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