My Hypno Birthing Story (a home birth as well!)
In 2009, I became pregnant with my third child. With my two previous children, I had given birth in hospital, drugged up with pethidine and gas and air, and generally hated every minute of it. There was little concern with privacy or for the rights of the baby or the parents. Every few minutes there were tickboxes to complete, examinations to put up with and questions to answer. A woman in labour needs to focus within – and I came to the realisation that this is near impossible in a busy hospital situation. I explained my feelings to my husband Kirk and he totally agreed with me.
So we made the decision to attend a hypnobirthing course and have our baby daughter at home. We booked an instructor called Eva to come to our home when 7 months pregnant, and she came to us for 6 sessions. She taught us how to relax, focus within, and taught my husband how to make my level of hypnosis deeper.
I was to listen to a rainbow relaxation CD daily – which I did so often twice per day on my Ipod and thoroughly enjoying the relaxation. In addition my husband and I practised the relaxation and deepening techniques together.
Late in pregnancy, I was horrified to learn our NHS midwives were being disbanded, their morale seemed low and I became increasingly frightened of what would happen in the instance of being unable to have midwifes attend me at home. Despite being a legal right to have a baby at home – in practise it’s possible that if no midwives are available, none will be able to attend and you are advised to attend hospital. Subsequently we decided upon an amazing independent midwife, and I relaxed. Sally was superb, calm and reassuring yet amazingly competent. We were now 100% certain we could try for a home birth (independent midwives may still need to accompany you to hospital if there are complications).
We planned a waterbirth and bought a water pool for our front room. We practised putting it up and filling it, and sat in it to watch TV one night!
When the day of labour came – I used the techniques to relax deeply. Listening to my mp3 over and over again, I was able to focus deeply and keep calm and relaxed. As labour progressed, there were times when panic nearly set in and the “pain” threatened to overwhelm me, but I practised focusing on a dial, imagining being able to turn the pain down to a manageable level.
Sally and Kirk were struggling to believe I was in established labour, as my façade was calm – breathing deeply and sat upright on the sofa for several hours (they were so bored they both went to sleep at one point – I kid you not!). At one point Sally asked me if she ought to go home, trying to bring me out of hypnosis to test how established I was, and then telling me things were going to get much worse and asking if she should go home! This is the one time I did feel pain, fear and panic and afterwards she apologised.
Just over an hour later, I started to feel hot and slightly panicked, although I was still expecting things to get much worse based on Sally’s comments. Suddenly Sally recognised the signs of imminent birth, and Kirk started bringing in warm water to bring the pool up to the correct temperature.
At this stage I asked for gas and air for a few minutes, which helped me regulate my breathing (I soon realised I had often been holding my breath!) This rapidly progressed things, and after a few pushes, Charlotte was born. I can honestly say that as Charlotte was passed through my legs to me to hold – that my first thoughts were “wow that was easy!”. Charlotte took immediately to breastfeeding – common in babies born without drugs.
I cannot recommend hypnobirthing strongly enough and wish more midwives were aware of it and advised their clients to try it.
Coming soon … another mummy blogger site….
