Birth story - Helen and babies Bella and Sofia

After a very difficult journey to becoming pregnant (two ectopic pregnancies, no fallopian tubes and a low Amh of under 1!) our second round of IVF was successful and our one little egg split. I wanted to try and make my pregnancy as enjoyable and calming as possible, I'm scared of needles, blood and basically everything medical!

We found out we were having identical twin girls at 7 weeks, so we had a lot of time to prepare.
We were recommended hypnobirthing by a friend and I instantly bought the book, which I read in about 2 days. I was hooked.

I then realised you could do an on-line course, which I wanted my husband to be involved with as he's much more visual, so we bought the course and did a few modules a night. He became fully on board and helped so much with the breathing techniques, and really was a calming influence thanks to the positive birthing company.

The course was fantastic, easy to navigate and we felt we could really use the techniques (the poo one being my favourite!)

As we were having Monochorionic-diamniotic (mcda) twins they were to be born at 36 weeks, I 100% wanted a natural birth if I could. Most consultants assumed we would want to have a c-section, but having had a previous emergency one for my ectopic pregnancy I wanted to avoid this as much as possible if I could. Our consultant was very understanding and I explained I was doing hypnobirthing, which they fully supported and they were happy to work with us on our natural birth (where possible)

We were booked for an induction on the Monday but to my surprise my waters broke on the Thursday morning at around 5am. I felt OK and instantly started doing the breathing techniques we'd learnt.
I went to the hospital to be checked and I was told I was 5cm after about an hour (I declined any pain relief at this point as the pain was manageable), I thought I was only about 1-2cm!

I did at this point have an epidural as complications in twins is possible and we had talked it through with the consultants over a period of time, especially as ours were classed as high risk. For the next 18 hours I had my essential oils, low lights, minimal staff in the room and breathing techniques nailed, the midwife was so pleased we'd been studying hypnobirthing and was a real advocate which was so nice and reassuring.

Unfortunately, after 20 hrs or so twin ones head was not budging and we'd been stuck at 9.5cm for quite some time. The doctor advised that we will need to go to theatre for assistance as the babies were potentially at risk. I really didn't want to go to theatre but it was at this point that I used the B.R.A.I.N technique and felt this was the best course of action for all.

A short time later on the 6th March 2020, Bella Freda (Twin one) was born by forceps weighing 5lb 2oz and Sofia Aida (Twin two) was born breech at 4lb 15oz. I can honestly say despite being initially scared of birth, the whole hypnobirthing experience was wonderful.

After 5 years of pain and multiple losses we finally got to hold our miracle rainbow babies.