Anna’s birth after doing the hypnobirthing course

Anna’s labour started when her waters broke at 40 weeks pregnant. Anna did The Bump to Baby Chapter’s online antenatal and hypnobirthing course and credits the course for preparing her for labour. Anna had a water birth and even declined gas & air because she felt she was managing so well without it. Anna’s baby’s heart rate began dropping and Anna was advised an episiotomy. Anna used to EBRAN to make the right decision for her and her baby. Read her amazing and positive birth story…

My Positive Birth Story (first time mother, 5 hours labour, birth centre)

Thank you to the hypnobirthing course

First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Beth for creating the Bump to Baby Chapter. The online hypnobirthing course completely changed my mindset about labour and childbirth, and I am convinced that my experience would not have been so positive without it. Before taking the course, all that I knew about childbirth had been derived from the almost entirely negative representations in the media.

I was sure that it was going to be the most painful and miserable experience of my life. A necessary evil that I would have to grit my teeth and get through in order to meet my baby. However, after taking the course and preparing mentally using the hypnobirthing techniques that were suggested, I found that I was no longer dreading the experience, but instead actively looking forward to it!

I am so grateful to have been given the tools I needed to prepare calmly and confidently for the birth of my daughter.”

I am happy to say that I now look back on it as one of the best experiences of my life. I really hope that reading my story will help other first time mothers like me to feel calm and confident about their upcoming birth.

My birth story

I made it to 40+5 with little to no signs of approaching labour. However, at around 3:30am the next day (40+6) my waters broke, and things moved rapidly from there. My contractions started almost immediately. I didn’t realise straight away that that’s what they were, as they felt very different to what I’d imagined. Less of a sharp pain, more of a dull ache. I woke up my husband and we started timing the contractions using the Freya app. To our surprise, the app suggested that I was already in established labour and should get ready to go to the birth centre!

I decided to call triage for advice, as I wasn’t expecting things to ramp up this quickly. I was also a little worried as it looked like there was some blood in my waters. However, when I described the appearance of the waters to the midwives they were not concerned. They told me to go back to sleep if possible and to come in to see them in the morning.

I tried to do this, but it quickly became clear that my contractions were too strong for me to lie back down in bed. I wouldn’t say they were very painful, but the feeling was intense. It required all my attention to breathe through each one, and I felt compelled to move onto my hands and knees and rock from side to side to get through them. I had also started to vomit during some of the contractions. We called triage again and they agreed that we could come in as soon as we were ready.

Heading to the birth centre

My husband called his parents, who had agreed to give us a lift to the birth centre. While we waited for them to arrive, he alternated between helping me through contractions. I found it helped to have a hot water bottle pressed firmly against my lower back, while he counted my breaths in and out until the contraction passed). And running around packing some last-minute items into our birth bag.

We left for the birth centre at about 5:30am. Fortunately at that time there was almost no traffic! The car journey was very uncomfortable. I felt physically incapable of sitting during contractions. I had to be rocking from side to side on all fours. At the time, I was really worried that we were going to be sent home (as it had only been about 2 hours since the contractions had first started). I found out later that my parents-in-law had the exact opposite worry. They were alarmed at how close together my contractions were, and were worried that we wouldn’t make it in time!

7cm dilated!

When we arrived at the birth centre I was examined. To my relief I was found to be 7 cm dilated! So we were allowed to stay, and the midwives started to prepare the birthing pool. I couldn’t believe how good it felt when I got into the pool. The warm water was so comfortable and soothing. I also couldn’t believe how little pain I felt. The contractions themselves were not painful at all once I was in the water. They just felt like a strong and powerful sensation that took over my whole body. I concentrated on staying relaxed and resisting the urge to tense my body as each contraction arrived. Between contractions I felt completely normal.

I was offered gas and air at one point, but I genuinely didn’t feel like I needed it, so I declined.”

I gradually became aware that my body was starting to push during contractions. I found that I never needed to push actively; instead I just continued to consciously relax my muscles and allow my body to take over.

Meconium and using EBRAN

The midwives monitored the baby regularly, and as she moved down they encouraged me to feel the top of her head. This was a strange and wonderful experience. Eventually however, they noticed signs of meconium in the waters, and also that the baby’s heartbeat was dropping more than they were comfortable with between contractions. Because of this, they advised me to leave the pool so I could have continuous monitoring. They also advised that the baby should be born as quickly as possible to avoid further foetal distress, and suggested an episiotomy, as I was likely to experience tearing otherwise.

Using EBRAN, we decided that this would be in the best interests of both me and the baby, so we consented. The episiotomy was not painful as I was given a local anaesthetic.

Our baby was born within the next three contractions, at 8:23am. The baby was immediately lifted to my chest for skin-to-skin, and my husband discovered it was a little girl!

We fell in love instantly.

To read more positive birth stories that credit the hypnobirthing course, read A review for The Bump to Baby Chapter Course; Holly’s Birth. To read more episiotomy stories, head to Hannah’s Positive Birth; episiotomy and forceps or Katie’s Positive Episiotomy Birth.