The birth of baby Rosie
Claire and Ben joined one of my group courses in 2023, ready to learn how to avoid anything that would be a repeat of their previous traumatic first birth experience. They started the course using words like “traumatic”, “scared of the unknown” and “out of control” to describe how they felt about birth, and were determined to change their mindset – which is exactly what they did together! Ben was an amazing support throughout the course and the birth, and reading this birth story reminds me how in awe of Claire’s strength I was when she first told me their birth story – they have proved that hypnobirthing is for ALL births!
“October 10th (our due date) came and went. I was SO sure this baby would be early – I had been uncomfortable for weeks and she was measuring big. Every day that passed left me feeling more apprehensive about the upcoming event. After a difficult and at times traumatic labour with our first baby, we signed up to hypnobirthing with Amy, and after our sessions felt a lot more confident and empowered.
We had made our birth preferences and a back up plan, should anything be taken out of our hands. We used all of Amy’s suggestions for this and felt positive things would be a lot different this time. My consultant gave me a sweep just before my due date, and again at 40 +2. She was extremely confident she would see me later that day in labour! 2 days later my midwife also gave me another sweep, equally confident it should work and that I was at least 2cm dilated. Booked in for an induction at 41+6 days, I felt really deflated things weren’t moving. I even attended one of the pregnancy retreats run by Amy (Expectant Escapes), but no amount of relaxing was bringing this baby out!
I spoke to my consultant and expressed my fears about being induced – something I know I wouldn’t have done pre hypnomums course. I would have felt I had to do what was suggested, whether it was what I wanted or not. After some emails back and forth, it was decided between us and the consultant, to book me in for a caesarean, keeping my anxieties to a minimum. By this point I was very fearful of events repeating itself from our sons birth, and I felt this was what was best for both me and the baby. Feeling in control and also knowing I had pre-planned for events such as this, I knew all I had to do was whip out the alternative birth plan and any wishes I had would still be put into place.
Using lots of Amy’s breathing techniques and having listened to audios from her and affirmations, the morning of the event (41+1) was extremely calm. There was a lot of waiting at the hospital, yet I was still completely at ease and even managed a nap while waiting to be called (my husband Ben also managed to watch the Beckham documentary undisturbed haha!). I felt completely in control when we entered the theatre – situations such as having the spinal injected would have in the past terrified me, but concentrating on the breathing I had been taught allowed me to feel completely relaxed. We had our playlist playing throughout and knowing we were just about the meet our little girl was surreal. Despite being paralysed from the waist down from the spinal, and knowing you’re completely in someone else’s hands, it still did not faze me. I knew then we had 100% made the right choice for us and our circumstances. The team we had were incredible and I feel lucky we had that. At 12.42 they made the first incision and by 12.44 our baby was girl was out, born to the song ‘Classic’ my MKTO. We even heard her cries before she was lifted out, I remember saying to Ben “is that her?” before anyone had even said she was here. Before I knew it she appeared over the screen, and the lovely midwives bundled her up into blankets before placing her on me, making sure I had skin to skin as per my birth plan.
The rest is a blur, I know she was left on me for as long as possible until they needed to check her and weigh her, and then she was immediately placed back on my chest. I can honestly say I know our experience would not have been so positive without our hypnobirthing classes, from breathing techniques, feeling empowered, understanding the whole process and also having the support from the group.
It was not the birth we had originally imagined, however it was just perfect. Our little girl Rosie is now 3 months old and she is still as calm as the situation was when she entered the world, and I also feel SO much more relaxed and calmer post pregnancy than with our previous birth. We feel so very lucky!”
Claire and Ben
