This beautiful birth story comes from Hannah Jeffrey, who attended the Hypnobirthing course to prepare for the birth of her second child.
“I thought I would share my birth story as I did find that doing the course significantly helped.
Even though my first birth was a positive one, with my daughter being born in a birthing pool, I wanted to try hypnobirthing for my second. I wanted to see if it would help me to remain calmer and more in control, as I distinctly remembered having short breaths and being full of adrenaline with my first.
I started getting mild irregular surges at about 8pm on the Friday night. We just carried on as normal though and I went to bed early to try and rest. I then had a surge which made me realise I couldn’t lie down anymore, so made arrangements for my parents to come over and to be there for my little girl.
My husband and I took ourselves into the spare bedroom with my birthing ball, snacks and mp3s. Here I just had the affirmations on repeat and did various movements/positions I’d learnt in yoga, breathing through the surges. I was so calm I really just wanted to go to sleep, but I knew the surges were harder to get through lying down. I let my partner sleep for periods, thinking “I am fine doing this on my own”.
When the surges became more intense I had my partner apply hard pressure to my lower back with a heat pack; this really helped me. My plan was to go into hospital and use one of their birthing suites with a pool again, so even though I knew I probably wasn’t there yet, we rang the hospital to let them know we were on our way.
I didn’t want to be at home in the morning when my daughter was awake as didn’t want to worry her. She was awake when we were leaving, so in between surges I was able to give her a reassuring hug and let her know we’d be back soon.
At the hospital we were shown into a birthing suite straight away and they examined me – I was only 3cm. This was about 7am. I agreed for them to give me a sweep.
After this things really got going! My surges sped up and grew in intensity. I could feel movements and lost my mucus plug at this point. My breathing remained my focus, but wasn’t quite as calm and long as before. I was examined again at about 8am and was now 6cm, so they started to run the pool.
While the pool was running I started to feel like I wanted to push. This was the point where I requested gas and air; I felt like I couldn’t go on!
Once in the pool, the pushing sensation continued (first thing to appear was a poo which I knew was going to happen!). My waters still hadn’t broken and they soon realised baby was going to be born in the membrane. I was told to stop using the gas and air and just to bear down (they may have said push I can’t remember!). I felt relief that I was at this stage and was moments away from holding my baby.
After several more pushes (this is what my body was telling me to do) he was out. The midwife had gently broken the membrane after the head had been born. He was very calm, a little blue but fine. Born at 8.56am weighing 7.4lbs.
My husband didn’t say at the time, but he saw a huge difference in me compared to my first birth. I was very much in control and focused. I am so pleased that I did the course.”
