Sarah and Lee booked me for a private refresher hypnobirthing course at their home in Sidcup. They’d had a straight forward first birth followed by a difficult second birth. They had been told their third pregnancy would be classed as high risk so they wanted to learn some techniques to stay calm during the birth. Sarah writes:
My first birth in 2018 was a straight forward water birth in the birth centre. It was very quick as first births go. My second delivery was in height of covid, I was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia and poly hydramnios so was induced on my due date. It was incredibly stressful with no one understanding that my first delivery had been quick, and they refused to let my husband in as I “wasn’t in active labour”. At the end it was again very quick, baby got stuck and required kiwi suction cup and resulted in possible shoulder dystocia. This delivery made me high risk for my third birth. I was told I wouldn’t be able to deliver on birth centre and to lose the idea of a water birth.
Things changed with my birth after meeting with you! I met with a different consultant midwife from the birth choices team who considered this pregnancy compared to my second one and basically gave me back all of my options that I felt had been taken away from me. She advocated for me to have a water birth on the birth Centre unit. She gave me the confidence I needed to make the choice and to trust my body. That midwife in my eyes is a legend! So with her support and using the hypnobirthing tools from you I was able to prepare for a birth that I hoped for.
Leading up to the birth I read through the affirmations frequently, practiced the breathing techniques and listened to the audio’s you sent through. These were brilliant at night when typically my brain and anxiety would go into overdrive.
At 2am on Christmas Eve (40+6 according to my scan, 40+1 according to my dates) my labour started with surges every 10-12 minutes. These increased to every 4-5 minutes a few hours later and stayed like this until I called the hospital at 10:45am, when they advised I came in. Whilst at home I listened to the audios and really focused on breathing through the surges. For the first few hours I was even able to drift off to sleep inbetween contractions. My contractions then really ramped up on the way in to hospital, I was triaged on birth centre and found to be 3cm at 11:30. Midwife advised I didn’t get in the pool incase it slowed me down. But I had gas and air, whilst concentrating on my breathing techniques. At approximately 1pm things ramped up again and I was found to be 6cm, which is when I got in the pool. The water felt like such a relief! After approximately just 20 minutes in the pool my membranes ruptured and a few minutes later our beautiful little boy was born. It was quick, intense but I couldn’t have asked for a better birth. The midwife I had was also incredible and brilliant with me during the birth.
So a big Thankyou for your time and your wonderful course. It really did help myself and Lee in preparing for birth and getting through labour itself. Lee was incredible and I know that came from the sessions with you and understanding what is happening and why. Even the midwife commented that she didn’t need to do anything to support us as we ‘had it nailed on our own’.
Thankyou again,
Sarah x