We found the entire course really, really helpful and informative. It certainly prepared us for the birth of Zac, who was born on the 10th October, at 4:30am after only a short labour.
My waters broke on the Wednesday, albeit really slowly. I was not sure at first if it was the waters or not but on Thursday morning I woke up with a lot more so decided to head to the Doctor. It was confirmed that my waters had broken but only a small amount and very high up so I ended up having my waters broken later that day.
I didn’t really mind and was quite excited and relaxed about the whole thing. In any case, at 7pm on the Thursday night my contractions started, really mildly and by 11:30pm ish I was on my way to the hospital. Between 7pm and then we listened to the CD and I was handling my contractions by getting Ewen to use the counter pressure techniques on my back – these were great at managing the pressure as it built in conjunction with the wave breathing. I was also burning a mixture of clary sage and jasmine, to create a nice smell to relax to. It was nice just to be at home in my own environment. Around about 10pm the contractions were very varied from 3-7 mins apart so I called our Dr and informed her of the progress.
She was really relaxed about the whole thing and said that I could go to the hospital whenever was best for me. I ended up calling her again around 11pm to let her know that I was on my way to the hospital.
During all of this time I was practicing my breathing, I was not really able to concentrate on the visualizations but I found the breathing in between contractions was enough to keep me really calm.
We arrived at the hospital around midnight, it took a while for me to get in the car between contractions and having to rush to the loo! On arrival at Al Zahra, we headed straight up to the labour ward where we were met by Emma and Dr Anni. I was examined when I got there. On my birthing plan I had said I did not want to know the progress, however when the time came I felt that knowing helped me concentrate on what I had to do in the next while until the baby was born. I spent the next couple of hours in the birthing pool. Ewen my husband was fantastic at keeping up with the birthing prompts this really kept me concentrated on the job at hand and his re-assurance helped me at times I felt things were getting a bit much – ha ha!
He said later he really benefited from the classes and it helped him to help me stick to our plan of a natural birth. Dr Anni and the midwives were great, they really gave us our space and only monitored the baby every hour or so. The whole environment in the room was really peaceful and it really felt like our own space. Around about 2am ish I was feeling ready to start pushing, Dr Anni examined me and I was 9cm. I was so pleased, the end was near! From there on I was out of the pool and dressed. Dr Anni and the midwifery team were great we went through lots of different positions and they prompted me to move around, squat, lie and bend throughout. It was great to have that distraction. I did my J breathing to help the baby along, but I also was prompted to push a little when I felt necessary. I actually found that a combo of pushing on the contractions and the breathing between worked best for me to eliminate the pressure I was feeling at that point. A little over an hour and 40 mins later Zac was born.
Despite the bit of pushing I didn’t have any tears, which was great. Overall we had a great birthing experience and the Hypnobirthing really worked for us. We found your classes excellent. I would really also recommend Dr Anni to anyone interested she was really relaxed about everything throughout my pregnancy and on the day I could not have asked for better care and support. She was supportive of our choices, which was important to us but also intervened when she felt necessary always checking I was comfortable with what she was recommending.
Thanks again for everything, all the best, Alaina x
A dad's perspective
I would like to tell you a bit about my experience with Hypnobirthing. Fear of the unknown is a terrible thing, I regard myself as your typical married male who has just recently started a family. Not knowing what to expect at my child’s birth I could think of nothing worse than becoming a fifth wheel in the birthing room and not being able to help my wife through her labour. When my wife wanted to attend Hypnobirthing classes I was initially a bit sceptical but any knowledge is good knowledge so I encouraged us to go along.
I was so glad we attended the classes as they prepared us for what was to come by giving me the tools to be part of a team during the birth and allowed me to be a focus for my wife to rely on.
Knowing what was to come through the different stages of labour I used my birthing prompts as well as massage and pressure points to help Alaina through the birthing process. It felt good to be so involved in the birth of our son while the medical staff looked on as we practiced the techniques we had learned.
After the birth even our excellent doctor commented on the teamwork she saw.
Overall, as a Dad I would highly recommend the Hypnobirthing course, its an education and prepares you for a great birthing experience.
Ewen x
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