"HypnoBirthing gave me strength"

Hi Justine, I didn't get the birth I was hoping for, but the hypnobirthing gave me the strength to get through a long first stage – I went into labour on 13th Jan at around 6pm but gave birth on 15th in the early hours – and gave me the confidence to make the decisions right for me. I arrived at the Family Birth Centre at 4.30am Monday morning, although my surges were not quite consistent yet I was eager to get into the birth pool. I took each surge as it came and tried a whole range of techniques in the early stages with the help of my twin sister and husband until I found what worked best for me. I was also surprised that it was the affirmations which were the most helpful rather than the breathing techniques (although they certainly helped). I did discover an issue with the calm approach as people kept asking me questions in the middle of a surge! Despite feeling that I could keep going and my baby was fine, at 4pm, I ended up being transferred out of the Family Birth Centre due to high blood pressure and only being 4cm dilated after 12hrs. Although I was disappointed, I was also exhausted as I hadn’t been able to eat anything and had only had sips of water for nearly 24 hours. When the doctor said he wanted to give me syntosine I decided it was time for an epidural, as I knew that I was too exhausted to handle the contractions that would come with it. However, once I had the epidural it turned out I was nearly 8cm so my body did know what it was doing afterall. I reached 10cm without the drip but there were some dips in my baby’s heart rate and the doctors decided it was better to get her out as soon as possible. So they put me on synotisine which gave me contractions that my baby couldn’t handle. I was suddenly surrounded by doctors who told me they needed to do a forceps delivery and give me an episiotomy. It was not the gentle water birth I had been envisioning throughout my pregnancy, but I was also prepared for some sort of intervention once I had been transferred. Quinn came out quickly with no signs of distress and fed soon after. Although it wasn't what I'd imagined, I had had the first stage I wanted and my baby girl is healthy and happy and feeding well. I think it could have felt quite traumatic if I didn’t have the confidence that hypnobirthing gave me. I also liked the surprise from the anesthetist when he asked the midwife if I was having a contraction when I started breathing purposefully and was very focussed, and she proudly told him I was a hypnobirthing mum. Thank you again! Sarah