Mama V – “I honestly believe that without you and the course I wouldn’t have had such a natural experience. I remember saying to you at one of our sessions that all these years I had been petrified of giving birth, but it was such a wonderful experience, even the midwife told me it was like I had had babies before as all I did was so instinctive. I said to her; that was my hypnobirthing!”

Hi Claire

I hope this email finds you well and I hope you’re managing with your business during lockdown.

I just wanted to send you an email to let you know about my birth experience and how I cannot thank you and the hypnobirthing practice enough for what it did for me.

My waters broke on Sunday 29th March a week and a bit before my expected due date, whilst I was in bed and we had just settled ourselves for a good night sleep, around midnight…..I rang the unit directly and, after them asking a few questions, they advised me to stay at home which I expected. My surges came very shortly after that and over the 4 hours we stayed at home they got stronger and we managed them well, being in your own home totally helped to remain calm and relaxed. We contacted the unit when the surges got stronger but they advised to stay put and perhaps take a bath to help ease the pain. I was rather reluctant to do this but followed their advice, to be honest it didn’t work for me, I didn’t feel as in control whilst I was wet and cold and naked so that didn’t last very long! I was better out of water dressed and dry! Eventually when the surges were fairly close together we headed off to the hospital.

As this was during this rather frightening pandemic the unit asked if any of us showed any covid19 symptoms and warned us that they would be taking our temperatures on arrival. We arrived and made our way to the ward, this also differed because of the pandemic, in fact I was quite concerned my labour would slow down as being in the hospital at this time was so different to what would have been ‘the norm’ and really quite scary. There were warning posters up about the virus and precautions at every stop plus, there was absolutely no one around so we just had to guess which way to go! Thankfully we found the correct floor and met with the midwife who took us into a delivery room to assess me. Disappointingly I was only 3cm at this stage and she advised we could stay rather than go home, however if the ward got busier with admissions and someone more advanced in their labour arrived, I would have to leave as they would take the room.

Thankfully all remained quiet on that front and my labour progressed beautifully. I bounced on the pregnancy ball, walked around and when the surges became more full on I used the gas and air. Unfortunately the midwife that had initially admitted us wasn’t very friendly at all in fact she did not put me at ease in the slightest so I was so grateful when the shifts changed and the midwife who helped me birth my baby, took over. She was everything I needed, sympathetic encouraging and so positive in her attitude.  

The next few hours seemed like a blur and it was only for the last 2 hours or so did I really get into the zone and used my hypnobirthing techniques to the full. I remember being upright on my knees on the hospital bed which felt the most natural position for me. The visualisations I had learnt totally helped me especially in the last stages. In fact my partner said he couldn’t believe the change in me, it was like something just kicked in and I became this person who knew exactly what to do and was totally in control.

I have to say it was text book, everything happened so naturally and I could feel everything and being in control of my body doing this amazing thing was really quite empowering. Im not saying it didn’t hurt, it bloody did but I knew with every push and surge I was so much closer to meeting this little person who we had waited so long for and who we never thought we be so lucky to even have in our lives. 

Finally at 9.25 am our beautiful baby girl was born at 6lb 8 (I was told several times whilst pregnant i was having a big baby) and will remember the sound of her little cry forever. The wonderful midwife passed my baby to me and she looked directly at me and I her. I never even imagined how I would feel or what I would say if I ever managed to birth a child, but the words that actually came out of my mouth were, I’ve waited my whole life for you. (even typing this makes me fill up thinking of that moment) as you know we had IVF to have her, my partner had had leukemia in his 20s so he certainly didn’t think it was possible. However as he was able to freeze his sperm 15 years ago, we were able to undergo treatment with the positive 1st time result. IVF was also a wonderful experience for me.

I was able to have immediate skin to skin with her and as I had a small 2nd degree tear I was in stirrups for some time whilst I had stiches, i was able to hold her that hold time (which distracted me from what was actually going on)

I honestly believe that without you and the course I wouldn’t have had such a natural experience. I remember saying to you at one of our sessions that all these years I had been petrified of giving birth, but it was such a wonderful experience, even the midwife told me it was like I had had babies before as all I did was so instinctive. I said to her; that was my hypnobirthing!

I so loved hearing the positive birth stories in our yoga sessions so I would be glad for you to share this one one day.