Birth Story by Rianna, Hypnobirthing Mum
“It is such an empowering feeling knowing what our bodies are capable of … To our surprise, he weighed in at 10 pounds 3!! We couldn’t believe how big he was considering at our 20 week scan bub was measuring small!… I didn’t tear considering the size of bub!”
So this pregnancy was completely different to my first, with more complications, more hospital appointments, feeling so very different and growing so very different – by the time I got to 40 weeks I was well and truly over it. My due date was the 21st which was a little too close for comfort to my own birthday (24th) and my daughter’s who came on my birthday two years prior.
My birthday had come and gone and the next morning I woke at 4am to use the bathroom when I had my “bloody show” and my first contraction came. Contractions then followed every 3-5 minutes from then on. I soon rang my mum to come and look after my daughter as we weren’t sure whether labour would be faster the second time round. I was in a positive mindset telling myself I get to meet my baby soon and I was able to breathe through each contraction.
Time was ticking away and by 8am we thought it was best to leave for the hospital as we live half hour away and didn’t want to get caught in traffic. Contractions started becoming more intense on the car ride down as I continued to breathe through them and put on my own playlist; singing along trying to get my mind off it.
We arrived at the hospital and it took a little bit before we got to go through to the assessment area. By the time we were seen by a midwife; it was 9am and she asked to do an internal and let me know I was 5cm dilated and it was ‘go time’. We waited for a while in the assessment area until a birth suite became available and then got moved along.
Once in the birthing suite, we met our midwife Chelsea (who was so freakin amazing). Not too long passed before I chose to get in the shower as this was such a huge help with my first labour. After labouring for a while, I opted to try the gas. Now in my first labour I used gas, but it was not effective as I wasn’t breathing it in properly. This time I really concentrated on the different breathing techniques I had been taught and finally was able to get pain relief from the gas (yay!).
My contractions were now intense at this stage to which my midwife thought I may have been in transition. She could see I was now struggling and asked if I would like some morphine to which I responded yes. She explained she would have to assess me to see how far along I was to which I agreed. After getting out of the shower and onto the bed, she assessed me and told me I was 9 and a half cm dilated (which meant no morphine) but my waters still hadn’t broken. I knew myself I was in transition as it was all getting too much and I had asked the midwife to break my waters. It must have been close to midday by this time and she explained she would have to go check with her supervisor. When she returned, she advised me that she couldn’t break my waters as it could put baby in distress or turn baby’s position.
Close to an hour had passed and my waters had still not broken and I wasn’t progressing. I knew in myself that something wasn’t right and I wasn’t going to progress on my own and so I asked the midwife again to please break my waters. This time after checking with her supervisor, she was able to. Once she broke my waters, I instantly felt relief and felt bubs head drop to the point I started pushing. Exactly 9 minutes from breaking my waters, bub was here – a beautiful baby BOY! To our surprise, he weighed in at 10 pounds 3!! We couldn’t believe how big he was considering at our 20 week scan bub was measuring small! After being checked, I had a slight graze to which the doctor and every other midwife that I saw were absolutely amazed how I didn’t tear considering the size of bub! My recovery has been great and much easier than my first and Lucas is doing so well!!
It is such an empowering feeling knowing what our bodies are capable of and what we as women are capable of doing! I would 1000% recommend to anyone to look into hypnobirthing – it gives you so many tools to utilise during labour and it really does shift your mindset from fear to excitement. Kate has been so amazing throughout the journey, always checking in and it really does keep you focused on how you want your birth to be. So I can’t thank her enough and am so glad my husband and I were able to take part in hypnobirthing and have the most amazing natural birth we envisioned.
“Becoming pregnant for the second time, I was absolutely terrified about having to go through giving birth again. I needed something to take the fear out of it and put my mind at ease and that’s when I came across Hypnobirthing and I am SO glad that I did. My husband and I were lucky enough to have Kate all to ourselves during our two day course which was extremely beneficial for my husband (who wasn’t so open minded about the idea of hypnobirthing). After our course, he didn’t have anything bad to say and I think it’s safe to say he learned just as much as I did. Kate puts you totally at ease, she is so understanding and easy to talk to and really does give you all the tools to feel confident about giving birth. Kate teaches you things that even after having already given birth, you still didn’t know and it’s such an eye opening and informative course.
I have been telling anyone who’s pregnant about this course and I would HIGHLY recommend seeing Kate!”
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