What a life-changing experience!!

Hi Melissa,

We just wanted to let you know about the safe arrival of our baby boy, Archie.

He was born on June 13, at 9:01 am, weighing 3.6kg and 51cm in length.

We had 9-hour labour which started at midnight, and we used so many of the lessons we learned in our classes with you, but what we learnt really came in to play after about 4 hours, when I was only 4cm dilated but feeling the need to push already. Ben was in full flight as the ‘neo’, talking me through my breathing so I could control my body, reminding me of my favourite affirmations and keeping fears at bay.

After an examination we found my cervix was swelling and so was baby’s head, so we tried a variety of positions to move baby. Come 7 am his head was still in a very awkward position and increased swelling, but we allowed for 2 hours of active pushing before using the vacuum to get him out as safely as possible.

Our midwives completely honoured our birth preferences which were wonderful and the informed the OB and additional team so the ‘intervention’ needed was calm, well informed and still made us feel like we were in control as much as we could be.

The intensity of labour was nothing like I could have ever imagined (so much so it felt like a re-birth of myself but the affirmations were so ingrained and Ben was so well equipped to support me during the process, that I felt calm about any decision to be made that was best for me and baby.

We have told so many people about hypnobirthing and hope that more and more people take your classes for a beautiful birth, no matter what path it takes. (I know a girl who is in the office beside me recently did a course with you after I told her about it! She loved the classes too ?)