Positive Hospital Birth at 36 weeks

Emily and Danny attended one of my online group hypnobirthing courses. Emily and I stayed in touch in the run up to the birth, when I got an Instagram message saying “Hannah I did it” I was over the moon. Congratulations to you both, thank you for sharing your story with us all.

This story goes to show how much hypnobirthing can help you to stay focused, calm and feeling in control when challenges may come your way during labour.

The birth of Alexander - “when the birth plan seemed to go out of the window, it still turned out to be perfect”

To our shock I went into spontaneous labour on Sunday night at just 36 weeks +3 days, I always had a feeling baby would come early but didn't imagine he'd be this early.

We'd had a relaxed weekend and I started getting what I thought were just uncomfortable braxton hicks when I went to bed Sunday night. They started getting stronger, frequent and it became clear I was in labour, I had a warm shower which really helped with the surges that were coming pretty strong and by this time were about 2 minutes apart.

I concentrated on my breath, Dan put lavender essential oil in the room got the hospital bags together (thankfully I'd already packed most things - although he made room for some more essentials - mainly snacks) and he reminded me to keep the lights low while he went to pick my mum up who would be staying at ours to look after our other son.

My ideal birth quickly went out of the window…

When I called Pinderfields triage, the visualisation of my ideal birth fell apart when they told me that the pool/birth centre wasn't an option due to being pre-term, not only that, but I would need constant monitoring due to going into labour before 37 weeks. Not going to lie I was gutted!

I kept listening to the positive affirmations MP3 and thinking of the one that said I will calmly adapt to changes, although my favourite affirmation kept popping into my head, "I trust my instincts to guide me through my pregnancy and my baby's calm birth"

Things progressed quickly…

I felt that things were going the same way as my first labour (which led to an assisted birth) and I wanted to do everything that was safely possible to not let that happen. I was hooked up to a monitor straight away and was given a scan to check baby's position as it wasn't clear. We made it clear from the start that we were hypnobirthing (as we didn't have chance to print off a birth plan) I continued with the breathing techniques through surges and emphasised that I would like to use water for pain relief and keep as mobile as possible, I was told this wouldn't be possible and previously I'm sure we wouldn't have questioned anything.

When we got to labour room we called on the brain technique to ask our midwife some questions, she was lovely and told me that she usually worked in the birth center so she understood where we were coming from, she examined me and to my surprise and relief I was already 8cm!

As Alexander's heart rate had been absolutely fine since we came in we spoke in-between surges and agreed that I could just have intermittent mobile monitoring, Danny ran the bath in the en suite and I couldn't wait to get in. We agreed that I wouldn't actually birth in the bath so that baby could be checked straight away.

The midwife found some candles and dimmed the lights, I felt so much calmer and tried to get into the zone. After a while I was feeling pretty crammed in the bath and I was starting to feel more pressure down below so Danny helped me out and over to the bed where the midwife had set it up so I could kneel rather than lay down, the surges got more intense and I started to doubt whether I could do it without any pain relief (other than gas and air which didn't do much to be honest other than make me feel a bit drunk) I asked the midwife to check if he was nearly here as I was thinking I must be no where near (like last time) she reassured me and said “Emily, you told me you didn't want any other pain relief earlier and he will be here very soon”, she then told me to feel down below as he was coming out with his amniotic sac still fully intact!

There was a tsunami…

When I felt it, a huge wave of emotion came over me, how amazing that he was coming out without my waters even breaking and I couldn't actually believe I was nearly there! Danny held my phone closer to my ear so I could hear the affirmations clearer and whispered "you'll be holding him soon" this spurred me on and I kept that visualisation in my mind. I now know what people mean when they say their body just knew what to do, I breathed him down on the next surge with only a slight push, his head was out and the midwife said there was a bit of a tsunami when my waters only just broke! It seemed like forever waiting for the next push but when it came and I felt him come out it was the most magical on top of the world moment!

After just 4 hours…

They passed him up to me with the cord still attached as I wanted to do delayed cord clamping and immediate skin to skin, I couldn't stop looking at him and must of said 50+ times "I can't believe it"! I couldn't believe he was here just 4 hours after arriving at hospital, I got the natural birth I wanted and I don't think it could have been any more perfect!

Even though it seemed like everything was going the opposite to my birth plan, we managed to turn it around somehow using our hypnobirthing tools techniques and 'brain' questioning and made the atmosphere as close to a birth center as possible, I kept crying with emotion!

I honestly don't think it would have gone the way it did if we hadn't done the course. Thank you so much Hannah! Alexander came into the world in the most calm and natural way, listening to your voice (and not forgetting my instinctual animal roar-which actually helped with pushing him out.) After a few checks from the paediatrician we were allowed home just a few hours later and got to start our newborn bubble as a family of 4 a little earlier than expected but on a very positive note, thank so much for everything Hannah.

Emily & Danny xxx