This week’s birth story comes from Karley, who attended Hypnobirthing classes with one of our instructors, Yvonne Hopkinson from Relaxed Birthing in Gloucester.
Yvonne says, ‘I arrived at the hospital 10cm dilated and ready to push!’ was the message I got to let me know of the safe arrival of baby Harry into the world on Valentine’s Day.
‘Karley attended my group hypnobirthing course in Gloucester with her mum, who was going to be one of her birth partners. It was lovely to work with Karley, her mum, and partner Stuart as they prepared for birth.’
Here is Karley’s birth story:
“During my pregnancy I took a hypnobirthing course with Yvonne, which involved a one day group class and two hour private session. We covered breathing techniques, massage techniques and much more during her sessions. Although I enjoyed the whole session, my favourite part were Yvonne’s reading of the scripts, which put you into complete relaxation. These made my baby really excited and it was a great bonding moment for me. I used hypnobirthing tracks throughout the rest of my pregnancy, with the same great feeling each time.
Fast forward a couple of months and I was overdue.
Luckily I had birth affirmation cards from Yvonne, which really helped me keep focus on the fact my baby would arrive when he was ready. The day before his birth I spent a lot of time on the birthing ball and taking a long walk, as suggested by Yvonne during our course. The next morning my waters went at 8.30am and I felt surprisingly relaxed. My contractions started in hospital at 10am but I was sent home to labour. I passed the time alternating between watching TV and listening to hypnobirthing music, all the while practising steady breathing and using a tens machine.
Around 2.40pm the pain was a lot worse and it was decided between my GP and the hospital that I would return to hospital to be examined. Despite the pain I thought I was still in early labour, due to the small amount of time that passed. Imagine my surprise when I got there and was told to start pushing straight away!
I’m afraid to say my music and aromatherapy oils were still in the car. Nevertheless I felt completely prepared. The best thing about hypnobirthing is it prepares you for the best and worst case scenario and how you can use it to relax through any situation.
While I was pushing I used the breathing techniques as taught by Yvonne, and my partner used the anchoring technique to keep me calm. I even found I didn’t need to use the gas and air after the first few pushes, instead visualising my baby coming into the world seemed to be enough. Unfortunately, I did need an episiotomy as our baby was in distress, but again I felt completely calm with this deviation from my original “plan”.
At 4.37pm Harry came into the world.
I am incredibly grateful to Yvonne for what she did, along with hypnobirthing, to contribute to my incredible pregnancy, labour and birthing experience.”
