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

Baby Lucas's calm birth

Hi Hannah, we’re doing well thanks.

I ended up having a long labour of 45 hours and a natural birth with only gas and air. I was on Rushey Ward (the birth centre) but got a bit stressful towards the end as they thought he might be distressed so rushed us down to labour ward.

Everything we learned with you was so helpful and gave us a realistic idea of what to expect!

Lucas was born on 17th January, so he’s almost 5 weeks now. He’s gaining weight well, but doing lots of cluster feeding which leads to painful gas and a refusal to sleep unless someone’s holding him. It’s been exhausting, but also very joyful ☺️ x

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 healing VBAC story

Hi Hannah,

Hope you are well.

I thought I'd let you know Lewis David Cass arrived yesterday at 145pm weighing 9lb 1oz!

I have to admit I was sceptical but open minded to how much difference hypnobirthing could make but all I can say is wow. I had early labour contractions on and off since Thursday morning, ramping up to 2/3 in 10 during Saturday night, but I was able to relax/dose in between them.

We arrived at the hospital at 9am 5cm dilated, 2 hours later my waters went and very quickly after that I was 10cm and pushing. So not only did I achieve my VBAC but I felt so calm I did it all with just a tens machine and a paracetamol!

It was a complete different experience to Chloes birth and I can't thank you enough for giving me the confidence to believe in my body, I'm so proud!

Kind regards

Danielle

A gorgeous home birth story

Stephanie & Jon birthed their first baby after their Calm Births course, and came to me for a refresher session when pregnant with baby number 2. This was the birth they experienced with baby number 2, their gorgeous girl.

Hi Hannah

Hope you’re well!

Little Milla arrived this weekend, and it was the most wonderful calm birth. Just wanted to say thank you so much for helping make that possible! 💕

I didn’t feel like I needed any pain relief other then my breathing and the pool and it was amazing to just listen and trust my body. It just did it’s thing while I focused on staying calm!

Had a wobble right as her head was trying to come down as the contractions felt like they were about 2 seconds apart and I didn’t feel i could get a breath in to breath down but Jon and the midwives were amazing at helping me find my centre again and I could help my body with me breath and she arrived in no time! 8lb 11oz 💕

Included is a picture of how we used your affirmations, they were great to have in the room as a reminder during the birth.

So thank you!

Stef x

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

A positive induction birth

On Saturday 12th June, Carl and I arrived at Frimley Park Hospital at 10.00 where I was booked for induction. We arrived at the Antenatal Ward, where I was seen to a bed. We made ourselves at home and also prepared ourselves for a wait until the pessary was inserted as we knew they were really busy! They scanned me to double check baby was in the right position and they also hooked me onto the monitor to check on baby’s heartrate for a while.

Just before the pessary was inserted, she examined my cervix, she informed me the cervix was already slightly open and she could touch the baby’s head with her finger! They inserted the pessary at 1.30pm. By 2.30, I had severe lower back ache and could already feel my body was on its way. I decided to listen to some of the relaxing MP3s to keep myself calm ready for the surges. As soon as the surges started, Carl hooked me up to the TENS machine which along with the MP3s, helped a great deal. We took a walk round the Hospital, to ease my back ache and to stretch my legs. Once the surges started to become more frequent, I started my easy breathing whilst listening to the relaxing music through earphones. However, the surges suddenly became more and more frequent, up to the point where I was having around 2 surges a minute without a break in between and when they examined me, I was only 1cm dilated at around 6pm.

They decided to give me an injection to slow down my surges, and they also removed the pessary because of the way my body had reacted to it. The injection did help, but the surges were still very frequent. I continued to use my breathing techniques, using the mountain breathing during each surge and Carl laid next to me, reminding me of the positive affirmations and did the light touch massage, he also played with my hair which apparently I requested this the most but I don’t remember as I was too much in the zone!

At around 9.30pm, the surges were still very frequent and I was starting to feel tired, we spoke to the midwife and she examined me, she informed me I was now 3cm dilated and they would transfer me to the labour ward shortly. Due to the number of surges I’d had, I requested some pain relief as I hadn’t yet had any, they weren’t able to give me gas and air on the antenatal, but offered me Pethidine which although doesn’t help a great deal with the pain, it allowed my body to relax more and feel more at ease. I fell asleep not long after the pethidine injection was given, and although we are not 100% sure on the time frames now (it all happened so fast!) I woke up around midnight with really strong surges, still using my TENS machine. I think I had around 4 or 5 until suddenly I felt my body take over and felt the need to push. Carl called the midwife and they examined me to say I was now 8cm dilated! They couldn’t believe how quickly I had progressed from 3cm to 8 in such a short time.

Just before they transferred me to the Labour Ward, my waters broke on the bed. They pushed me on a wheelchair onto the labour ward where during each surge I was now pushing using my Goddess breathing. The staff commented on how relaxed I was and how well I was doing, especially as I had used only the TENS machine and pethidine. Once on the labour ward, they examined me again and I was now fully dilated at 10cm, and I now had access to some gas and air (hooray!) although, Carl had to keep reminding me to use it.

The midwives then informed me the baby was “facing the wall” and they were concerned about the baby’s heartrate. They spoke about taking me to theatre which I thought they would want to perform a C-section, however, they informed me it would still be a vaginal delivery, but an assisted one, using ventouse. They quickly got me to theatre where they helped deliver our baby girl. After being given the spinal, they told me when to push, in which I continued to use my goddess breathing.

At 1.07am, she was born! As we didn’t know the gender of our baby until this moment, it made it even more special. Carl blurted: “We have a daughter!” and then burst into tears! She was placed onto my chest for some skin to skin and it was a magical moment. She weighed 5lbs 5oz of perfection. Carl cut the umbilical cord and saw the placenta be delivered too which apparently happened very quickly after her arrival. I had a small tear and they performed an episiotomy to help her out. But it’s all worth it!

Given that, when we first started the hypnobirthing course, this is not how I pictured our baby’s birth, it was still for us, an overall positive birth. The labour from start to finish was 11.5 hours long, and we took each stage of the labour at a time, concentrating on the breathing techniques we had practised and listening to the mp3s to keep myself in the zone. The ward staff commented on how calm I remained throughout the birth and I know it is credit to everything we learned during the hypnobirthing course. I am so proud of myself that I managed to get to 10cm with very little pain relief and I’m also so proud of Carl who was amazing at reminding me I can do this when I had my moment of “Carl, I can’t do this, I need an epidural” moment!

A huge thank you to you Hannah, whose voice was in my head throughout my labour! We learned so much as was able to stay in control for as long as possible until the medical staff intervened.

We now have a happy, content little girl and we couldn’t be happier!

Love, Lucy, Carl & Scarlett xxx

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

Esme's positive birth

A gorgeous letter from first time parents Lucy & Nathan reflecting on the birth of their first daughter.

Although it's now over a year since Esme was born, I wanted to write and say a huge thank you and tell you how grateful I am to you. Its always been a big regret that I didn't say it at the time, after she was born, and I think about it often, so I thought it was better late than never :)

The hypnobirthing training you provided was so invaluable to me and my husband. Without it, I whole heartedly believe I would not have had such a calm and positive experience during the labour and birth of our daughter Esme. I should also add that it would not of been possible without the amazing midwifery staff at RBH too. They were phenomenal and I couldn't of asked for better care, from start to finish.

It was a fairly lengthy labour, but I was able to stay bright throughout and using your brilliant breathing and humming techniques I could manage the pain, and did not end up requiring any pain relief. It also meant that whilst Esme did take her time to come out, she  also remained relaxed, according to the heart rate monitor, and so nothing escalated and she was born naturally. Nathan was brilliant and, despite unfortunately suffering from anxiety generally, during labour and the birth he stayed calm and was a great support in many ways.
So all in all when Esme entered the world, it was into a calm and positive environment and for that I will always be eternally grateful to you. Hannah, you really do deliver on the 'Calm Births'!!

It really was such a great start, and I felt such an overwhelming sense of gratitude for everyone that had helped me to have that positive experience. Which is why I still feel terrible that I didn't write to thank you at the time, when you had played such an important and pivotal part in that. I didn't experience any lows when my milk came in and generally my hormones just stayed stable over the course of the following weeks. I really do believe that this is down to having a calm birthing experience. That's not to say that we didn't have our ups and downs, but being able to cope with those was so much easier, without spiking hormones.

And thankfully, we are all still doing well and Esme is a happy little bunny, which is wonderful.
So, just to say again, a huge thank you to you and heartfelt gratitude for all your help.
All our best wishes,

Lucy 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 

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 

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

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

Kirsty & Dan's story - a phobia of hospitals and an Induction.

Kirsty & Dan's story is amazing. Kirsty began the course with a severe phobia of hospitals,  feeling very anxious about going to hospital to give birth. I recommended a combination of my Hypnobirthing course and some one to one Hypnotherapy with the amazing Louisa Chipperfield. Below is the message that Kirsty sent me after the birth of their baby:

Just wanted to say a massive thank you for the recent HypnoBirthing course we attended and for all the advice and support you gave us. As you know this was our first pregnancy and we joined the course to understand more about HypnoBirthing particularly as I have a severe phobia of hospitals and we hoped some relaxation techniques might help. We found the course extremely informative and helpful and really enjoyed being part of a small group as there were just three couples on our course.

Due to some concerns our consultant wanted us to be induced and we agreed although this meant more time in hospital than I would have liked, but found the relaxation techniques worked well. The induction worked and things moved quickly for us. Our labour was only 3 and a half hours but the midwives wanted me to push very early when I knew I wasn't ready. The HypnoBirthing techniques we learned meant I could zone out from my surroundings and just focus on Dan and the baby and relax myself until I felt ready to breathe the baby down. This extra time meant that myself, my body and my baby were ready when I wanted to breathe and I am sure that this is why I ended up having just one stitch. Eva was born quickly and although extremely alert, she was happy, calm and quiet. We were told shortly after the birth that as things went so well, we should consider having our next baby at home. We were also later told by our community midwife that she heard from the hospital that we had a 'text book' birth. 

Dan found the course and techniques very helpful in understanding what would happen and also how to support me. We did not attend any NCT classes as we felt your course provided the information we needed in a clear and non confusing way. 

To our delight we have stayed in touch with the other HypnoBirthing couples on our course who have been a great support to us and we feel will be great friends. 

So we would like to say a big thank you again for everything. We can not recommend your course highly enough and we look forward to seeing you at the next HypnoBirthing event!

With love Kirsty, Dan, baby Eva and Dillon xxxx