Birth story - Alison and baby Noah

** Possible trigger - Baby loss**

We were recommended hypnobirthing from a friend who had also lost their baby and was finding their pregnancy hard with the anxiety it could happen again. So to give you some context, sadly we lost identical twin boys Harrison and Jake in 2017. To birth my babies who were too young to survive was the worst experience of my life and no one should have to go through that heartache. 

In 2018 only a week before our wedding our baby Zach was stillborn due to an infection. This completely floored us yet again which should have been the happiest time of our lives.

August 2019 we were delighted but also scared to find out I was pregnant again. Taking aspirin and heparin we had a plan in place to do things differently. I really wanted to embrace this pregnancy and this is when I downloaded your digital pack.

Finally some positive affirmations to use and breathing techniques. I practiced every day and used the Freya app every evening when I had a bath. Turning the lights down and visualising my water birth. This really helped me and I could feel my baby getting stronger every day.

Easter Sunday the best day of my life. The weather was beautiful, but being on lockdown meant we were only allowed one hour exercise so we decided to walk around our lovely village through the park and back. We took lots of lovely photos and my husband commented how lovely and big my baby bump was looking. When we got home I had a nap but when I woke up the magic started to happen. I could feel my waters started to leak. I had been using my birthing ball so started using that along with my Freya app to time my surges. After a few hours the hospital recommended I go into check my waters and the baby. We did so but my husband had to wait in the car until I was in established labour.

Baby was fine and my waters were clear and at 2cm I could go home till I was at 4cm, I kept reminding myself to listen to my gut instinct and I felt that the labour was going to be quick, so I sat in the car with my husband using Freya to time my surges and use the breathing techniques. When I felt they were strong enough, just an hour later, I went back in. I was 4cm, I called Mikey and said it's time to meet our baby, come to delivery suite and bring everything as he wasn't allowed to leave and come back in.

Thankfully our wonderful bereavement midwife Harriot had just started her shift and was delighted to be able to support us. I asked for a water birth and she said she was already filling the pool up. As I stepped in and my body went under the water the pressure eased and I felt myself relaxing. My amazing husband and birth partner set the room up with my lights and led candles around the pool. Harriot said it looked like a spa. I remembered UFO and used this when I could feel the baby start to move down. After only 3 hours and 50 minutes Harriot said get ready to pick up my baby and bring him to my chest, which I did. What an amazing experience he was calm and I had to ask if he was ok as he didn't cry. He was totally chilled and happy and we couldn't be more in love with our beautiful rainbow baby, Noah Zach. 

Our midwife said it was an honour to support us and it was one of the most beautiful births she had ever been part of.

Thank you so much for keeping us all so calm all our dreams have now come true.