Birth story - Gabriella and baby Corinne

Our friend told us about hypnobirthing as they had used it. At first my husband was very sceptical, but we watched all the videos together and we both learned so much. My husbands go to phrase on the run up to our birth was ‘I’m the keeper of your cave’.

I had been having Braxton Hicks regularly since 36 weeks and had lots of moments where I thought labour was happening. On the Friday evening my Braxton Hicks were becoming more regular and throughout the Saturday day I knew it was really labour this time. I got into the bath on Saturday afternoon, listened to some podcasts and used the Freya app to time my contractions. When it said I was in established labour I phoned triage, they advised to hold out at home for as long as possible or until my waters had broken.

At 22:30 my waters broke and we made our way into hospital. Due to restrictions I had to wait in triage by myself, but kept on breathing through those contractions. At 01:00 I was seen by a midwife and opted for them to examine me…the midwife said I was only 2cm dilated so to go home. She said to come back when I couldn’t cope at home anymore. I was really disheartened by this as I felt my contractions were really intense, as I had been doing my breathing exercises I had managed to cope with them quite well but they were starting to get painful. My husband and I went back to the car, I told him I was worried I wouldn’t be able to cope with giving birth and would need an epidural as the pain was this bad at only 2cm dilated!

We got back home at 01:30 and I got back into the bath, we used a lamp in the corner to make our bathroom more relaxing and put on some music. I carried on using the up breathing exercises and managed well but the pain was really ramping up. After a bit I wanted to change position so got out of the bath, I sat on the loo as I couldn’t make it to the exercise ball and I felt the need to push. I put my hand there to check and there was the baby’s head!

We phoned the midwife and she spoke through what to do on the phone, 4 minutes later at 02:30 our baby girl arrived on the bathroom floor! Using my breathing and letting my body do what it knew to do I delivered my daughter safely. My husband was amazing, getting towels, tying the cord and sorting an ambulance. He really was the keeper of my cave.

Arriving at hospital an hour later they wanted to take me to theatre as my placenta had started to come away. Using my BRAIN I opted against this, instead I had the injection and breastfed my baby to help with the oxytocin, and using gas and air worked with the midwife to pass my placenta without the need for theatre.

Looking back at our delivery it definitely wasn’t planned but we both feel so empowered and amazed at what we were capable of, hypnobirthing really helped us to stay calm and support each other.