Birth story - Charlotte and baby Theodore

When I was recommended hypnobirthing, I was very sceptical. Like many people I had assumed it would be very spiritual which is just not me! However, it was my first pregnancy and I have such a fear of hospitals, I wanted to use anything available to me to help me through thinking positively about my labour, so I purchased The Positive Birth Company book. It’s fair to say, I was absolutely glued and knew I needed to download the digital pack and get my husband involved as soon as possible. I purchased the digital pack at 20 weeks and started working through it from around 30 weeks. I can honestly say, hand on heart, it was this course that got me through my incredibly positive labour experience.

I was due on 23rd October and once that date passed I didn’t feel stressed at all, I was super relaxed and knew my baby would come when he was ready. By the 25th October my contractions had started very slowly with what felt like niggling period pains. By Monday morning things had started to speed up but I knew I wasn’t ready to go to hospital at that point. I used my TENS machine and my up breathing throughout the day and night on Monday and stayed calm and positive.

By the Tuesday morning things were getting intense, I had a couple of baths and by 3pm my surges were coming thick and fast and I knew it was time to call the birthing centre. My husband gave them a call and they asked me to go in to get checked so that’s exactly what we did. We arrived at the birthing centre and I was taken in to be examined, much to everyone’s surprise I was 7cm dilated and had done all of this from home using my up breathing and TENS machine.

The midwives ran the pool and got me settled by 4.30pm and I was feeling very relaxed. After 4 hours of being in the pool I was re-examined, as I was so relaxed things had started to slow down, I’d only managed to get to 8cm. They offered to break my waters and before agreeing I used my BRAIN to make sure I was happy, after assessing this I decided to go ahead and I’m really glad I did. I got straight back in the pool about 9pm and continued using my up breathing through every surge.

By 11pm I was ready to push and decided to start using some gas and air to get me through the last bit. My husband kept me dosed up with water & energy drinks (as well as some Haribo!) and kept spraying my essential oils spray around the room. By 11:40pm my gorgeous little boy, Theodore, was welcomed into the world, happy and healthy and I was over the moon that I’d had such a positive birth experience and everything I had hoped for!

Thank you so much to The Positive Birth Company, without you I know my experience would have been very different!