“Before I even fell pregnant, I’d always thought to myself, “why would women keep having babies if it was so painful and drugs were necessary?”. I’d always wondered how people had survived the birthing process. Humans have been having babies for thousands of years, in the grand scheme of things pain relief was only relatively new, how had all these women survived before modern medicine intervened? And what sort of effect would these drugs have on my baby?

These questions are what prompted me to look into alternative methods and what helped me find Hypnobirthing Australia and, after consulting with Melissa Spilsted. My husband, Jordan, and I attended our first hypnobirthing class when I was 24 weeks pregnant. My husband was initially a sceptic but halfway through our first day he had been converted. Everything made perfect sense to us and seemed natural. The affirmations made me feel empowered and the breathing techniques really had a relaxing effect. Jordan even started snoring half way through one!

I spent the next few weeks preparing by practicing the breathing techniques, Jordan practicing massage techniques (no complaints here!), using the visualizations and the cds provided. They were a great way to wind down after a big day at work. I was so excited to meet my little one I started trying every trick in the book to get labour started from 38 weeks forward.

Unfortunately, when I got to 39 weeks my obstetrician saw me and immediately made a phone call booking me in to be induced at 40+1. He had expected me to fall into natural labour well before my due date so I kept reading my affirmations, listening to the cds, doing the breathing techniques and trying natural ways to induce labour. When nothing had happened by the Monday before I was to be induced, I called and spoke to him about pushing my induction date out further. I had been extemely ill with morning/all day every day sickness symptoms continuing the entire way through my pregnancy. I was unsure how much longer I could deal with the sickness, but I did want to give my baby a few more days to make an appearance naturally. We agreed on postponing the induction another week to 41+1.

Wednesday, 20^th November 2013 rolled around and I was up at the hospital by 6.30am to start the induction process. By 1.30pm my surges were still irregular and weak so we made the decision to introduce synthetic oxytocin via the drip. I can honestly say that by using the hypnobirthing techniques I felt no pain during my surges. I had a wonderful midwife who was experienced in hypnobirthing and together with Jordan, their support was invaluable. I was able to successfully breathe through my surges with only a few puffs of gas, and at 10.59pm my daughter, Norah Elizabeth, made her way into the world. We had immediate skin to skin time and the bonding was incredible. We brought our beautiful daughter home early and haven’t looked back.

Today, Norah is a healthy, happy 10 week old. “

Angela and Jordan, Rockhampton, Queensland