This week’s birth story comes from a lovely couple Emily & Grant who attended a TCBS Hypnobirthing Course with Charlotte Inkpin of Hypnobirthing with Charlotte. Covering areas across Braintree, Essex.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story with us!
“We started our hypnobirthing with Charlotte at 30 weeks. This is our first baby & once we finished our course we both felt really prepared for birth & any worries initially had were put to ease with the knowledge Charlotte had taught us.
Mild like period cramps / early surges started at 4am on the Monday morning, Grant was asleep next to me, I got up, put on a starry projector night light & laid in bed listening to my affirmations. As the morning went on my surges got more intense, Grant ran me a bath, I used my birthing ball, continued listening to my music & affirmations & also used my calm breathing techniques. I remember telling my family by text that this was the day & they continued texting asking for updates but by this point I couldn’t respond as I needed to focus & breath.
We went up to Basildon hospital at lunchtime where I was examined & told I was 2cm & got sent home. Once home I got back in the bath where I stayed for 3 hours, the surges were more intense, I took paracetamol & once again zoned out breathing & listening to my music. It was 6.30pm & my waters released & I decided I needed stronger pain relief. I called my midwife & triage as surges were coming every 3 mins & 40-50 sec long. We made the journey back up to Basildon Hospital where I was examined once again & I was 7cm & music to my ears. There was lots of bloody show & both me & Grant got told off by the midwives as apparently I had ketones in my urine which is lack of sugar & my body was slowly shutting down due to no food. Grant had been offering food all day but this was the last thing I wanted. I think we were transferred to our labour room at 8pm & I used my calm breathing & gas & air up until 8cm. By this point I needed more pain relief & was given pethidine which gave me a slight breather & chilled me out….”
At 11pm it was time to start pushing, Grant was by my side the whole time & was the birth partner I had always wanted. We ended up trying different positions to labour, standing & leaning over bed, all fours & on bum in stirrups which was the most effective. Baby was quite happy on monitor but no real progress as I had been pushing for 2 hours & it was decided that we go to theatre & have a forceps delivery.
I was given a spinal & couldn’t feel a thing from waist down. Grant was by my side in his scrubs & a episiotomy was done to assist with delivery. My midwife was next to me feeling for surges & when a surge came, I was told to push to bring the baby down.
At 2.48am on 20/04/21 the staff in theatre showed our baby to me & Grant & were told that we had a baby boy – George Matthew Sadler weighing 7lb 5oz.
I am so proud of getting to 7cm at home with paracetamol & I believe that by using my breathing techniques throughout which Charlotte had taught us this got me to that point along with remaining calm throughout my birthing experience. For anyone considering a hypnobirthing class, we would definitely recommend The Calm Birth School, thank you Charlotte for all your help!
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