We loved reading Hannahs birth story and knew we had to share it on the blog:
“I’m very proud to welcome Eleanor. She was born on Saturday 18th June at 9:55am weighting 6lb15oz. Here’s my (long) birth story…
My waters began to trickle Friday 17th at 8:30am with no surges, after the maternity unit confirmed this I was booked in for an induction Saturday 18th at 8am. Friday evening I wanted to see if things would get moving naturally, so a long dog walk, followed by a spicy dinner and pineapple, and an evening cuddling and chatting about our soon to arrive baby girl kicked off my surges at 10:30pm.
I listened to the gentle relaxation and birth rehearsal MP3s to help me to relax. We headed to the hospital at 3:30am as my surges were regularly lasting 60secs and 3minutes apart, the calm birth school and wave breathing instinctively kicked in and really helped me to transition from one surge to the next.
At 4am I was 1cm dilated and told to go home and come back for my induction appointment in the morning. Listening to the affirmations and remembering each surge brings me closer to meeting my baby really gave me motivation to go home relax and conserve some energy. I was experiencing fresh blood in my trickling waters with each surge so I we rang the maternity unit and headed back in.
From 7:30am in the morning was a whirlwind… As soon as we arrived at the hospital I was wheeled into a delivery suite, hooked up to monitors, IV inserted and gown on. Completely different to the water birth I had been visualising. Our midwife was completely on board with hypnobirthing and really supported us. All conversation was directed at my boyfriend, she frequently reminded me how my body is designed to birth my baby. I was given the space to focus on my breathing and listen to my body.
8am I was 4cm, 30mins later 7cm, 20mins later 9cm. I certainly didn’t breathe my baby down, there was a lot of pushing required to deliver her quickly. We later found out my placenta had ruptured and if baby’s heart rate dropped below a certain level there was an 8minute window to get me to theatre and baby out.
Eleanor was born at 9:54am without any pain relief or stitches.
My boyfriend was very sceptical of hypnobirthing throughout my pregnancy. However he now believes those months of preparation helped us to welcome our baby to the world calmly in a situation that could have become very stressful.
Thank you so much Suzy Ashworth
To see how you can create your own calm birth please sign up here: www.thecalmbirthschool.com/freehypnobirthing-2016
