Stephanie and Andy used HypnoBirthing to prepare for the birth of their first child. Their birth story is an absolutely beautiful one, and an inspiration for any Mums & Dads to be:
"I went into labour with a bit of a bang, waking up to my waters releasing at 4.30am immediately accompanied by surges every 3 minutes, each lasting a minute. I was a bit uncomfortable, but not in pain as such. By 7am, I felt like I wanted to be checked at the hospital (which is where we planned to have baby) so we went in. At 8.15 during my first check, I was '3 cm dilated', and then used visualisations and the breathing techniques up to about 11am when I was able to get into a birthing pool and carry on labouring there. When I was checked at 12.15, I was fully dilated and we were ready to go!
There had been discussion that perhaps birthing in the water might not be possible if baby or I was not tolerating labour well, but baby's heartbeat was perfectly fine throughout so we got back in. (He was in fact so chilled out that my Midwife commented that he didn't seem to have really noticed that we were in labour...)
My son was born at 2.20pm, after an hour of letting him descend naturally using breathing techniques and then an hour of more active 'pushing', although my Midwife was happy for me to only work with my body when I was in surge rather than forcing myself to push. I ended up doing the whole thing having taken 2 paracetamol tablets as my only medical pain relief.
Zach's Apgar's were 9 & 10, and we were home exactly 24 hours after his birth, where he has fed and slept like an absolute champ - everyone comments on what a chilled little dude he is. My Midwife seemed quite surprised by how quickly and smoothly we progressed, and even more surprised that despite him coming out very quickly all in one go, I only had a minor graze. She said she was really impressed by my breathing control, and I think most of that has to do with the fact that we went in feeling so calm and well prepared for the birth!
My Midwife at Basingstoke hospital was absolutely incredible, and really respected our birth preferences and the fact that we were a HypnoBirthing family. She basically let my husband and I run the show throughout, and even wrote on my discharge notes that I had a "beautiful birth"