This is Rachael, my husband Kester and I attended your Monday evening Hypnobirthing sessions throughout May in the CBD. I have put together a few words as our contribution to your hypnobirthing reviews and birth stories.
Katherine, I can’t thank you enough for all you taught us during our sessions with you. Our sweet baby boy Riley was born on the 29th May, at 36 weeks and 6 days, a healthy and calm birth for our little soul. The skills that hypnobirthing equipped us with were utterly invaluable.
I was hospitalised the week before Riley was born due to pre-eclampsia or high blood pressure, and the need to monitor baby’s heart rate.
To help me relax I would listen to your Hypnobirthing CDs which helped me sleep better and retain a positive frame of mind during those tense days. With the medics advice, I made the decision to be induced.
Just remembered to share my birth story for you to put with your hypnobirthing reviews.
Through the procedure of my waters being broken, I again listen to your CD recording while practising the relaxing breath.
When the surges came, the balloon breath was wonderful, helping me ride the waves and give my uterus enough space to work.
My husband was an amazing support, constantly using the hypnobirthing positive affirmations to remind me to trust the natural process I was experiencing. I found the light touch massage that he used on my back very soothing and helpful.
Stage two came much quicker than any of the medics expected. I again used the breathing techniques you had taught us and with a couple of J breaths, and just 6 minutes after stage two started, Riley was born.
The birthing in total was only just over 3 hours.
Here is my hypnobirthing review. And I am happy to say, that the obstetrician who cared for us commented later that having seen how we approached our birth, he was now a fan of hypnobirthing!
He thanked me for making his job easier by remaining so calm through having my waters broken (it had been a trickier procedure than expected) and that the atmosphere in our birthing room was the calmest he had ever been in.
Katherine, it was not only the hypnobirthing techniques that helped us so much, it was also what you uniquely brought to the experience.
Listening to your gentle and kind voice on the CD recordings throughout Riley’s birthing and being reminded of all the positive and supportive discussions we’d had with you during the course, helped to ground me. It helped me to believe that it could really be a ‘good’ calm birth, which I’m pleased to report it was!
Kind regards and a thousand thank you’s,
Rachael, Kester and Riley
Wow, thank you for sharing your hypnobirthing reviews. And what an amazingly quick and calm birth for your little boy.
In the meantime, my thoughts were with you during this difficult time. Because you had been hospitalised for high blood pressure or also known as pre-eclampsia, I wondered how it all went.
Tears of joy sprang to my eyes as I read your great news.
I was deeply touched.
Sandrina and David will also be very happy to know how it went with your birth. They were looking forward to hearing your news before their turn to birth comes.
It would be lovely to meet baby Riley. Let me know when the opportunity arises to catch up for a coffee and a chance to meet him. I had a similar opportunity last Friday, a tiny 9 week old bubba was smiling at me every time I spoke to him. It was so beautiful and very satisfying for me!!!
Thank you so much for sharing your hypnobirthing reviews and calm birth story. I am elated to get such positive and wonderful news and I gladly share your birth experience. In the meantime enjoy being a mum and dad, I know that little Riley is a lucky little boy to have such caring parents. Hugs xxx
Katherine
My husband and I attended your hypnobirthing course in Annandale before our son Sebastian was born in Jan 2012.
I had a great labour – completely natural, no drugs, only 6 hours in total from initial contractions to delivery and gave birth to a whoppingly healthy 4.5kg baby boy.
The breathing techniques and your advice meant that I stayed home comfortably for 4 hours of the labour and I was only a short time in hospital before I gave birth. I put this down to a combination of acupuncture and your fantastic course.
Best regards, D.K Jan 2012
It’s taken a little while to get to write our hypnobirthing reviews, as things have been a little hectic. But I wanted to say thank you again for the hypnobirthing course, for seeing us in a private session at fairly short notice and to introduce our daughter Grace Marguerite!
She was born on her due date, less than 5 hours after arriving at the hospital. In hindsight I was in early labour the night before but managed to get some sleep overnight (after doing the relaxation exercises and taking some panadeine), started timing the contractions at around 6:45, laboured at home until about 11, arrived at hospital at 11:30am and she was born at 4:01pm weighing 3.37kg/7lb 7oz without any complications. I had some morphine which meant I couldn’t have a water birth, but she was born on a birthing mat and was calm and alert. In fact lots of people have remarked on how alert she was when she was born!
I found the hypnobirthing 20:20 breathing and resting breathing patterns very useful – they really helped me keep calm and relaxed in early labour and regain my focus later when I sometimes felt things were spinning out of control (I found that I could do the breathing and use gas and air). Grace was in a side position so the forward leaning labour positions really helped and she was in fact born with me leaning on all fours against a bean bag, with David facing me and holding my hands from the other side.
The silver glove of anaesthesia didn’t work out for me and I wouldn’t say the birth was pain free (!) but hypnobirthing definitely helped me approach labour with a much more positive, less fearful attitude, labour at home longer and potentially helped make Grace’s birth quicker and easier.
Kate, David & Grace ~ Jan 2014
I have finally had a bit of time and energy to write up the hypnobirthing reviews of the birth our boy Seth – sorry it’s a bit long!
He was born on August 25th at 12.37am, by an emergency C-section. Weighing in at 3.86kg, 51cm long, he was quite a big baby.
On the Thursday night (23rd), we went into hospital for 7pm to get an internal exam and start getting induced. Seth was around 12 days overdue at this stage, and didn’t seem to want to come out on his own. I tried everything- acupuncture included.
The midwife did an internal exam and found that I was already dilating- just 1-2cm, and my cervix was “favourable”. I had prostaglandin gel inserted and I stayed overnight. I had some pains overnight, but could sleep through it.
The next morning she checked me again and I had dilated 2cm, so we were left to wander around till lunchtime. Around 1pm, I was transferred to the birth suite and my waters were broken. There was a tiny amount of meconium, but nothing to be concerned about. From then on the contractions started off mild and manageable, about 2-3 mins apart. I was able to use my HypnoBirthing breathing and thought it was manageable, at this stage.
At about 5pm the midwife did another check and said I had only dilated to 3cm so they decided to put me on the syntocinon to try to get me dilating more. This really increased the contractions and the pain. But, I continued without drugs for another few hours. Eventually the pain was too much and the contractions were only a minute apart, sometimes right on top of each other so I asked for gas. This continued till about 11pm when I asked the midwife to check me again. She found I was still only 3cm dilated! After all that pain!
The HypnoBirthing techniques had been great up until this point, but the contractions were too intense now. The midwife got the Dr to come and check me and guess what, still only 3cm dilated, she said quite a lot of blood had just come down; which she was concerned about.
Baby’s heartbeat was stable and good throughout all of this. The Dr suggested a Caesarean now rather than waiting for an emergency, as my cervix didn’t look like it was going to dilate further in a hurry and she was concerned about the baby becoming distressed. We agreed as we did not want to risk the baby’s well being, or mine. Ant needed some relief too, apparently I squeezed his hand so hard during contractions, that he was still sore for a couple of days afterwards. So the anaesthetist came, gave me an epidural and I got taken off to theatre. I was topped-up with anaesthesia for the C-section. Ant was allowed in with me, the whole time. So once they did the cut, Seth came out crying and gurgling and was nice and pink. I was so relieved he was OK. They all said what a big boy he was!
So all in all the birth did not go according to our plans. However I think the Hypnobirthing techniques, particularly the balloon breathing, really helped me to manage the labour. Had it not been for these breathing techniques I imagine that I would have opted for pain relief a lot earlier in the labour. I also think that had this been a labour that started naturally, been of average length and progressed well I would not have needed any pain relief.
We’ve all recovered from the birth well and are on our way to settling down to a new routine.
Maja, Ant, Seth ~ Dec 2009
We have been meaning to send news and our HypnoBirthing reviews to you for ages. Busy times of late! You (as we were) will be very pleased to hear that the birth was all natural, no drugs, no tears, very little intervention.
Sarah lost quite a bit of blood which necessitated her going on a drip to restore electrolytes and blood pressure, but apart from a couple of times where there was the threat of going across to the hospital ward, we managed to stay in the birthing centre. Birth and afterbirth delivered in an all-natural way.
Your CD played throughout the whole birth on repeat. It helped a lot. Baby Esther was born 3.2kg, 50cm and is growing by the day! Rob and Sarah ~ July 2006
Just a short note to say hello and let you know our new baby is now 7 weeks old and is settling in well at home (and with the older sister). You asked for some feedback on the birth experience from the father’s point of view. Here is my first hand experience as a first time dad and my contribution to your hypnobirthing reviews.
I’d say if anything things were a little too relaxed during labour. Danielle coped really well with the surges and she, myself and the midwife did not realise how close to delivery the baby was. After several strong surges, Danielle wished to turn over and the baby’s head was crowning. When we summoned assistance at that point staff were not as calm as they could have been, but we had a healthy baby girl feeding almost immediately on mum’s breast, no stitches or medication required.
The relaxation discs and scripts proved useful before and during the labour, and have been used afterwards too, particularly to help our 2 year old get to sleep occasionally. I think we took away some useful ideas from your counselling, and I’m sure if we had a third child we’d be at ease with the birthing process having now had further practice. Thanks again for your assistance,
Thank you for the part you played in the birth of our beautiful child, Verity Maeve. Love and regards,
Andrew, Danielle, Hollie and Verity
Daniel and I thought that we would write you our hypnobirthing reviews to let you know how everything went with our wonderful hypnobirth experience.
Firstly, as you may recall, I was struggling with Gestational Diabetes when I was in classes with you. I was very fortunate in the end, to control the diabetes by diet and not go on insulin, against the wishes of some of the specialists. However I proved them wrong with much determination and excellent health results.
Also during the 7th Month of my pregnancy the baby was only sized in the 30% range, which is remarkable for a gestational diabetic. To have such a small baby at that stage, allowed me to go full term without inducement.
In the last two weeks however, the baby increased in size quickly. It was due to my slowing down in exercise and my diet was not as regimented because I started to introduce some more carbs’.
So on my 39th week and 4 days my Doctor actually wanted to induce me the next day. However, with my determination and negotiation of a natural birth (with NO medical intervention) she allowed me to go up until 40 weeks and 2 days.
She knew I was very determined to go a natural birth, so allowed this small window of time. She also predicted that I was ready to go within the next few days, anyhow.
So, Monday the 22nd June my inducement was booked in.
I was pretty well prepared with my daily practises of the hypno’ CDs (although you never know with your first just how prepared you should be). It sent me in a spin; particularly having to be induced.
I had my bags packed with all your suggestions and tips that you mentioned in class. In fact, I had one of those plastic laundry buckets filled with all my labour goodies which was perfect for the gear that got wet. However, I was over prepared and didn’t use half of it. The non-slip bath mat came in handy and I used 2 large car wash sponges to kneel on, which was perfect to rinse out and dry.
Sunday the 21st June came and I felt things were moving on down but only thought that the baby was engaging. So with the impending inducement, Daniel and I decided to get out for our last day of just the two of us. We managed to do a bit of shopping, stop to have a nice lunch and a lovely walk on the beach promenade.
During this walk I felt for the first time in my pregnancy, that I was actually waddling and was very slow.
It was on this day that I thought; I have to move this baby on before being induced. So out came the raspberry leaves tea, I had one tablespoon of castor oil, had special cuddles with the husband. We had even bought the fresh pineapple of which I only had a small quarter piece; so that I could space it out for the rest of the day (didn’t end up finishing it however).
For dinner we ordered Thai with extra hot chilli and just before it was delivered I had my first show of blood and one big cramp. At this stage I didn’t feel like eating anything.
We phoned the hospital to tell them that things were on their way. They wanted me to come in straight away (or after dinner) for my trace tests and then probably send me home. Now we took your advice and stayed home for another 1 1/2hrs before things started to progress, with contractions about 4-3mins apart.
So we made our way to the hospital and the midwife declared that I was already 6cm dilated. Daniel and I were astounded, as was the midwife. She was insistent to know when I went into labour. Both Daniel and I kept saying 6.30pm, which she thought we were fibbing. So she questioned Daniel on the side, as to when I started and he again said 6.30pm.
All day, without realising it, I was in labour but not in any pain or discomfort, nor had any real surges, that were any different from braxton hicks.
This was great news because there was no time for them to do any epidurals etc. So the rest was left up to us to get the hypnobirthing into practice.
I actually only had time for 3 positions –
1) The bath
2) The shower and
3) Sitting on the toilet with the pillow and I made sure from your advice to let gravity do the work.
Daniel did great with his soft touch massage and words of encouragement. So much so, that I was falling asleep in between the 1-2min surges and had to come back to my hypno’ state of breathing.
Things moved pretty quickly. I actually only had time to move off the toilet and onto the bed (which was my Doctor’s only request). She asked me to birth in bed, because she had a bad back. My waters broke as they lifted me onto the bed.
On the first ‘breathing down’ the head was out and on the second, out he came at 11.53pm.
I actually had my eyes closed and if it wasn’t for Daniel saying, “look” and “what is it”, I wouldn’t have known there was a baby on my stomach.
My Doctor actually missed the birth after all that, because our baby came too quickly.
The most memorable things about the hypnobirthing were that there was no real pain during labouring, only the downward pressure…
The breathing was the essence in achieving this.
After the birth, with no drugs or gas, I felt completely alert and so was the baby, considering it was midnight and after a 5 1/2hr labour.
The baby was wide eyed and was looking straight at Daniel and I, as we spoke to him and welcomed him into the world.
The midwives couldn’t stop commenting on the way both Daniel and I handled the whole process and congratulated us a number of times.
I also have to say that we had a great midwife who was full of encouragement during the process and basically left us alone and only needed to check on us every 1/2hr or more.
The practices also helped, with no external stitching. However he did come out side-on with his little hand against the head, requiring internal stitches later on, again no drugs but the gas.
I also believe that the recovery period is much quicker. Our baby boy was not stressed and is a great sleeper and feeds really well.
We both wanted to thank you for all the information that you imparted at your classes, it truly is invaluable. It made us both extremely informed about the Doctor’s predicted processes, hospital system and preparation for a smooth and easy birth. Thank you again and we gladly share our hypnobirthing review with friends who are expecting a baby.
Daniel, Ellisa and Callan
CH, Dip. PSH, GSPP
Clinical Hypnotherapist – Sydney Wellbeing Centre
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