“Although labour was the most intense feeling, I wasn’t scared or worried once and with the support of Tom, I knew my body was doing exactly what it was meant to. I am so grateful to you and the hypnobirthing course, we felt well informed and in control of our decisions.”
Cheree, Peaceful Birthing Mother
We welcomed our beautiful baby girl Reeva at 1.14am on Thursday 6 January 2022.
In the lead up to my birth I was doing a lot of walking, yoga, pilates, and listening to the hypnobirthing tracks daily. I was having weekly sessions with a chiropractor and acupuncturist to help assist with preparing my body for labour. My waters broke at 10.00pm on Tuesday 4 January at 40 + 4 weeks. I wasn’t 100% sure if it was my waters, however, I had a scan and a midwife appointment booked the following day so I went to bed as normal. I woke a few times during the night with what I now know were early labour signs. The next day my scan showed that the fluid around the baby was low, which confirmed my waters had broken. That afternoon I was starting to feel period like pain and after speaking with my midwife, she advised me to go to the hospital for a CTG due to my waters breaking the previous night.
We went to the hospital at around 4pm and I was hooked up to the CTG machine for monitoring. I explained my ‘waters breaking’ story to two separate doctors and they talked me through my options, offered me antibiotics, an examination to check if my waters had broken and encouraged me to stay in hospital.
“My husband Tom was a great advocate for me, he knew I wanted to labour at home and with the knowledge he’d gained from the course, he was able to speak up and decline any medication or checks and we were able to go home.“
Once at home, my contractions started to ramp up. I had the diffuser on and listened to my hypnobirthing tracks. After about two hours at home, we felt it was time to go back to the hospital (we arrived at around 8.30pm). I was worried that my labour would slow down once I was at the hospital but luckily it didn’t.
“I had prepared my hypnobirthing tracks and music and had planned to use the shower and ball but I found I just wanted to be in my own space in silence.
I was letting my breath, sound and energy out through my mouth but with a reminder from the lovely midwife, I re-focused and directed my breath and energy inwards and down.”
I was fully dilated around 11.00pm, but had quite a long pushing stage (2 hours) due to the positioning of my baby. The midwives advised me that they would need to perform an episiotomy due to the pushing stage exceeding 2 hours and the baby’s heart rate lowering, however
“Tom could see that our baby’s head was so close to coming out and asked the midwives if I could have another go at getting her out. The doctor was in the room preparing for the episiotomy, the midwives gave me two more pushes and on the last push our beautiful daughter Reeva was born at 1.14am on Thursday 6 January.”
Although labour was the most intense feeling, I wasn’t scared or worried once and with the support of Tom, I knew my body was doing exactly what it was meant to. I am so grateful to you and the hypnobirthing course, we felt well informed and in control of our decisions. I was lucky and so happy that I was able to stick with my preferences of an intervention free birth, using only the gas as pain relief.
“I had such an incredible birth experience, thank you so much Simone for educating and providing us with the tools to experience a calm and positive birth.”
Welcome earthside baby Halle!