3rd Baby born unexpectedly at 35 weeks using hypnobirthing techniques
Louise shares the birth story of her 3rd baby who arrived unexpectedly at 35 weeks.
”Here's my super speedy birth story. I've been recommending your course to all my pregnant friends as I found those first few modules so invaluable. It's a shame I never got to finish the course! I've attached a photo of Miles (sporting the emergency clothes the hospital gave us )
When I had my first baby in 2015 I never came across hypnobirthing but found the combination of birthing pool and some breathing techniques I learnt via NCT helpful. He was born in the midwife led unit pool 12 hours after my first contraction and I felt totally empowered. So when I was pregnant with my second I opted for a home birth so I'd be guaranteed a pool and I knew I'd likely have a quicker labour. I looked into hypnobirthing and practised the breathing a few times, feeling confident I'd know what to do on the day. However when I went into labour it all happened very fast and I never felt like my brain caught up with what was going on so all breathing techniques went out the window. He was born less than two hours after my first "is this it?' pain and thankfully the first midwife arrived just in time. This time I didn't feel empowered, I felt panicked and upset that I didn't get the labour I'd imagined.
So when I found myself expecting baby three I was determined to crack the breathing this time! I found the Birth Ed course and managed to squeeze in the first three modules so I had some positive affirmations and had practised my up breathing.
For various reasons a home birth wasn't ideal this time but given my previous fast labour we set about planning for both a hospital or home birth and our consultant was happy for us to decide what to do on the day. My husband turned 40 the month before my due date so we called in Gran to babysit the boys and headed off to a lovely hotel for an evening away with friends. I started getting pains at dinner and dismissed it as indigestion as I couldn't possibly be going into labour at 34+6. My 'indigestion' became much more regular during the night and I woke my husband at 7.30 to say I wanted to head home, fully expecting the pains to die down once we were up and about. Something told me to phone the hospital and it was suggested income in to be checked even though my pains were 9 minutes apart. We got in the car at 8.25 and had a 40 minute journey to the hospital. My surges suddenly went to 3 minutes apart and then 2.5 minutes apart. Thank goodness I had practiced my up breathing as it was the only thing that got me through that car ride. Having something to focus on helped me to stay calm and not worry about how quickly it was happening again. We parked at the hospital at 9.05 and we're whisked onto the labour ward. I kept telling myself to trust my body, it knew what it was doing and at 9.26 baby was born, just twenty minutes after we parked the car!
Thankfully, baby was absolutely fine despite being five weeks early. I honestly think without those first few modules of Megan's course I wouldn't have felt as strong mentally and there would have been a lot more panicking. My advice to anyone doing the course is to put the time in to practise so it becomes second nature when you need to use those breathing techniques for real. Also, take your notes everywhere as you never know when you might need them!”
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