We had baby Olivia at the end of January, and we’re so in love with her. Her labour day went (almost) exactly as planned. I started getting surges at 4am and just breathed through them as they got more intense. I even managed to have a nap, listen to some music, watch a comedy (yay endorphins) and have a bath. She, did, however, turn posterior while I was having the bath because I started having really bad lower back discomfort.
Despite this addition, I had my drug-free birth! I used a tennis ball and TENS machine for my back. When it got too intense at home in the evening, we headed to hospital and everything happened really quickly. I had sterile water injections (hurt a bit going in but helped so much), my water broke as I was on the toilet and a quick exam showed that I was fully dilated. We got to meet our drug-free, alert baby 30 minutes later! She didn’t even cry when she was born.
Even though the lower back discomfort was really, really painful, it was actually a blessing in disguise as it got us to leave for the hospital when we did. My surges didn’t quite intensify and quicken like they normally do so we kept getting told to stay at home. And we were happy to do so as I was just breathing through my contractions…
Our birth was even better than either of us could have imagined. HypnoBirthing really helped Dan prepare for the birth and stay calm throughout it. There were so many times that his calmness helped me and I couldn’t have done it without him.
Hash and Dan with 1st HypnoBirthing bub Olivia