Thank you to Jemima for this very honest, beautiful birth story x
Hi Hannah,
Hope you are well. Just wanted to let you know our not so little boy arrived on Thursday (8lb 12oz) - Sonny.
It was really hard work and a tough labour, although I feel really good about the experience overall (now we are on day 5 and the baby love hormones have kicked in).
My surges were 2 and a half minutes apart from the start basically and labour lasted about 9 hours. Due to some bleeding I wasn't allowed to be in the water and had to be admitted to the ward with monitoring. There was also a little meconium once my waters went. Safe to say not the birth preferences.
There were a few ways I found the hypnobirthing really useful:
- I was a week overdue and going out of my mind. The practice and meditation tracks really gave me something to focus on during this time. Particularly visualising him being here and using affirmations about trusting my body.
- I realised my surges weren't just Braxton Hicks around 4pm. The breathing plus a tens machine took me from there to the hospital a few hours later. I was only 2cm when I got there but decided to stay and see at my next exam. For those 4 hours I only had my breathing techniques and all of the support Nick had learned. I really tried to relax as much as possible (not easy with how relentless they were) but this got me to established labour within the 4 hours.
- The relentlessness meant that I climbed the ladder of pain relief starting with gas and air, then morphine, then I asked for an epidural but unfortunately the anaesthetist never made it. Although I truly didn't want to climb that ladder, we felt very informed and able to ask questions which helped me advocate for the pain relief I needed.
- I felt so informed that although I was in agony, it wasn't fear which also must have helped. I knew what they meant when they talked about the different stages, transition etc.
We were incredibly lucky with our midwife, Jo. I think despite everything I still wanted hypnobirthing to be an Earth Mother experience when in reality I wanted pain relief and wanted to lie down and push really hard into my bum etc. Jo reminded me a lot that this isn't what hypnobirthing was about, I was listening to what I needed, going with it and advocating for myself. Nick was also incredible in his words of affirmation and calm soothing through what was a really tough labour for him too. It wasn't easy to see that in the moment they were both right but I am sure now that everything I learned meant he came safely and 5 days later I can look back and feel proud of myself and positive about the experience.
Even as tired as I was I made very informed decisions about the vitamin K, the syntometrine etc. in the moment.
Post partum is a bit of a wild ride already. Little one won't be put down ever which means taking shifts. We are looking after each other and I still use my hypnobirthing tracks to try and relax if I know I've only got 20 mins in between feeds and won't be able to sleep but need some down time. Especially in the first few days post labour, my brain was going over a lot of what happened and throwing up images which the tracks really helped sooth. Breathing techniques have helped when learning latching and dealing with a frustrated baby who needs me to be calm (as well as recovery from a second degree, close to the third tear).
Overall we feel incredibly grateful, proud, loved up, tired - you name it!
Thanks again for the course. I wanted to make sure you had some good testimony so please feel free to use if helpful.
All the best,
Jemima and Nick