I just wanted to say a massive thank you really.
This time last week, my wife started surges. Within 6 hours our daughter was brought peacefully, and calmly into the world. The midwife didn't arrive in time, so I had the pleasure of delivering her with my wife.
Our one year old son slept soundly upstairs throughout. His birth was in hospital, and although quite routine, my wife and I found it harder than we expected. We heard people say they found births to be empowering and amazing; first time round I just felt helpless seeing my wife in pain.
This time however it was everything we could have dreamed of. We worked as a team and stayed calm and focused even when things got hard. We could not have done it without KGHypnobirthing techniques, combined with all the work we put in throughout the pregnancy.
Our daughter was born 05/06/21. 9lbs and we could not be more in love."
- Luis, KGHypnobirthing new dad
Labour started on the Friday morning and I was expecting things to just ramp up from there, but it pretty much stopped for the day with only a few sensations on and off. In the back of my mind I was probably thinking about the kids being collected from nursery and getting to their grandparents - so I wasn’t completely relaxed at that point!
Things then picked up again on Friday night. Patrick went to sleep and I attempted to but I wasn’t comfortable lying down. So I sat on the birth ball by the side of the bed, balanced some pillows on the bed and nodded off in between surges. I am pretty sure I had my TENS machine on at this point as I wanted to make sure I used it from early on in labour.
In the early hours of the morning I made my way downstairs and the pacing up and down started. I started walking back and forth from the dining room to the front room whilst visualizing I was walking barefoot along a sandy beach. The fairy lights were on by this point and I was already using lavender oil on muslin, which I had used in my previous labour and always used when I practiced my Hypnobirthing. I also had a birth ball upstairs as well as downstairs so that was pretty useful.
I woke Patrick up about 5.30am as I didn’t want to be alone any more.
The midwives arrived at about 8.15am. Things progressed pretty much straight away after I was in the pool and I just started to feel this incredible urge to push. I thought surely this was too soon and I even asked the midwives - of course because they were brilliant midwives they both said ‘listen to your body’ so that’s what I did!
So baby boy was born an hour after the midwives arrived, at 9.20am weighing 8lb 2oz. As I’m writing this I it sounds a bit too good to be true, and I know I’m very lucky, but I’m not brushing it off as no big deal. It was incredibly powerful and pushed me to my limits and more. Afterwards, it again reminded me how amazingly powerful women are, however they birth their babies. What helped me was my birth partner, Hypnobirthing, the birth pool, lavender oil and my TENS machine, and feeling supported by my midwives at home in my familiar environment.
- KGHypnobirthing mum
I gave birth to my little boy on the 16th of May, he was around 2 weeks late but this never bothered me. I knew he was absolutely fine and my body just wasn't ready, I had made his home far too comfortable for him!
At 41 weeks I went to see my midwife and she did a sweep, I had weighed up all the pros and cons of this, but I mainly wanted to know if anything was happening. When she performed it, she said I was already 2cm dilated with a very soft cervix, which in turn made me relax further knowing that things were progressing and the little man was preparing for his arrival. As the baby was sitting so low into my pelvis, the amniotic sack was tight around his head so they had mentioned to me that if my waters hadn't broken by Saturday (41+5) then they would have to do it for me. Again I was OK with this as my cervix was soft and they would only break my waters- I didn’t want them to perform any other kind of induction.
41+5 came and went and at 41+6 they broke my waters and put me on a tiny amount of the oxytocin drip. I only needed a small amount as things were progressing nicely- my contractions were coming regularly. The way I described them to people was like riding a rollercoaster, you can feel yourself going up, up, up then you hit the top and ride it all the way down! This really helped me keep my focus on each one whilst using my up breathing I found them very manageable.
Not long after having regular contractions I felt the urge to push, so I started to use my down breathing- focusing all my breath and energy on the down motion. At this point, I had only used a bit of gas and air as I was able to control everything with my breathing and my visualisations. I was so calm and relaxed, my husband described me as being like a Tibetan monk- so in control and focused! He is the biggest hypnobirthing convert and he can't stop telling everyone about how powerful it was to see it in action. It blew his mind!
Baby Boy was born after 2 hours of pushing. He was born with a shoulder displacer so at the very last minute we just needed some medical help as he also had the cord wrapped around his arm, but I remained truly calm, knowing that soon my baby would be in my arms.
I can't tell you how amazing it all felt! Labour was such an adrenaline high then meeting him for the first time was amazing.
I just wanted to share this with you as it was an amazing experience and I can't wait to share my story with other hypnobirthing mothers and spread the word!
- Georgina, KGHypnobirthing mum