We had our baby at the ABC midwife-led-unit at Watford.
I had a relatively straightforward pregnancy, aside from the usual morning sickness early on. My boyfriend and I both attended NCT classes and after visiting the midwife-led unit at Watford we hoped for a natural birth there.
I’m a fairly laid-back person, but as the weeks went by I started thinking more and more about the labour. Although I wasn’t too anxious, I felt like I wanted to learn more practical techniques to help me relax (and sleep better!) during the final weeks of pregnancy and with the birth itself.
A few friends we knew had used hypnobirthing CD’s and then a local friend recommended Leanne’s Hypnobirthing course.
I admit to being a little cynical at first! The term ‘hypno’ infers hypnosis which I absolutely didn’t fancy but, after speaking to Leanne and understanding a bit more I was instantly reassured and excited to get going.
The course was great – the content was much more scientific than we both expected.
Leanne armed us with lots of information about the different stages of labour itself and breathing & visualisation techniques to help manage them. I practiced these at home and found the visualisation a lot easier than listening to the scripts, which generally sent me to sleep (which was good too!).
The sessions gave us the space and time to actually think and talk about the kind of birth we wanted. This enabled me to write a birth plan, which essentially was a preference for as natural a birth as possible, ideally in the pool. I wanted a calm and non-invasive environment with my own music, smells, snacks etc!
The birth went as well as I could have hoped. I started having contractions mid-afternoon a few days after our due date. By 9pm they were very regular and strong but after speaking to the midwife at Watford we were advised to wait until they were 3 minutes apart.
We arrived at Watford hospital about 1am and Florence was born in the pool at 5:15am. I used the breathing and visualisation techniques I had learnt throughout and found that to be by far the best way of managing the pain, which was very intense! I tried gas and air but it just made me feel nauseous and actually interrupted the breathing pattern I had going, so I only had a few puffs. Simon was great throughout, constantly reminding me of the breathing, feeding me sweets and keeping me confident by telling me I could do it.
Hypnobirthing helped me to keep calm and in control throughout the labour and whilst I wouldn’t go as far to say “I breathed her out” I was very chuffed that it all went pretty much to plan and I was able to do it naturally.
I would wholeheartedly recommend hypnobirthing, whilst you cannot predict a birth it definitely helped to prepare both of us for every eventuality and allowed us to fully share the experience.