Hypnobirth of second baby

by | Birth Story, Royal Berks Births Centre Births, Second births, Water Births

Guest blog post from a Boldly Glow Birthing mum on the birth of her second baby, after a difficult first birth years before

second baby born using hypnobirthing

Past birth experience

I was really worried about the birth of my second baby as my first birth, a couple of years ago, was just really scary. I had done an antenatal course before the first birth and the teacher had made me feel more worried about the birth and all the terrible things that could happen with too much medical and hospital intervention. Unfortunately, she gave us no real practical help on how to get through labour without the pain relief and interventions that come with it.

My 1st baby was registered as a high risk baby and I had to have an induction before I could go into labour naturally and, without going into too much detail, my experience was one full of fear. I had every medical intervention you can have in hospital except for a cesarian section and it took me ages to recover from my war wounds – and the experience. But I think it was mainly mental, rather than so much of a physical thing, as I felt like everything that had happened was out of my control. I didn’t tell any of my friends about my experience if they were about to have a baby, because I didn’t want them to know how negative I felt about the birth experience and scare them too!

 

Hypnobirthing for my second baby

Having told Deborah about my 1st experience, she asked if I had heard of hypnobirthing and to consider one of her courses for our 2nd birth. Me, being quite sceptical and my husband even more sceptical, decided to think about it and do some more research and finally decided to try the course.

It was fantastic – giving us both lots of practical ways for staying calm and relaxed towards the end of pregnancy and to help aid the process of a calm and controlled labour. At the end of the course, I felt so excited at the prospect of giving birth and the arrival of our next baby.

Excited and ready to go

I was a week overdue but I went into labour naturally the 2nd time. I was really excited. It happened at the end of a busy day spent with my mum and my other son Daniel who is 2 and 9 months. Surges started at 7pm when we had put him to bed – which was ideal because he is at a lovely but rather full-on age!

Surges were really intense and lengthy from the very beginning. I walked the length of our house concentrating on the surge breathing most of the time. In between surges, I went to my relaxing place. At 8pm, I got into a deep hot bath and stayed there until we went to hospital at 9. The midwife at the Rushey Suite, RBH, examined me and said that it was ok to run a birthing pool – which I was really happy about.

 

Calm and in control

After the surges died down for a few minutes, I felt in a peaceful state until I got the urge to push out my baby. I felt so much more in control this time – I think it was because I had listened to the birth affirmations so much but I felt like it was a really natural thing to do. Throughout the labour, my husband used the soothing strokes we’d learnt which made a really important difference. It was lovely way of being reassured that he was there with me.

When I held my baby for the first time I felt an amazing sense of achievement and peace that I had done my best,stayed calm and managed the labour without any pain relief! And I feel really lucky that it only took 4 hours.
I will recommend hypnobirthing to anyone I know who is expecting because it helps you to have a much more satisfying and empowering birth and it helps you to feel ready to tackle the next stage of your life with your newborn.
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