Birth story - Rachel and baby Albert

Thank you so much for making hypnobirthing so accessible, it really is such a game changer. When my daughter was born I was 40 weeks + 15 days and had been in for induction for 2 days and was absolutely terrified. When I was pregnant again I came across your Instagram from a post from ‘The Unmumsy Mum.’ I watched your YouTube videos and suddenly everything was making sense and I now realise why my first labour went the way it did.

I showed my husband the videos and he completely got it too. I then bought your book and it gave me so much confidence. With my first pregnancy I was told it’s not worth filling in your birth plan as it never works out like that. This time I wrote things down for every eventuality and felt confident and informed of the choices out there.

On Monday at 40+3 I had a few surges in the evening but they went away after an hour or so. I stayed calm, did the up breathing, and smiled thinking this is really happening, our baby is coming. Then nothing Tuesday. Wednesday I went for a walk with my husband and daughter and by late afternoon I was having more surges. Excited that they’d started again I ate dinner with my daughter and stayed positive. By 11pm I thought I’d try and get some sleep in case this is it as I’d need to reserve my energy.

I woke at 2.30am and the surges were stronger. I put the Freya app on to keep me calm and very soon it said I was in established labour, I really couldn’t believe it! I decided to wake my husband up and we called the hospital. They said wait an hour but after 45 minutes I knew it was time to go in so we phoned them again and they said ok come in. It was at this point my husband said he’d like to have a shower and shave before going to the hospital. I said ‘are you serious?!’ He nodded so I said ‘well go quick!’ I kept the Freya app on the whole time, timing my surges and breathing calmly.

We got to the hospital around 4am and was examined and was 4cm. I was so pleased with myself! I found it comfortable standing up leaning over the birthing ball which was on the bed. Once the midwife had done all her checks she said the birthing pool room was ready so we made our way there. I could feel that baby was so low down. I got in the pool at around 6am and the water was so comfortable. About 15 minutes later I felt a pop and gush as my waters broke then the surges became quite intense. I started making animal noises and asked the midwife if I could maybe try some gas and air. I think I took about one puff of it but I couldn’t time it right using it with the surges so I just held on to it. I remember saying ‘f***’ then laughing after one surge! My body took over completely and it was so amazing, the midwife guided me once to push and I could feel baby’s head being born. Then at 6.47am on 6th June our baby boy was born and I scooped him up out of the water for our first cuddle.

I started to bleed so had to get out the water. I tried for a physiological delivery of the placenta but it wasn’t working and I was feeling tired so I asked for the injection and it soon came out after that. I then had an hour of skin to skin while baby Albert fed. He was then weighed at 8lb 10oz.

I tell everyone now about hypnobirthing and recommend The Positive Birth Company to my pregnant friends, my husband even does too as he can see how much it helped me compared to my first labour!

Thank you so much, it is so so important that everyone knows this information. Keep spreading the word with positivity and change the stereotype of labour.

Sorry I’ve waffled on! Thank you for reading.