Oscar's Birth
My husband and I had a session with Katie in the third trimester of my pregnancy. To say I was terrified of birth would be an understatement. With all of the covid restrictions going on, I felt incredibly anxious that my husband would not be able to be there for my full labour. Our session with Katie gave me the chance to talk through these worries and she provided me with logical tools to use to work through the anxiety I was feeling. I had read a lot about hypnobirthing before our session and had been practising the breathing and listening to her relaxing tools beforehand, but what we found most useful about the session was the opportunity for my husband to understand exactly what his role was in the birth.
I went into labour naturally at 37+3. I had been having period like pains for a few days but found them to be quite mild and easy to ignore. I was lying in bed around midnight and felt quite sick to my stomach. When I went to the toilet I got my show and starting having contractions. Around 1 am I woke my husband up explaining that I was having mild contractions but wasn’t really sure if I was going into labour. We called triage and they told us to stay home and that it could still be a couple days or weeks. Within a couple hours I was having regular contractions. My husband talked me through the breathing and I felt I was coping quite well. By 3 am I was on all fours, my waters had broken and I was telling my husband I needed to push. He grabbed our bags, I put a night gown on and we went into the car to the hospital.
I was worried the drive was going to be intolerable but my husband coached me through the breathing and the drive was not nearly as bad as I thought. When we arrived he had to wait outside as the rules still stated that partners were not allowed until established labour, so I went in by myself and was measured by the midwives. I was incredibly fortunate at this point that I was 10 cm dilated and before I knew it he was back at my side and I was on the bed ready to push. I had previously planned to have a water birth but because I was losing a lot of blood the midwife said it would be best to monitor the baby. I was happy with this decision because I was so keen to get the baby out at this point! After 2 hours of pushing my baby had still not shown up. He was back to back and I was getting very tired at this point. Through all of this pushing both my husband and the midwife (who was a great advocate of hypnobirthing) helped keep me calm and focused through the correct breathing. I was then given the option to have a doctor intervene to help support my birth and I was happy to have this support as I was very tired. He asked for my permission to perform an episiotomy and use forceps for the delivery. Although far from my original birth plan, I was happy to have this assistance and consented. Oscar was born at 5:56 am. I am so pleased with my birth experience and credit a lot of this positivity to hypnobirthing and the tools it gave me. I highly recommend using Katie- I don’t think I would have had the birth experience that I did had I not.
Megan