Brynn & Charles - an early arrival!

Brynn and Charles' story of the birth of their first child is wonderful, they didn't manage to complete the 5 week course as their baby decided to come rather early at 33 weeks. Despite not having finished the course, and despite the fact that they had very special circumstances with a premature baby, their story is astoundingly positive and calm. I love it! 

" The day of Nathaniel's birth was relatively calm and relaxing: lunch with chocolate cake, lounging in the sunny garden, naps etc. Into the afternoon I went inside to spend time on the couch and relax, as my stomach was feeling a bit crampy.

We'd been in the hospital 4 days earlier with early onset delivery symptoms but discharged within 2 days as the symptoms had calmed down. These same 'cramps' were coming back and I was just trying to do my best to relax and breath through them calmly. I read news on the internet and even sent a few emails around 4:30. I thought a bath would feel good and I hoped it'd help calm my stomach cramps, which were only getting stronger by that point.

My husband Charles drew me a bath and offered to bring me a drinks or snacks, which I gladly accepted. After 20 mins or so of relaxing the warm tub, I was feeling ok but ready to get out, and I started to wonder whether we should go to the hospital. I got out of the tub and began drying off, telling Charles that I thought we should maybe go. By the time I'd gotten dressed in comfortable clothes and laid down on the bed to rest, the 'cramps' were getting considerably stronger. (Even so it still hadn't occurred to me that these were surges and that our child might be born soon!) Our neighbour drove us the short distance to the hospital where we planned to deliver; we were checked in and very soon taken to a nearby delivery room.

My waters broke while sitting on the delivery room bed and the surges remained strong every few minutes. Charles and I settled into our prepared practices and I was able to fall into a zone, listening to Charles guide me and I felt comfortable following my mantra of 'breath it down' to carry me through the surges. Because the baby was coming early, we were introduced to neonatal specialists as they got set up in the room.  

The birthing seemed to just take over naturally and relatively quickly...we arrived at the hospital at 6:45 and our son Nathaniel was born an hour later at 7:50pm. I never felt that I needed or wanted any pain relief and, to my surprise, no stitches were needed afterwards either - an added bonus! We had initially hoped for a water birth but his early arrival introduced an element of risk that meant a water birth wouldn't be possible.

Nonetheless we were very happy with the entire experience and I feel certain that our learned approaches allowed us to stay at home as long as possible in a calm environment. (The Midwife later told us that I was 9cm dilated when we arrived. I guess those weren't 'cramps' after all!) Nathaniel remained in NICU for 2.5 weeks but with minimal intervention. He's progressed beautifully and we are all happily at home, enjoying life as a family of three!

Stephanie & Andy - the birth of baby Zach

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"

Carmen and Roberto's Vaginal Breech baby

New Mummy Carmen tells the story of the rather exciting birth of her & husband Roberto's first baby, Evelyn:

"Baby Evelyn was breech throughout pregnancy, and we tried everything apart from the ECV to turn her, but eventually I was booked in for a caesarean on 28th June (her due date).

The night before at around 7pm I started having very mild period type pains. At 8pm I phoned the hospital to ask what I needed to do, as I wasn't sure if this was labour or not. They said to take paracetamol, monitor the pains and if they get closer together to ring them again.

20 minutes later I rang them again..

I was told to come in for assessment. We arrived at 21:03, put into triage where my waters broke at 21:30. I was wheeled into the delivery room and told that theatre was being prepared for an emergency c-section. At that point the surges were getting closer and more intense. The anaesthetist came past to see how dilated I was (3cm 10 minutes previously) when all of a sudden she exclaimed:

"There's a foot hanging out! No time for a c-section, this baby's coming now!"

I didn't have time for any other pain relief except gas and air, and all of a sudden there were all these extra people in the room (about 6 or 7). I delivered Evelyn at 22:45 via natural breech delivery after 8 minutes of pushing! I became well known on the ward as the Midwives very rarely see natural breech deliveries - one Midwife had worked there for 12 years and never seen one!

Total labour time: 1 hour 25 minutes from waters breaking to her being delivered.

I went from wanting a calm water birth to needing a caesarean to actually having a vaginal breech delivery. Thank goodness for my affirmations helping me through, and of course my AMAZING husband Roberto for being my rock."