The arrival of sweet baby Louis

Hi Hannah. 

Just to say our little man has arrived- Louis Seymour on 12 July at 4.02pm, weighing 7lb 13oz. 

Thank goodness we came to you for help and hypnobirthing. It was invaluable for various reasons. Contractions started at 6pm on Tuesday, but but by 8pm they were every 3 - 5mins until 3pm the next day and was ‘getting by’ on gas and air.  While his head has been down and engaged for the last few weeks, his head was at an angle and he was struggling/couldn’t be delivered naturally so they whipped me in for an assisted delivery by forceps and episiotomy. 

I 100% advocate your course. To add, while Rob was sceptical, he’s converted. He was able to support me throughout in a really meaningful way. 

Yes, I’m on day 3 postpartum and no doubt feeling the blues, but could weep at how grateful I am to have had the techniques to get through it and feel calmer. 

Thank you again! 

Anna x

Steph & Andy's 3rd Calm Births baby!

Here the lovely Steph & Andy share their third Calm Births baby experience! You can read their first birth story here.

Hello!

I finally got round to writing up Ruby’s story - Calm Births Baby #3!

I’d had a very uncomplicated pregnancy, and always wanted a home birth, so once I got my husband on board (after our hypno refresher with Hannah, who was the one to convince him 😂) I was absolutely thrilled and we got the ball rolling.
The local home birth team were amazing from the minute I self referred to them, despite me being technically out of guidelines due to a high BMI and previous PPH.

We had plain sailing up until I hit 38 weeks, when my midwife felt that baby was oblique, with the head in my hip rather than pelvis. I decided I wanted to take up their offer of a scan to check, and the sonographer deemed me to have polyhydramnios at that point.

That started a cascade of fussing from consultants, insisting I had to deliver on the ward with a bedside scan and continuous monitoring. I had over an hour on the phone with one scoffing at everything I brought up, and constant scare tactics about bleeding and cord prolapse, but no real facts or support for my choices. It didn’t help that my lovely midwife was on annual leave and not back until my due date, but her supervisor absolutely smashed it out of the park with stepping up to help me and in the end I got it in writing that if I went into the ward, I’d get my water birth with intermittent monitoring. The consultant from the phone call agreed to my plan as part of an MDT meeting (I think mainly because I was adamant I wouldn’t go in otherwise).

Baby was due on Thursday 10th March and I laughed with a mum on the school run that Monday that I was the most pregnant I’d ever been. Secretly though, I had a hunch baby would come on the 9th, as my boys were both born on the Wednesday before their due dates, and I do love a matching set.

I was in a foul mood all day on the 9th, I was uncomfortable and couldn’t settle to anything. I had a show first thing in the morning before dropping my eldest at school but then nothing else happened. (My husband told me later that he spent the day frantically wrapping up at work as he knew I was having the baby that night or the next day).

It got round to the evening and I was still grumpy. We bathed our boys and my husband went to get them in bed, and I realised I’d been having a few period pains that were now distinctly tightenings. I timed a few and they were 45 seconds every 3 minutes, but not painful and so I thought this was early labour if anything at all. The boys decided they wanted to go to my mums so we whizzed them out of bed and round the corner to her, then came home to eat toast. I rang labour line while my husband sorted the pool out.

Still tightening every 3 minutes but no real pain. Breathing more to make sure I didn’t get too excited, and I decided to play myself the affirmations. About 8pm (just as the liner went in the pool) I rang labour line, as once my labours establish, they go FAST. They informed me home births were suspended and they’d let the labour ward know I was coming in. I had a bit of a wobble at that point but I then decided to ring the ward to make sure my special plan was definitely in place, which it was, and moved to my yoga ball to bounce it out to my affirmations.

My husband made me a cup of tea and sat down to drink a coffee about 10pm when all of a sudden I decided we needed to go. Now. (I have form for this, poor Andy didn’t get coffee or breakfast the day we had our oldest either 🙈)

We are less than 5 mins from the hospital and I had 2 strong surges in the car, and I suddenly remembered I should be breathing properly. It took a while to get up to the ward, as I had to stop and blow all the surges away, but once there we were met by a lovely student midwife* who walked us to the exact same room I’d birthed both my boys in. We were met by another midwife and they’d both very clearly read and were on board with my birth plan. (I did hand out my laminated copies of birth plan b, The Hospital Plan, just to make sure).

I was still having plenty of surges and was needing to breathe through them but chatting fine in between. I think the midwife didn’t know what to make of me, as my body clearly said “established labour” but my attitude didn’t 😂 I asked if we could have the pool filled and asked for a VE to check where I was.
The student midwife was very clear about getting proper consent at every stage, and at one point I heard the other midwife gently correct her from saying “contractions”, to using “surge” instead as that’s what I’d written in my plan. It was lovely to feel so respected!

At 11.09pm, I was 5cm and getting in the pool. I joked to my husband that I had an hour to have this baby, and then I’d get my matching set. Surges were about every 2 minutes by now but still only lasting about 45seconds. I commented on how this wasn’t like either of my other births, and the midwife replied “well your body knows what it’s doing and it’s clearly doing it right!”

From there, things were quick. At 11.20 my waters went, and the student midwife came to check baby’s heart. There was a minute where she couldn’t find it, so the midwife came in, and I knew she’d been looking in the wrong place as I could feel baby in the birth canal but didn’t want to come out of the zone to talk to them, as I was mid ocean visualisation 😂 The midwife found it right away and clearly knew we were close.

A bit of time later, I was kneeling at the edge of the pool and breathed out the head. (My notes say this was 11.32pm, but I’d asked in my birth plan not to be told the time or how long I’d been in the second stage unless I asked, so I didn’t know that at the time). Then all my surges stopped and the midwife asked me to change position to help the shoulders out, which I did. I knew instinctively I wanted to sit down with my back to the edge, so I did, and as I was moving I felt baby turn, so I knew we were close. I felt my body bearing down, so I used my down breathing and at 11.39pm (in the same position and room I’d birthed her biggest brother), Ruby was born.

The student midwife brought her straight to my chest, where Andy checked and said we had a little girl this time. I was feeling on top of the world and had absolutely no bleeding. The midwife told me the water was probably the clearest she’d ever seen! At that point I asked when I could leave, and the midwife did say that ideally she’d like me to birth the placenta first 🙈 We had loads of skin to skin in the pool and though I had the injection for a managed third stage (part of my birth plan), there was no pressure at all to get out or cut the cord. We waited for white, then my husband cut it and I decided to get out. I got the shakes really badly so I decided to give Ruby to Andy for some snuggles and once I’d stopped shaking, the student midwife did a quick check for tears (none!) and showed us the placenta. I think that’s when Ruby was weighed as well. Although she didn’t look it, she was our biggest babe at an impressive 8lb9oz, and my fastest labour, at a clocked 1hr48mins.

Ruby had been very chilled and quiet up to that point (perfect little hypno baby), but then decided she urgently needed a snack, so we got her latched on whilst I ate some toast and drank a cup of tea. After a good long feed, I handed her back to daddy to grab a shower, then repacked our bag, dressed Ruby and told the midwives we were off.

We were at home on the sofa having another feed at 3.37 (whilst daddy built the crib 😂) and her delighted brothers joined us at about 10am. And I was back on the school run the next day, feeling like I’d bounced right back to normal.

Although it wasn’t our planned home birth, it really was the best home birth from home experience, and my hypnobirthing and just the general support from Hannah has been invaluable in all our births!

Best wishes and with many thanks,

Steph, Andy, Zach, Dom and Ruby!

*Staff names have been witheld

Poppy & James' third Calm Births baby!

Poppy & James had their first Calm Births baby back in 2017 , which you can read about here. They had their second Calm Birth in 2020 and now have had their THIRD Calm Births baby! I am so honoured that they chose to use us each time & had such positive experiences x

“Oh Hannah! So so delighted to be able to share with you the arrival of 💛 Wilbur Stanley 💛 A whole 9lb of perfection, born safely, calmly and beautifully in the pool on Tuesday afternoon without pain relief. Laboured peacefully at home during the night, James went on the school run and we were able to arrive at the hospital 6cm dilated and ready for the pool. Finally, at our third and final attempt, I feel so fortunate to have been gifted this water birth experience and following two wonderful hours in there Wilbur was welcomed into the world. I have always envisaged my "yellow water birth" alongside the Affirmations so it seemed fitting to have this perfect hat at the ready 💛 We are home and settling in to life as a family of five. Thank you for everything, three beautiful Calm Births we will always be truly and wholly grateful for xx”

A positive C-Section Story

 When I became pregnant with our first baby, both my husband and I were nervous about the birth. I was worried about losing control of my body and being in a lot of pain and my husband was worried about not knowing what to do during labour and feeling like a "spare part". Calm births with Hannah was recommended by a friend to help us understand the process of labour and birth and to give us ideas to do both during pregnancy and labour. 

We both loved the course and over the weeks we felt more in control and positive of giving birth to our baby. I enjoyed listening to positive affirmations every morning when I got up and listening to the ocean relaxation before going to bed. We also regularly started using the breathing phrase "I breathe in calm and my body and mind relax down" whenever we started to become anxious. 

At 37 weeks, our obstetrician discussed with us that a natural labour may no longer be the best option for both me and the baby and that we needed to consider an elective c section. This was due to a blood pressure issue that I had developed later on in pregnancy and there was a concern that my heart would be unable to cope with labour.

Following this, I met again with Hannah to discuss how I could adapt what we have learnt in her sessions to support me during the c section. We also discussed options I could ask for during the c section to help me to feel more relaxed. After speaking with Hannah, I started listening more to the shooting stars relaxation as the part around worries about giving birth was really powerful and it allowed me to let go of the worries I had. My husband and I made a visualisation board which had pictures of happy memories, pictures of the beach to help with ocean relaxation (this was still a favourite), pictures of our baby scan and of the nursery. We made a playlist together of music to listen to whilst we were waiting and music to listen to during the section. We thought classical music would be helpful but wanted a fun twist so we included the jurassic Park and Harry Potter theme tune. We also started to think about the activities we could do together whilst we were waiting as we had found out a few days before that we would be the third in the order assuming there were no emergency sections. 

 On the day of the c section, we went in to hospital feeling excited as we knew we were meeting our baby that day. We were taken to our room to wait in until it was our turn. Maria, our midwife for the section, came to meet us and go through pre op information. We explained to her that we had been doing hypnobirthing and wanted to have as much of a calm birth as possible. She was very supportive of this and discussed with us our different options. She also explained that our obstetrician and anaesthetist were also advocates for hypnobirthing and so would be supportive. She offered to put some lavender essential oils on some cotton wool on my wrists and place them in a way that wouldn't hinder the anaethetist which I agreed to. We also agreed that she would give us a 20 minute warning before I was due to go in to theatre so I could listen to the ocean relaxation prior to going in. The midwife went on to tell everyone that would be present in the theatre that we were doing hypnobirthing and how we would like them to support us during the c section. 

 The midwife also offered to put the catheter in before going in to theatre. This would mean that it would be in the calming atmosphere of the room rather than in the busy theatre and it would allow me to feel more at ease as I would not be in a vulnerable position in front of other people. I agreed. I found it really helpful to use breathing phrases whilst it went in with my husband stroking my hand. It was uncomfortable but not painful and I was grateful that it was done in our own room. 

Following this the anaesthetist came in to put the cannula into my hand. She was a lovely and nurturing woman, who was reassuring and asked if there was anything she could do to support the birth of our baby. She answered our last minute questions. I was due to have a spinal block rather than an epidural due to my blood pressure. The anaesthetist explained that this would mean I would not feel any pain but I would still have some of the sensations of touch on my skin and not to worry that it was not working. The theatre nurse also came in to check my details and explained that I would be asked to answer the same questions a number of times (name, dob, why I was there).

 The obstetrician next came in to check if we had any last minute questions and to explain some last minute details. She offered to give me some drugs that would help with blood clotting and would mean that I would have less bleeding following the section.

 With 20 minutes to go, the midwife ensured no one would disturb us. We listened to the shooting stars track together and then looked at our visualisation board. By the end of the 20 minutes, we were excited to meet our baby. 

 We walked round to the theatre with the midwife and my husband and I laughed about needing to carry my "pee bag". My husband put on a theatre gown, cap and shoes. 

 Although I had seen pictures of a theatre, the actual theatre I walked in to still surprised me and the sudden clinical feel to the situation raised my anxiety levels. The theatre nurse provided reassurance and helped me to get on to the bed. This required me to climb up a few steps in order to get on to the bed. The anaesthetist came over to explain that she would now do the spinal block and I would need to lean over a pillow in order to curve my spine. She warned me that I would feel a sudden pain. My husband came over and took my hand and started talking to me about our agreed visualisation about being on a beach in Barcelona. I did not feel the needle go in or the spinal block drugs and was surprised when I was told I could lie down. My husband then moved to sit down next to my head and a screen was placed up so I could no longer see from my neck down. The anaesthetist explained there would now be a slight delay as I already had the catheter in which is what usually happens during this time whilst they are waiting for the spinal block to take affect. Pumps were then attached to my legs so that my legs would have the stimulation of walking and this would ensure no blood clots were formed. As the spinal block was starting to take affect, I started to feel over heated and incredibly dizzy. My husband noticed that I wasn't looking well and asked the anaesthetist if everything was OK. She noticed that my blood pressure had significantly dropped and started to give me various medications to help counter act it. This did start to raise my anxiety levels so the anaesthetist offered to start playing our music and my husband prompted me to use our breathing techniques. To check the spinal block had worked, the anaesthetist sprayed a cold spray on my arm so I would know how cold it should be. It was then sprayed on my leg and although I could feel the spray, I couldn't feel the temperature of it.

 The c section started and we had our music playing and my husband sat talking through our visualisation to help me to focus. The obstetrician popped her head round the curtain at one point to praise our music choice and asked for it to be turned up as she was enjoying it. I was warned when there would be some pressure to help maneuver baby out. It felt like incredibly hard pressure on my chest, apparently baby was comfy and had wedged their feet up into my ribs. We were told when the waters were about to break and we heard the rushing sound of water and then our baby crying. We had asked staff not to tell us the gender of the baby as we wanted to see for ourselves. The curtain was dropped and our baby lifted for us to see. We had a beautiful baby girl and she was born to Jupiter by Holst. Although my husband quickly changed it to the circle of life from the Lion King. We waited briefly whilst they did delayed cord  clamping and pushing remaining blood to baby.  The midwife then brought our baby girl over and put her skin to skin. Prior to lying down my gown had been loosened so the baby could be easily placed on my chest with the gown over the top of her.

The next 30 minutes flew so quickly. My husband and I were left alone to be with our baby girl whilst they completed the stitches they needed. My baby girl was briefly taken away whilst I was moved from the theatre bed to a ward bed via a slide (great fun). Whilst this happened my husband looked after our baby, took her to be weighed and cut her cord. She was then brought back to me for more skin to skin we moved up to the ward.

 The c section was a lovely experience for both me and my husband and I look back on it with fond memories. What we learnt from Calm Births really helped us to prepare for the birth of our baby and helped us to feel empowered for the birth that we wanted. What we learnt has also continued with us into parenthood. We use the phrase "I breathe in calm and my body and mind relaxes down" all the time, especially on days when parenting feels hard. I've also continued to use the relaxation tasks to help me to get to sleep at night.

A positive C-Section story

Hi Hannah, how are you? I hope you had a good summer? Piers and I had a baby boy last month – the 4th August! I was in hospital for 5 nights to be induced, but ended up having a c section. It was the complete opposite to what I wanted but I don’t feel it was a negative experience.

We had a growth scan at the end of July which showed there was little growth in 2 weeks and the dopplers had dropped out of normal range. Charlie was still fine at this point but our consultant and midwife both advised bringing the pregnancy to an end as there was now greater risk of Charlie becoming in danger and we wouldn’t necessary have enough time to act on it before anything fatal would happen.

So at 38 weeks I decided to try to be induced as I could still have a vaginal birth. I had the balloon, 1 application of the hormone gel (then Charlie decided to move position…thankfully Charlie moved back into position!) and then had my waters broken.

I got into early labour and it was all very positive – I was enjoying the experience. Within a few hours Charlie was showing signs of distress – movement reduced and heart rate dropped. The doctor advised to stop and have a c section before it becomes an emergency. At this point I was only 3 cms dilated and the doctor said that Charlie wasn’t going to cope if we continued as he was already showing signs that he wasn’t.

I’m glad I decided to have a c section at this point as it was still a calm environment and we were given the time and space to make the decision. We listened to our affirmations during surgery and it was a lovely moment when the surgeon lifted Charlie up to us and no one said anything – we could just have a quiet and emotional moment.

This was nearly 5 weeks ago now and I’m recovering well. Charlie is very calm and contented so far. I do feel very lucky!

Holly x

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

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