Sarah, Sean & Baby Holly's Birth Story

I began hypnobirthing with Danielle when I was around 6 months pregnant with my first baby, and at around 8 months i had a 2hr 1:1 which got my partner involved as well. I wasn’t overly scared about childbirth, but I just wanted to learn what to expect and prepare myself as best I could for a really positive birth experience.

We’d decided to home birth, and in the final few weeks I set about turning my dining room into the perfect birth nest with fairy lights and positive affirmation cards dotted around the place and a basket full of snacks!

My labour began with what felt like period cramps. I’d been getting them on and off for a few days, but at 41+1 whilst bouncing on my ball one evening, they seemed to get into more of a pattern. I went to the toilet and lost my plug, but thanks to the course I knew that didn’t necessarily mean things were happening tonight! However, the cramps kept coming and it soon became apparent that this was the real deal. We went to bed and tried to get some rest. Despite all my efforts to keep the oxytocin and endorphins flowing throughout the next day - watching movies, having cuddles, keeping active - 35hrs from losing my plug I was still labouring at home with the help of my partner, mum, 2 midwives, a birth pool and lots of gas and air! 

Thanks to hypnobirthing i knew what my baby and body were working through and this gave me the confidence to just trust the process and go with my body and not panic or give up. As my partner had done the course too, he was absolutely incredible helping me with the breathing, giving me light touch massage and keeping me fed and watered (or trying to at least!). Without it, I think he would have felt very helpless for all that time, but instead, he knew exactly what I needed.

Unfortunately my baby had decided to turn her head while making her descent and no matter how hard I tried she just wasn’t budging and we ended up transferring into hospital for an assisted delivery with forceps, but even then I used what I’d learnt with Danielle to “let go of what I can’t control and focus on what I can”, and despite it being a bit fraught getting ready to go into theatre, we still had the confidence to ask for Dad to announce the gender and cut the chord, which he did :)

I was so proud of myself for feeling so in control and just going with my body for all that time labouring at home, that even though we didn’t get the perfect home birth, I don’t look back on my experience negatively at all, and I don’t think I’d have managed as well as I did had it not been for everything Danielle had taught and prepared both me, and my partner, for. 

Thank you!