This week’s birth story comes from the lovely Emily Ford who attended a Hypnobirthing Course via Skype with Bryony Bugg of Beefearless Hypnobirthing over in Cyprus.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story with is!
‘I was honoured to begin my hypnobirthing journey with the wonderful Bryony Bugg. Due to COVID-19, it had to be undertaken via Zoom but that didn’t affect the quality of the course.
Before I undertook the hypnobirthing course, I was quite an anxious and stressed person in general and worried that it would have a negative impact on the birth of our first baby. Bryony had recently qualified as an instructor, so it was perfect that we entered into this journey together.
So many people had told me of their negative birthing stories, and I was determined that it wasn’t going to be me…. I wanted it to be an amazing experience and one I could be proud of.
I have to say that hypnobirthing completely changed me as a person. I turned into someone that had control and wasn’t anxious anymore. I was able to use the tools that I had been taught in all aspects of my life.
My birth story started a little earlier than I would have liked. At 33+3 weeks I woke and felt ‘a little damp’ but didn’t think much of it until slightly later when I had preceded to go to the toilet a lot more than I would normally which got me to thinking that my waters had released. I made a phone call to MAU, to which they instructed me to make my way to the hospital to be checked out. As we made our way to the hospital, I implemented The Calm Birth School breathing techniques to stay calm and focused. Long story short…. My waters had released but labour had not followed. I was sent home to rest with 10 days’ worth of antibiotics and an appointment to see a consultant. Our little one wasn’t quite ready to make an appearance.
Following my waters releasing we had to go to the hospital for regular checks to make sure our little bundle of joy was still happy in situ. I took all this in my stride and felt relaxed about the whole situation, our little one would appear when they were ready. Whenever I could feel myself getting overwhelmed, I began my breathing techniques to get myself back under control.
The following week, whilst in an appointment with the consultant I was informed that baby was on the small side and so it was decided that I would need to be induced at 37 weeks – normally due to waters releasing I would have been induced at 36 weeks but with baby being small they wanted to keep her in place for a little while longer.
I was booked in for my COVID testing on the Tuesday at 12:00 as I was being induced on the Thursday. However, I woke that morning with mild surges in the lower back, but they soon faded away and stopped. Whilst I was in for testing, I decided to go and speak to the staff on MAU to discuss my surges. But whilst I was waiting to be triage my surges came back with force. Within 20 mins I was having 4 in 10 min surges and was 1 cm dilated. I was using my breathing techniques to get through each surge. Our little one started to have issues with a dropping heart rate and the decision was made to send me to the delivery suite to be induced that day.
Upon arriving in the delivery suite, it was clear to the midwife that the surges were getting stronger. I put all my tools into action to breathe through the surges and think back over my affirmations. The midwife checked my over and noticed a problem…. I had vasa previa (blood vessel stretching over the cervix) a naturally birth was no longer an option. Ordinarily this would have terrified me, however, me and my partner had discussed this option during our hypnobirthing classes, and we had prepared for this and I stayed calm throughout. We were very lucky that all the hospital staff respected our choice of hypnobirthing and we discussed our preferences before going forward with the caesarean section. We opted to have our little one lifted above the curtain so that we could see for ourselves what sex the baby was. My partner was able to cut the cord as we wanted and as soon it was possible our baby girl was handed to us so that we could immediately begin to build our relationship with her. As soon as we able to she was placed on me to start our breastfeed journey together. The most amazing feeling!!
Our beautiful little girl was born at 16:42 by emergency caesarean section. All the staff were amazing and at no point did I feel scared or out of control. I had to stay in hospital for a further 6 days as our little princess was a little poorly, but we are all doing great now. I know I will continue to use the breathing techniques for the rest of my life when I get anxious, scared or stressed and for that I am truly thankful.
I couldn’t have done this without the amazing Bryony and the tools she gave me! I’m raving about hypnobirthing to anyone who will listen to me! I can’t wait to share my experience with everyone even though it didn’t quite go to plan’
If you want to create your own positive birth you can start today!
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