Bryony & Kira
I first found out about hypnobirthing through the website, as a first time mum I was a bit apprehensive about giving birth, and felt that I would manage better if I was able to keep eating drinking and moving around during labour. My biggest fear was that I would end up on my back with an epidural or worse yet a caesarean and no control of what was going on. I had been to a short course on hypnosis and felt this might be a way to help me get the birth I wanted. The hypnobirthing course was much more than just the techniques, it introduced a whole new way of thinking about the birth as a natural event for which my body was designed rather than a medical incident waiting to happen.
I attended the classes quite early on in my pregnancy but I feel this was actually an advantage, the affirmations and visualisation helped me to enjoy my pregnancy and the classes themselves as well as teaching us a great deal more about birth than we learnt from any other source, were a lovely opportunity for my husband and I to think about and prepare for our child’s arrival.
My “guess date” came and went as I had expected, and at “term + 12” we found ourselves at the day assessment unit for monitoring as I was now considered higher risk and therefore unable to deliver at the midwife unit we had planned to use. The monitoring suggested that baby and I were doing fine but we found ourselves under considerable pressure to have an induction that day as they had no more appointments available for 4 days. My instinct was to wait until baby was ready, but I didn’t want to risk her safety just through stubbornness. After a bit of crying and soul searching I remembered reading “in the absence of medical emergency, don’t even consider induction before 2 weeks” and this gave me the confidence to decline the induction. After 2 more days of monitoring, long walks, raspberry leaf tea, curries, reflexology and pineapple eating I woke up at 3am with stronger and more regular surges. At 9am we had to go back for another monitoring appointment and it turned out that I had been moved into a free slot for induction, but was able to tell the midwives that baby seemed to be coming without any help, thanks! Our midwife read the birth preferences and tried to accommodate us as much as possible, sending me to labour in the bath for a while since it wouldn’t be possible to have a water birth. My main recollection of the birth was that it is the hardest I have ever worked in my life, but I certainly didn’t have hours of agony the way that TV soap operas will have you believe. Only the very last part was truly painful but by then I was so close to meeting my baby that I didn’t mind. I always thought I would like to have 2 children and I wasn’t put off this for a second, in fact if we are lucky enough to have a second child I would approach the birth with even more confidence as I know what to expect and that my body, having done it once, can certainly manage it again.
Our daughter Kira Sally was born a completely healthy 7lb 5oz, took to breastfeeding straight away and all our family commented on how alert she was in the first couple of weeks.
Glen & Bryony Dec, 07
I attended the classes quite early on in my pregnancy but I feel this was actually an advantage, the affirmations and visualisation helped me to enjoy my pregnancy and the classes themselves as well as teaching us a great deal more about birth than we learnt from any other source, were a lovely opportunity for my husband and I to think about and prepare for our child’s arrival.
My “guess date” came and went as I had expected, and at “term + 12” we found ourselves at the day assessment unit for monitoring as I was now considered higher risk and therefore unable to deliver at the midwife unit we had planned to use. The monitoring suggested that baby and I were doing fine but we found ourselves under considerable pressure to have an induction that day as they had no more appointments available for 4 days. My instinct was to wait until baby was ready, but I didn’t want to risk her safety just through stubbornness. After a bit of crying and soul searching I remembered reading “in the absence of medical emergency, don’t even consider induction before 2 weeks” and this gave me the confidence to decline the induction. After 2 more days of monitoring, long walks, raspberry leaf tea, curries, reflexology and pineapple eating I woke up at 3am with stronger and more regular surges. At 9am we had to go back for another monitoring appointment and it turned out that I had been moved into a free slot for induction, but was able to tell the midwives that baby seemed to be coming without any help, thanks! Our midwife read the birth preferences and tried to accommodate us as much as possible, sending me to labour in the bath for a while since it wouldn’t be possible to have a water birth. My main recollection of the birth was that it is the hardest I have ever worked in my life, but I certainly didn’t have hours of agony the way that TV soap operas will have you believe. Only the very last part was truly painful but by then I was so close to meeting my baby that I didn’t mind. I always thought I would like to have 2 children and I wasn’t put off this for a second, in fact if we are lucky enough to have a second child I would approach the birth with even more confidence as I know what to expect and that my body, having done it once, can certainly manage it again.
Our daughter Kira Sally was born a completely healthy 7lb 5oz, took to breastfeeding straight away and all our family commented on how alert she was in the first couple of weeks.
Glen & Bryony Dec, 07
