Kathryn and Ollie attended a group hypnobirthing course with me in 2016, and wrote to me to announce the arrival of George Ethan. After spending most of their labour at home, they arrived at the birth centre - to find Kathryn's cervix fully dilated ! When needing to transfer to the hospital for a ventouse delivery - still used all the techniques to remain calm and positive.
Kathryn writes:
I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know I am now a mum! I had a little boy 5 days before my due date. He's called George Ethan, and he weighed 7lb 4 and we're totally smitten!
All the hypnotherapy work I did was amazing and meant that the first part of labour went really quickly and easily for me. I had my first contraction at about 11.30pm at which point (thinking that I had a long stretch ahead of me and feeling very relaxed about the whole thing) I got into bed and tried to get some sleep. However as the contractions began to get stronger, I instead listened to an audio in bed with a hot water bottle and focused on all the breathing and relaxation techniques you showed us.
Over the next few hours the contractions began to get stronger so I started walking round the house and found myself naturally pausing to lean over, sway from side to side, close my eyes and use visualisation and breathing techniques during each contraction. At about 5am I realised the contractions were beginning to get really close together so I woke up my partner Ollie and phoned the labour line. We then went in to the New Forest birthing centre where I had planned to give birth.
When the midwife looked to see how dilated I was she said 'oh, there's a head!'. Turns out I was fully dilated and had only just got to the centre before I felt the urge to push!
George turned out to be in the back to back position which meant the pushing stage wasn't so easy, and after 2 hours pushing at the birth centre, I ended up being ambulanced to the hospital where I had a ventouse delivery and gave birth at 11.30am. However even though the birth didn't totally go to plan, I still feel I had a really positive experience. All the techniques I'd learnt helped me to cope with the fact I ended up having an assisted delivery, and aside from a little bit of gas and air in the first hour of pushing (plus a local anaesthetic for the ventouse) I did the whole thing without any pain relief.
I want to say a huge thank you to you and Maggie for your work. For the few weeks leading up to the birth I listened to the audio every single day and I really believe that was the main reason I had such a quick and easy first stage of labour. If the little monkey hadn't been the wrong way round it would have been even quicker!
Thanks again - you do a wonderful job,
Kathryn x
Barbara adds - yes, what a fab job I have!