From Amy

It went well thanks, our lovely girl is here and gorgeous! I found hypnobirthing really useful during labour. I started having small contractions at home but thought they were just Braxton Hicks as I’d had manyt times before, we practised hypnobirthing whilst I had them! I went off to sleep and woke up 20 minutes later and they suddenly went from 2/10 to 8/10 instantly! We pretty much went straight to the hospital and by the time we arrived and I had been assessed I was fully dilated… It was very quick and I’d been listening to the hypnobirthing tracks on the journey and saying my affirmations whilst I waited to be checked. I found the affirmations very reassuring and grounding – stopping my mind from racing off with anxiety about when my partner would be able to join me or focusing on the physical sensations.

I found the 3,2,1 and 10-1 countdown most useful and my husband said them to me during contractions – he was an awesome birth partner and they really kept me focused and calm. They had a big impact each time he did them, I gave him a tap when I was ready for him to start them, and another tap if I wanted to hear it again in the same contraction. The midwife said I was super chilled! I needed a kiwi cup to help deliver my little one in the end, but went with the guidance of all the professionals around me and just focused on pushing and getting to meet my little girl. One thing I’ve enjoyed is using some of the tracks and affirmations now she is here on longer nights, I feel they’ve still been helpful to me now.

Rebecca’s birth story – by Emma

Rebecca was born last month weighing a healthy 8lb 8oz! She was breech up until 36 weeks but thankfully they managed to turn her around. 

Labour was short and intense. My waters broke at 8am and we made our way into the JR to be assessed as contractions had not started. By the time we had got there I had started to get contractions which quickly became more frequent. By the time the midwife checked me I was already 9cm dilated! Rebecca was born naturally with no medical intervention or pain relief just a couple of hours later at 12:56pm – they did not even have time to fill the birth pool! I lost a lot of blood but thankfully after a discussion with the midwives I was able to stay on the spires as my observations were all ok and continued to remain so. 

The midwives couldn’t believe how calm I was throughout and I’m sure it was largely due to practicing the hypno birthing and what we learnt on the course. After such a nerve wrecking pregnancy (with the cervical stitch, iron transfusion, and with the baby being breeched) hypno birthing really helped me manage my anxiety – not only throughout the pregnancy – but also leading up to the birth. 

Annabelle’s birth story – by Vicky

I’ve been meaning to message you since our baby girl, Annabelle, was born. You might remember I had some significant anxieties following my difficult birth with my son and could only make half of your hypnobirthing class as my son and husband were unwell. Unfortunately life continued to be busy and I didn’t have chance to arrange any follow up sessions with you, which I would’ve loved to have done. However, I managed a peaceful week of maternity leave before I went into labour, where I listened to the relaxation track every day and focused on making myself comfortable at home, feeling rested and getting the oxytocin going. I went to bed one Tuesday night feeling like something might be happening. I woke up at 2am having contractions, but decided to stay comfortable in bed, listening to the track at times, relaxing and resting and let my husband sleep. At 6am I had breakfast with my son then went back to bed when my husband took him to nursery as I felt a bit sick and like I needed to focus getting back into my birthing zone (I now realise that this was probably transition!). By the time my husband got home I realised that the hypnobirthing had been so successful that I needed to push and wasn’t going to make it to hospital! Baby Annabelle was born on our kitchen floor at 935am with paramedics arriving just in time to catch her. The pushing stage was intense but I didn’t feel frightened at any stage, had no thoughts of my previous delivery and never doubted that I would be able to deliver her. I needed a few stitches afterwards but my recovery has been very rapid and I have felt happy and relaxed in the postpartum period. I have not had any more nightmares about my previous delivery and feel like I can move on from it now. Additionally, I can’t remember if I’d told you that I struggled to breastfeed last time and produced very little milk despite a lot of professional help. This time I am breastfeeding Annabelle and just topping up with formula as required. Again I put this down to me being happier and more relaxed.

As an endocrinologist the concept of hypnobirthing made sense to me, but I didn’t think it would have such a profound effect on me, even allowing for the fact that second labours are usually easier. I’m now listening to the Mindful Mamma audiobook and am finding this helpful in dealing with a 17mo and newborn in this time of social distancing!

Luke’s birth story – by Jane

Baby Luke was born on his due date! Pre-labour started on Monday and proper labour started on Tuesday evening. I happily laboured away by myself for a few hours – Christophe had gone to bed early as he had an early start the following morning – and then went to bed for two hours before waking him up to inform him this was the real deal and he wasn’t going into work!

I carried on labouring at home with his support and encouragement and was able to use the techniques you taught us, plus the MP3, to keep a calm head on my shoulders and appreciate the experience as it came to me.

Eventually, at about 10am on Wednesday, the time came to head into the MAU and I carried on using my breathing techniques, visualisations and so on on the way there. Unfortunately, however, despite us timing the contractions at more or less three-in-ten, the rhythm wasn’t holding quite strongly enough for the midwives, so we were sent home. About 12 hours later, we headed up again, but it was the same story and I was told to come back when we had a proper long, strong, close together pattern happening. We hung on at home again as long as possible before returning again on Thursday evening, because I was starting to get quite tired and the pain was ramping up. Fortunately for me, my waters had also started to break just before we left home, so I was admitted to the delivery suite that night (I really couldn’t have stood going home again!).

I laboured with just entonox and hypnobirthing techniques for about 3 hours, with Christophe helping with the “3-2-1 relax” guide in particular, but a steady rhythm of contractions still wasn’t happening (was more of a foxtrot than a steady metronome) and I was getting very tired – I had only managed to get two hours sleep on Tuesday and really nothing since, plus I’d not eaten in quite a long time, so the midwife did an artificial rupture of the membranes early in the early hours of Friday morning to try and pick up the pace a bit. That worked, to the extent that the contractions got longer and stronger but, you guessed it, no steady rhythm. However, this was marked down as the time I officially went into labour, which is kind of amazing in retrospect, as my notes say I was only actually in labour for 15 hours!

The gas and air gradually became less and less effective and eventually, I got to the stage where I wasn’t so much resting or sleeping between contractions as passing out from exhaustion, so I bypassed diamorphine and went for the epidural. We had a bit of a wait for the anaesthetist, so Christophe was managing to keep me kind of on the ball and the midwife managed to keep me sort of with it using chamomile as a sort of aromatherapy smelling salt.

That worked wonders, not just in terms of pain relief, but also it allowed me to get some sleep.

But, after several hours (not sure how many, time had ceased to have any meaning) there was still no steady rhythm to the contractions (in fact, they stopped completely for about 10 mins at one point) and I got stuck at 7cm dilation. With all that taken into account and the fact that Luke’s heart rate was starting to drop between contractions, I had an emergency caesarean and we finally met Luke at 18.42!

I know this straight-up sounds like one of those labour and birth horror stories – it’s certainly not what I had in my birth plan and I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t difficult – but overall I feel incredibly positive about it, not just because I got a healthy baby boy out of it at the end but because I never felt that things were completely out of my control, or particularly scared or panicked.

More than anything, though, I wanted to say thank you as I am so glad that we took your hypnobirthing class; I really don’t think I would have known how to cope without it and it could have been quite a harrowing experience. I felt really confident that I had the tools to get me through and I was even able to crack jokes for quite a long time (not sure how good they were in real life, but the drugs and exhaustion ensured I thought they were pretty funny and everyone else at least humoured me!). Even on the operating table, I was still feeling super calm and confident. I also used some rhythmic breathing to help bond with Luke and keep him calm when we were in the observation unit together.