I know most mum’s like a good birth story. I have to say, since I’ve had my little one that I am more keen to find out about others, whereas before I didn’t really want to know…..or even think to ask. I’m not going to give you every bit of detail I’m afraid as it is rather a personal experience (mum’s – I’m sure you’ll agree) but really what I want to get across is how the Hypnobirthing techniques, I told you about in Part 1, helped me and how I applied it to the real thing. Sorry to those that have read Part 1, I’ve taken ages to get round to Part 2. Little Louis has been keeping me busy!!

The start of labour…..

So it all started the night before when my waters broke. What I thought was my waters breaking. All I can describe it as was an involuntary wee. Yes I went to the loo and just couldn’t stop peeing! Sorry if that’s too much info but I can’t imagine any men will be reading this anyway!! Now if I hadn’t been so prepared via Hyopnobirthing I think I would have just panicked here. Because my husband Will had also been to the classes we were both surprisingly quite calm – considering I was 16 days early at this point, and the day before I was doing a driving awareness course! Naughty I know, bloody speed cameras. I didn’t want to rush to hospital, as I didn’t want to have hours in there when I could be at home using my techniques. So off we went carrying on our own business. I was in the middle of watching the ITV drama ‘The Missing’. When I got back to my seat it kind of hit me about having a child, in the sense that I was already so protective of my baby, but I think it was just the fact I was watching this that I became all emotional and thinking this is really happening now..…

I switched off after that and changed the channel to something a little happier with a big smile on my face. I was so looking forward to this and although I had only just finished work and my mat leave had only just started, I was glad I wasn’t going to be waiting around for ages. Another week may have been nice but to be honest as long as our baby got here safely I wasn’t bothered.

I went to bed at around 11pm thinking I should probably get some sleep as I was not really sure when this little one was going to arrive, just that things had started.

The middle bit….

So I think I was quite lucky as what I think were contractions started at around 3am in the morning. They were quite mild but again I remained calm. My only concern was that as my waters had broken I was keen to just let the hospital know. I was a bit gutted as they actually told me to head down just to get checked out due to risk of infection which was a bit of a blow. We packed the car just in case as I didn’t want to be stuck in there without all my bags I’d prepared. Luckily when they checked me out they said to me you’re practically in established labour at approximately 4cm! I was like what??? Really, that far? That’s amazing.

Will had mentioned my birth plans and because the ward was so busy that night they actually said I could go home if I wanted. Normally at 4cm they say to stay in but the idea of staying in there, what could be 6 hours or so, really was not my idea of fun… so off we went back home which was the best thing to do ever. I felt so happy with our decision – yes our decision, Will helped me along the way. He was so supportive of hypnobirthing that he understood why. Would he have been like this if we hadn’t gone to the classes together? Probably not, so again a big thank you to Leonie and her Healthy Happy Baby classes.

We got back about 5am. I could now feel them quite strongly but using my breathing techniques helped massively. Literally when, what they call ‘surges’ (taking away the negative connotation with the word contraction) came I would apply my breathing technique and before I knew it, it would be over, just focusing on the goal to have my baby in as calm free atmosphere as possible. I felt in total control, which as I said in part one that birth is one of those things you can’t control when having a natural birth, I did actually feel some kind of control. Ok perhaps not completely in control when the surges came but the way I was able to deal with them kept my whole body relaxed and calm and ready for this. I just knew I needed to stay in this state as long as I possibly could.

Tea and Toast on Tap – yes please!!

Will kindly ran the bath for me and brought me tea and toast on tap for the next couple of hours, although it did only feel like 5 mins. I couldn’t believe how quickly everything was moving. I was ready to come out of the bath by about 8am and I asked Will to get the tens machine out. The water had helped so much but I was starting to feel like a shrivelled prune and I got a bit cold.

Why use a TENS machine during labour?

A TENS machine is a type of pain relief which confuses the brain – well that’s what I think it does – don’t quote me on this. Note to self. When buying a TENS machine, always check it works or how to use it before giving birth. Doh! Now this was going to be something I did that weekend. How was I supposed to know that the baby was coming now!?! Anyway could we get the thing to work – no! In hindsight I think it was a good thing as not only did that distract me for a good 30 mins it meant I had to keep focussing on my breathing and visualisation. I think the main idea of them is to confuse the brain or distract you or something during birth so technically not getting it to work did the same thing sort of.

It’s about 8.30 now and with 4 surges in 10 mins with 30 secs apart I knew it was not going to be far away. So off we went to the hopsital. Totally forgot about rush hour. What was meant to be a 13 min journey took us 35 minutes. Arrgh….but again, I can’t stress enough how relaxed I was. I felt in control and ready to have this baby.

At 10am we had our own room in the hospital. The nurses couldn’t believe how relaxed I was. Okay I’m not going to lie, I could feel the surges a lot now and breathing was becoming a bit more difficult but I was determined to have this birth in the most relaxed way possible. I know it may sound cheesy to some but I believed that my actual body could cope with everything that was about to happen. That’s what we have been designed to do at the end of the day. This is also what you are taught in your sessions. I was convinced I was going to have a big baby but Leonie really chilled me out reassuring me that my baby will only grow to what I can physically cope with giving birth to.

Nearly there now…

By the time I was examined about 11.30am I couldn’t quite believe I was already 8cm. I had got this far without any kind of pain relief. I am absolutely convinced that without hypnobirthing techniques I would never have got this far, ever in a million years. I was just so proud of myself and ready to get this baby out. I have to say here I did move onto gas and air which is completely normal during a hypnobirth if you want it. I had never ruled this out in my plan. I knew I didn’t want an epidural if I could help it or any other medication to help, as I feared that if I couldn’t feel it I would lose control. With gas and air it is switched on as quickly as it’s switched off so I could fully control what I wanted to do. Leonie preps you for this too so don’t worry. I thought I would be a failure by using it but like Leonie says on her website and mentioned in part one;

“It’s about fully preparing you as parents to feel confident, calm and in control. It’s about making choices that are right for you. Quite simply, it’s about creating comfortable and positive birth experiences that are right for you and your baby”.

There is nothing in the above that even suggests you can’t have other pain relief if you decide you want it down the line. Hypnobirthing is about making you feel confident in making your own decisions and doing what is right for you and your baby. Maybe if my labour had gone on a long time for various reasons, I may have had to have something else but at least I did everything I could to help not to in the first instance, which again, I can’t harp on enough about the fact that if I hadn’t done hypnobirthing I would have probably gone straight for it without making an informed decision. Hypnobirthing preps you and gives you time to make these decisions because no doubt you will have thought about it before and planned what you wanted or didn’t want with your partner anyway.

The Arrival

Only an hour or so later on the 12th November 2014 our little Louis William was born. I know I was lucky to have an ok birth that didn’t last ages and ages but I also know that hypnobirthing must have contributed to this. Just imagine this, if you’re stressed or tense then your body will react in a way to act upon this stress and more often than not in birth you’ll be tensing all the parts of your body that need to be relaxed during your labour. Basically going against what your body is designed to do. So it’s simple; a relaxed mind equals a relaxed body, which can only help with the birthing process, can’t it?? Well it makes sense to me.

What have you go to lose? Like I say I was very sceptical at first about the whole thing and I will never know whether it helped or not for absolute certain because it was my first baby. However, I don’t think my husband would have been so involved and prepared, so even that in itself has to help tremendously. Plus he knew how much I wanted dippy eggs post birth so he even brought in an egg boiler and snuck it into the hospital!! Shhhhh! He’s a good egg. Forgive the pun!!

Anyone else had a Hypnobirth they would like to share? I’d love to talk about it on my blog and I can’t recommend Leonie highly enough – she was awesome!!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my experience and it wash;t too much or too little detail. I wash;t sure how to approach it being a very personal experience. I just wanted to tell people who are considering a Hypnobirth as to how it helped me and help them make that informed decision. If you missed Part 1 please have a read and Part 3: The Post Experience will feature soon. Please share, comment and like!

Lots of Love

Lisa xx

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I am a photographer and founder of Little Beanies Photography specialising in bumps, babies and families. Little Beanies Photography is a fun, natural, relaxed experience using only natural light to capture the real moments in life.

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