My partner and I used hypnobirthing techniques Leanne had taught us in the birth of our first son and were delighted with the results. Would highly recommend!
I am a midwife and despite supporting many women through child birth I hadn’t considered how I would cope, I just assumed I would, or should!
I felt a lot pressure from colleagues, family and friends to do everything by the book, as we as midwives are the experts, right?? Allegedly, we know it all! However, personally I often found it hard to emotionally switch off enough to be rational about things in my own pregnancy and found I often needed reassurance from my friends and colleagues, just like any other pregnant lady.
So when a colleague mentioned hypnobirthing, I felt it would be a great way for my partner and I to relax and prepare for the birth of our first baby. Leanne came to our house once a week and was always really kind and generous with her time and knowledge. She prepared us as a team to cope with labour and I couldn’t be prouder of how my partner handled things. We were a team and he got me through it!
I was six days overdue when I went into labour. I had been in to see my colleagues for three painful sweeps and had been having irregular contractions for the last few days, so fed up was an understatement! However, I had been listening to the hypnobirthing CD and practising my breathing techniques with the visualisations to get me through the long, last few days.
On Friday night my contractions were only 8 minutes apart and irregular in intensity so I went to bed as normal. However I was up in a few hours as they had started to come every 5 minutes, I took some painkillers and tried to sleep as I had found sleep a good judge of pain over the last couple of days (if I could still sleep it wasn’t labour). I managed about an hour of sleep before I was woken with a strong contraction, and then another! I knew this must be it.
My contractions were still only five minutes apart but building in intensity, so I put my TENS machine on and began pacing the spare bedroom. Stopping at the side of the bed with each contraction. I was already so tired I remember worrying that I wouldn’t be able to cope with them for much longer, but I used the visualisations I had learned with each contraction and time seemed to fly!
Suddenly my waters broke and I ran to the bathroom, calling for my partner as I went. He got up in a daze and we both showered and I called the hospital to let them know that we were coming in. We have a sausage dog that we had to drop on route to the hospital at my in laws. He was in the front and I remember being on all fours in the back mooing like a cow!
Once at hospital, a colleague showed us to a room and examined me. I was 4 cm dilated at this point and started using gas and air. My partner massaged my back with every contraction, helped me with the gas and air, assisted me to the toilet and even helped me change my liquor drenched pads. That’s true love if you ask me!
4 hours passed quickly and I was re-examined to check progress. I was still 4cm! I was gutted and felt a bit disillusioned by all my hard work! This was not textbook!
The doctors advised that I needed a hormone drip to speed up my labour and at this point I opted for an epidural. Another 4 hours passed, while we both got some much needed sleep and I was re-examined only to be told that I was still 4cm! I was furious at myself for having the epidural as I felt it had further slowed my labour.
I asked my colleagues to leave the room so I could have a chat with my partner, we were talking when I suddenly felt like I needed to push. I remember saying to my partner ‘I’m either doing a massive poo or the baby’s head is coming’ we were still alone in the room so I asked him to see if he could see anything. As a look of horror spread across his face I knew it could only mean one thing, baby was coming!
I felt calm and relieved that my baby was on its way as my partner rushed out to call the midwives back in. My son was born at 18.17 on Saturday almost 24 hours after my first contraction. He cried immediately and we knew he was fine. I pulled him up onto my chest and my partner and I kissed him as I cried loudly!
My labour didn’t go quite to plan, but I have learned so much from the experience and can’t thank my partner, Leanne and my colleagues enough.