitely recommend hypnobirthing to all of my friends and will be using it again with my next baby!

Xxxx