Welcome baby Enys!

Hello Hannah, 

We just wanted to let you know that our baby boy Enys Sidney was born on Tuesday morning weighing 9lbs exactly.

He was delivered via c-section, and even though I had planned for a vaginal water birth, I wanted you know that all of your techniques helped to keep it magical and I’m really happy with the birth experience I had. I felt calm throughout, and able to advocate for myself when I felt that an induction was not the best approach for us or our baby. The hypobirthing has also come in useful in the days after with breastfeeding and lack of sleep by just helping me to relax generally. 

We honestly cannot thank you enough! 

Best wishes,

Katie, Ross and Enys xx

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 quick and healing second birth

Hi Hannah, 

Just wanted to let you know we had a baby girl very early Saturday morning (12 days late!). I was due to be induced Saturday 2pm so luckily came just before that! 

I started having contractions around 5am Friday morning, did the majority of labour at home. Lots of the breathing techniques and listening to the tracks! Got to hospital 11.45pm - got straight in the water and had her in the pool at 1.40am. Just under two hours at the hospital! They also didn’t believe me that she was coming so didn’t call the doctor in time, which was a result! 

Just wanted to say thank-you, I had the birth that I wanted, it was an amazing experience and couldn’t have been more different to last time! 

Jodie xx 

The quick arrival of baby Chester

Just wanted to let you know about the safe arrival of our beautiful baby boy Chester! 
I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful our delivery was! 
I started having contractions at home at 9pm Friday evening, after about 30 mins I put the tens machine on and was using my breathing techniques wondering around the house, very quickly they were two minutes apart lasting about a minute each time, but they just didn’t feel strong enough!

Then my waters broke at 10.10pm and I noticed there was meconium in them so we went into hospital to be monitored. When we got to the hospital around 11pm I was 8-9cm dilated- they took me to delivery room and before they had a chance to hook me up our baby boy was ready to come out and I started pushing- I did panic then and get in the gas and air, he was born at 12.12am in the 9th March! 

I’m 100% sure that the hypnobirthing helped with our speedy labour and delivery, luckily there was meconium in my waters or I may have ended up having him at home or in the car on the way there!
I will highly recommend Calm Births to anyone that asks, I believe it helped me stay calm and believe in my body, and the mountain breathing really helped me to concentrate during contractions instead of just panicking, I believe it helped to distract from the pain as I was concentrating on getting my breathing right.

 
Thank you again! 
Kim, Ricki, Sue, Etta and new baby Chester! 
Xx

Emily & Kristian's story

Emily & Kristian decided to use hypnobirthing for the birth of their third child, and had a wonderfully positive experience.

I just wanted to send you a few pictures of our new bundle. Robin Rakauskas.

We had him 3 days early on the 16th November (a Friday, so Kristian got his wish!) Labour went really well, he was born at 21:10 in the evening with no intervention and gas and air. He weighed 7Ib 14oz and we are all besotted with him.

We played the hypnobirthing MP3’s throughout the entire labour (it started Thursday evening) and I used the breathing techniques to help me through the contractions. Kristian was incredible and encouraged all the techniques throughout the entire labour and kept reminding me to relax my shoulders and count down.

Recovery has been fantastic as the labour went so well and little Robin is the most chilled of all my babies and everyone comments on how alert and quiet he is. We are very blessed.

Thank you for helping us achieve the labour we so desperately wanted third time round. I can safely say that it was my final labour experience and we are most definitely complete with our 3 boys Frank, Zachary and Robin.

Lucy & Marcus' first baby

A really lovely first birth story from Lucy & Marcus who took the two day intensive course before having their gorgeous baby girl (and also a fantastic photo of Millie at the bottom!!!) x

"Lucy and I were lucky enough to meet our new arrival on 31st May @ 23:12. She was 6 days overdue but weighed a lovely 6lb 5oz. We had a really great birth, Lucy woke that morning at 5am with bad back ache / tightening of the bump, this came and went every 30 minutes up until 4pm. She had then had her sweep with the midwife (she was 2cm dilated before the sweep) that pretty much kickstarted her labour. By 19.30pm the pain wasn't bearable with TENS / back rubs, so we went into the hospital to thankfully find she was 4cm dilated (I don't think they would have persuaded her to go home again). With an active labour on lots of Pilates balls by 21.30pm Lucy was already 8cm dilated... We then moved to the birthing pool, again to have an active labour we were able to welcome our new arrival in the pool at 23:12. Lucy managed to give birth using just gas and air (plus TENS earlier) - our hypnobirthing course came to good use to keep Lucy relaxed throughout. Other than Millie coming out like superman at the last minute causing a small tear, the water and perennial massage beforehand made birth relatively straight forward, albeit still very painful for Lucy.

We both wanted to thank you for all the knowledge and wisdom you were able to share on our hypnobirthing course - the knowledge certainly helped us understand and prepare for labour and birth. We used the affirmations, and relaxations through the whole labour which Lucy says helped and I was able to refer back to my notes on using the positive re-enforcement to help her stay relaxed. We will certainly be recommending you and the course to all our friends!!!

Many Thanks,

Lucy & Marcus

A lovely home water-birth story

A really inspiring story from Louise & Ben who opted for a home birth for their first birth x

I just wanted to let you know that our gorgeous Max finally arrived on Friday morning and he is perfect! 9 days late and a bit of a whopper at 8lb 8oz! Ben and I can’t stop looking at him, we’re completely overwhelmed!!

I managed to have my water birth at home so he arrived safely and soundly in our kitchen. No tearing or cuts so no stitches required and no pain relief at all. Ocean relaxation was on repeat from the time the first contractions kicked in around 1am until he arrived just before 11am after less than an hour of pushing at the end. It was intense and obviously painful but I did my hypnobirthing breathing all the way through which kept me in the zone and calm enough that I was almost at the transition stage by the time the midwife arrived, no examination necessary.   I have no doubt that the focus and calmness (plus the pool at the end) is why I am not sat here with stitches now and why the Labour was relatively quick. The Midwives were amazed for a first birth!

Thank you so much, you helped me take control of something I felt extremely anxious about and now I’m sat here looking at me beautiful boy feeling like the luckiest person alive!

Lots of love

Lou x

Matt & Tania's positive first birth

Gorgeous baby Maya

We thought we should let you know that Maya River Tozer was born on Monday 26th February. She arrived a month early but weighing 6 pounds 13. We've attached a few photos.

We had quite a few shenanigans in the build up with reduced movements and Tania having unexplained proper contractions as early as 28 weeks that the doctors/midwives didn't think were normal Braxton Hicks.

So that meant quite a few extra trips to Frimley Park and even a handful to the labour ward where Tania had multiple fetal fibronectin tests - including one that was 248 at about 7 months!

So baby was obviously keen to meet us in a hurry. We hung on to 36 weeks but it did mean we couldn't use the Mulberry Suite. We were already quite prepared for that and being in the labour ward previously really helped in terms of prep.

For the labour, Tania managed to cope just on gas and air for almost the whole 16-hours. She did have pethidine near the end but only because progress was potentially going backwards. She was firm on not having an epidural.

Maya did need ventouse at the very end but arrived all in one go and very healthy. Tania and Maya stayed in hospital for six days as she was premature and Maya had a slight bit of jaundice. Also so they could avoid the snow I think! It arrived on the day she was born and melted away just before we all drove home so Tania never saw it!! Bar some breastfeeding troubles, Maya's doing brilliantly and looks nothing like an early baby. She's already well over her birth weight.

We were playing the hypnobirthing tracks right up until labour day and even used them during the labour as well as some of the raw music you gave us. They definitely helped Tania and between us we really focused on the breathing techniques throughout the whole labour.

Even though we were in the labour ward, the midwives were great at trying to meet our needs. We saw very little of the doctors and made a very relaxed atmosphere in our room. They respected our birth plan as much as possible and tried to always allow us time to weigh up our decisions. 

We wouldn't have been able to make the birth plan without your advice and I'm sure Tania would have had an epidural if it wasn't for hypnobirthing. The techniques definitely helped make for a more relaxed birth and a chilled out (most of the time!) little one now.

Most of all we found the course helped during quite a tricky pregnancy. It helped reduce anxiety while allowing Tania to focus on caring for our baby. We had been told by our consultant we would never be able to have children naturally and were quite far along the IVF process when we found out Tania was pregnant. So that combined with some of the shenanigans along the way meant hypnobirthing helped bring down the stress levels. 

Thanks for all your help. We've recommended your course and hypnobirthing generally to plenty of others.

All the best,

Matt, Tania and Maya

Helen & Luke's positive C-Section story

Helen with proud big brother Dennis & baby Edie.

Our little girl arrived safely on Thursday 8th February, her name is Edie Jude Thompson, weighing 6lbs 10. Dennis has been taking his big brother promotion very seriously, with lots of cuddles and kisses (and she almost had a taste of cornflakes on day 2!!). 

I had my cervical stitch removed at 36 weeks, using the breathing techniques. This was pretty painless and the midwife assisting the consultant said how relaxed was during the short procedure. Fast forward a week and a half, I felt that ‘trickle’, we made our way to Frimley, to be told it wasnt my waters and we were sent home. But I knew it was, as it continued to leak all afternoon, so back we went that evening, to have confirmed it looked like my back waters were leaking.  We went home to see if anything happened and were booked to go in for an induction the following morning. They started me off with the gel, we went for a long walk, had a sleep, but nothing happened :(

Next was the hormone drip. I really didn’t want to go down this route as this was where I felt I lost control during the birth of our son. I listened to the playlist you gave us throughout and managed 13 hours without pain relief (even managing to doze on and off). I only used gas and air for some examinations. I was having 4 contractions within 10minutes and was examined one final time, just coming up to 48hrs since my waters broke. I still hadn’t dilated passed 1cm. The consultant said my cervical stitch, which had done a great job getting us to bang on 38 weeks, had somehow caused the scar tissue from my previous Lletz procedures to fuse together and it wasn’t budging.  Fast forward an hour and our beautiful daughter was born via C-section.  

I had 3 midwives during this time and all 3 were extremely supportive of the Hypnobirthing and made many comments about how calm and controlled I was throughout. These were the two words I used during your course when we were asked about our wishes for our births.  As our 3 year old would say “job done”. 

I have to add also how well it equipped Luke this time round, he was amazing and supported my decisions, spoke for me when he needed too and was just an absolute rock throughout. The course could not have prepared him better, which added to the whole positive experience.  

Thank you so much for your amazing course! I was sceptical having given birth once without using Hypnobirthing but so glad we stuck with it. It didn’t go to plan, but the techniques and tools given to us by you, made the experience and one that I can remember. 

Thank you again!

Sam & Tom's second baby story

First of all we want to say a big thank you for the amazing course and for all your help and advice in the run up to the birth. The course not only really helped during the birth but also before the birth which we have shared below.

At the beginning of my pregnancy, we were placed under a consultant so that we were monitored more closely as our first daughter was 5 weeks premature.
At 34 weeks, the consultant advised us that the baby was measuring big (likely to be around 10lbs at full term) and recommended that I was induced at 38 weeks to avoid the baby "getting stuck". I was very uncomfortable with this as I wanted a natural delivery and wanted the baby to come when it was ready but, despite voicing my concerns to the consultant, it fell on deaf ears and it was said that it would be "convenient" to be induced, and that we could "organise childcare" for our daughter.  Following those comments, we asked if there were any serious risks to myself or the baby and it came to light that there was not so we agreed to review the baby's size closer to my due date in the hope that the baby would come naturally by itself.

The worry of induction however meant that my blood pressure increased significantly and sadly the consultant put doubts in my mind as to whether I could give birth naturally and that the baby could get stuck. Having completed the course I knew that I shouldn't be having these doubts so I continued practising the relaxation techniques and easy breathing each day and I found that the more I did them, the more I relaxed and believed in myself again which really helped my blood pressure to come down and keep me calm.

Fortunately, my waters broke naturally when I was 38 weeks + 5 days at 23.35 and I began to experience the early stages of labour. We headed to Frimley and they kept me in the labour ward as my waters had broken. We had 24 hours for labour to begin naturally before the risk of infection increased. But despite my waters only being broken for a matter of hours (and there being no immediate risk to me or the baby) the midwives were pushing the idea of getting induced saying, "why not get the baby out sooner now your waters have broken" and "you don't want to be stuck on a ward waiting for something to happen do you?"
Still feeling very uncomfortable with induction given there were not any risks at that point, I insisted on wanting to give the baby a chance to come naturally (just like it had with our first child once my waters had broken) and fortunately within a few hours I was in active labour.

The labour itself did not entirely go to plan. The baby was back to back and was triggering frequent and painful contractions. At its peak I was contracting 8 times every 10 minutes, getting breaks of only a matter of seconds between contractions. The easy and mountain breathing techniques along with listening to the relaxations helped massively in allowing me to zone out and getting through the bulk of these contractions, although I did use gas and air towards the end.

I got to 6cm dilated but unfortunately, due to having so many contractions and constantly having the urge to push, my cervix became swollen and I was no longer dilating. After discussions with my husband and the midwife, we took the decision to have a 'mobile epidural' to prevent the urge to push and allow the swelling to die down. Because it was only a small dose however, I could still move around and still had the ability to control what I was doing.

Fortunately, the swelling went down and baby Oliver was born about an hour later at 11.35 on the 20th January, weighing a fairly weighty 9lbs 10ozs with no further intervention. So it was a quick and intense 12 hours from when my waters broke to when he was born. The goddess breathing really helped me push him out, especially when they told me I was seconds away from needing an episiotomy if he didn't come out shortly which I wanted to avoid if possible. Despite being told this, I kept calm and continued with the goddess breathing and out he came.

Although there were a couple of curve balls experienced during the labour, the breathing and relaxation techniques taught during the course helped both me and baby Oliver keep calm throughout the birth. The midwives also commented on how calm and happy Oliver was throughout the labour. My husband Tom was also a huge help during the labour and with him being familiar with all the techniques meant he could guide me through where necessary.

We are now 2 weeks into this wonderful journey of having Oliver in our family and he is still a very calm and relaxed baby. Having a calm birth we feel played a big part in this.

Although it turned out differently to my birth plan, we were always open minded with what could happen however, I think had we not done the course, things could have turned out even more differently, perhaps with more intervention which just shows how invaluable the course was to all three of us - myself, Tom and Oliver. The course made a huge difference for me in particular both before and during the birth and I am so pleased we did it! I cannot recommend the course highly enough. Thanks so much again Hannah, you were a fantastic teacher!
Love Sam, Tom, Rosie and Oliver xxxx