Birth story - Hollie and baby boy

I wanted to share my positive birth experience with you all. If it wasn’t for reading ‘Hypnobirthing - practical ways to make your birth better’ by Siobhan Miller and using the Freya app I would not have had my dream birth. 

From the moment I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted a water birth without any intervention. 

I’d heard lots of stories about births not going to plan so I knew no matter what happened I had to go into it with a positive mindset. 

I’d heard a little about hypnobirthing but didn’t really understand what it was, that’s when I decided to read Siobhan’s book. 

Straight away I knew hypnobirthing was for me. 

I felt very lucky and had an easy pregnancy with no complications and managed to carry on working out and going to the gym up until two days before my labour started. 

On 12th November I woke up at 5am with what felt like mild period pains, this continued throughout the day and in the evening I lost my mucus plug. The pains didn’t progress so I decided to have an early night. 

On 13th November I woke up around 7am with again what felt like period pains but much stronger. Not knowing what to expect my partner and I got up to have breakfast and have a relaxing morning. Throughout the morning and early afternoon things started to progress. This is when I started using the Freya app to log the frequency of my surges (contractions) 

I knew from reading the book I needed to stay calm and try and go about my day as normal. I had a nice relaxing bubble bath, checked over my hospital bags multiple times and tried to keep moving around as much as possible whilst starting my “up breathing” to help me through the surges. 

At around 2pm I called triage, I explained how frequent my surges were and how long they were lasting, the midwife told me to make my way to hospital. 

At around 3.30pm we arrived, I was met by two midwives, they told me they needed to examine me to see how dilated I was and not to be disheartened if they sent me home. One of the midwives told me that she didn’t think I would be dilated enough to stay in hospital as I was able to hold a conversation and didn’t seem in any discomfort. I was able to remain calm and focused on my breathing which helped me control the pain. This is something I learnt from reading the Hypnobirthing book.

At around 4pm I was examined and was 3-4cm dilated, we had the option of staying in hospital or go home to let things progress. I didn’t know what to expect so we made the decision to stay. 

I spent the next 5-6 hours in a comfortable room, with my partner, bouncing away on a gym ball to try and get our baby boy moving. I was able to control the surges through my ‘up breathing’ and paracetamol up until this point. 

At around 9pm I asked the midwife to examine me, the surges were much more intense and I could feel my body changing. I was 5-6cm dilated and was ready to go downstairs to the birthing centre to use the birthing pool. 

I lay on the bed using gas and air to help me through the surges whilst the midwives filled the birthing pool. 

I got into the pool around midnight and remember thinking how amazing and relaxed I felt. Being in the water was so calming. I continued to use the gas and air to help me through the surges. My partner put on my playlist, sprayed the room with lavender spray then sat by the side of the pool and didn’t let go of my hand. That was it, I was in my zone. 

As time passed I felt my body change, and without trying, my body started to push, I got on my knees and leant over the side of the pool to face my partner. I remained calm and relaxed and listened to the midwife as she kept me on track with my breathing. Not once did I feel the need to push, my breathing was doing everything for me. At 0205am on 14th November 2019 our baby boy was born on his due date weighing 8lb 2oz.

Giving birth was the best experience I’ve ever had and I loved every second of it. Hypnobirthing was definitely the right choice for me and I feel extremely lucky to say I had my dream birth.