My favourite kind of birth story!

Why is this my favourite kind of birth story? Because Poppy and James had their first Calm Birth with baby Matilda back in 2017, and used their techniques again for their second amazing positive birth with baby Arthur this week! I love it when clients tell me their news, it just makes my day. You can read Poppy & James’ first birth story here - I often read it out in class as it’s so lovely.

So this is the message I received from Poppy after Arthur’s birth:

Hi Hannah, this little beauty has arrived!

Thank you so so much for everything, again, honestly we feel absolutely blessed to have had two wonderfully positive birth experiences at RBH.

We managed to channel confidence we had from Matilda into this week, despite going a week overdue with talks of sweeps and inductions, and I kept the mantra that baby will know when it's ready. Just needs a bit of extra cooking!

And sure enough, we stayed at home on Wednesday having had contractions less than 10 mins apart since 7am and got to the hospital 9cm dilated and he was with us within 50 minutes of arriving!

The triage Midwife even poked her head around the door because she couldn't believe how calm I'd sounded on the phone deciding whether it was time to go in or not. Another incredible birth to add to your repertoire, we are truly thankful x

A gorgeously positive first birth

This lovely positive birth story came in a message from Jodie and partner Dan who had their first baby.

Hi Hannah, hope you guys are staying safe and well. Myself and Dan just wanted to let you know that Mia Grace arrived 3 weeks early on Mothers Day (she was due on 11th April). So glad she decided to come a day before lockdown started and everything became more scary!

My waters broke in the night, but surges didn't actually start for another 16 hours. Luckily my body allowed labour to progress and I didn't need any help in the form of the drip. I really believe the hypnobirthing helped with this, as I remained positive and calm all the way through even though the midwives kept mentioning induction to me.

After pushing for over an hour we realised that baby's head was turned, and I was taken to theatre for a spinal and forceps delivery. There wasn't a moment where I didn't feel calm and in control though even in a scary situation and I put that all down to everything you taught us.

So thank you so much, we really appreciate it and couldn't of done it without everything we learnt xx

A Christmas baby!

Annabelle Elizabeth Latimer was born on Christmas Eve weighing 7lb 1 oz. Charlie and I found hypnobirthing to be an enormous help throughout the process.

I went into labour at about 9pm on 23 December and was managing the contractions using the techniques you taught us, a tens machine and clary sage. We went to Basingstoke when I was having surges lasting about 50 seconds every 3 minutes (it was 2.30am I think). The midwife examined me and said I was only 2cm dilated. She said while we could stay on the antenatal ward she thought it would be worth going home and coming back when labour was more advanced (she suggested contractions every 90 seconds). I think because of the hypnobirthing tools I was using, labour was further progressed than we realised.  

Charlie and I went home and carried on although the contractions were getting harder to manage. I had a bath and after that (around 630 / 7am) my waters broke, something changed and I started pushing and couldn’t stop!!!! We went back to Basingstoke as quickly as we could and found out when we got there that I was fully dilated. 

Annabelle was born about 40 minutes later. She was in a bit of distress in the birth canal (not sure if it’s maybe because I’d been pushing then abruptly stopped when we realised what was happening?), so the midwife pushed the red button and we ended up with about 15 people in the room. Thanks to your teaching we were able to remain calm and i kept in my zone. 

I naturally wanted to birth on my side, but as Annabelle needed a clip on her head to monitor her heart rate unfortunately this wasn’t possible. I ended up with a small episiotomy where the consultant didn’t want to risk giving me any more time to ease her out - which was fine and the wound is healing very well. 

We used the ocean relaxation and birth affirmations on repeat throughout the birth - we had been listening to them every night in readiness. 

Charlie and I really believe hypnobirthing had an enormous impact on our experience. Even when things didn’t go according to plan and there was a lot of pressure we were able to handle it calmly and make informed decisions. 

I wanted to thank you for making the experience such a positive one - we both really enjoyed your sessions and hope our paths cross again soon!

Thanks again 

Becky & Charlie xx