Birth Stories
“My birth story: such a different experience to the first time!”
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Claire's story
Having had a long and highly medicalised birth with my first child, I decided to give HypnoBirthing a try when I got pregnant with my second child; mostly to give myself the opportunity of regaining some control. The course changed the way I felt about my pregnancy and my expectations about birth. I was much more relaxed and confident that my body was just doing what it was supposed to do. I also found Marie Mongan’s book really easy to read.
When the day came I started at 6am with irregular mild to moderate surges, anywhere from five to fifteen minutes apart. I ended up having a bath, reading my book, listening to the HypnoBirthing CDs and chatting on the phone to people that had no idea I was in childbirth!
This all went on until 1pm when I decided I was bored and dragged my husband Richard on a walk, stopwatch in hand, over the fields at the back of our house to see if it would give things a bit of a kick-start.
It did the trick and when we got home at 2pm the surges started getting stronger and very regular. After a couple of hours at home with the TENS we went to hospital and I was found to be 9cm already! The surges were really close together by this point and I just concentrated on breathing deeply. Not long later the midwife cast an experienced glance at me and asked if I had some pressure to push, she then went into ultra-efficient mode and told me to get back onto the bed - and quick. The rest is a bit of a blur, this second stage was only eight minutes. Eve was born at 5.34pm - our car park ticket said we’d only arrived at hospital an hour and three minutes earlier, such a different experience to the first time!
HypnoBirthing was really helpful throughout all of it. Even at the end when I was being told to push and everything was confusing I knew to do the birth breathing. The midwife commented afterwards it was a very controlled second stage, she also added later that she loved HypnoBirths - we’re obviously a growing breed! The daily breathing and relaxation practice really paid off and I found listening to the CD of the birth affirmations and rainbow relaxation very comforting.
My official notes say labour started at 2pm (when we got back from our walk) so it took 3.5 hours in all - spookily this is the (rather cheekily ambitious) time I visualised during the HypnoBirthing training! Eve is calm and happy, a true HypnoBaby!
Claire, Richard, Ben & Eve Cook – Aston-on-Trent, Derby, Derbyshire
