Cristina completed the 3 hour hypnobirthing workshop with me over Zoom very early on in her pregnancy, giving her plenty of time to practice the Hypnobirthing and breathing techniques which we covered in the course. She gave birth to her son at home at the end of November. Here she shares her birth story with us!
I am a first time mum and had a wonderful home birth in a birth pool. To all the first time mums out there, you can definitely have the perfect birth at home!!
Everything started around 3am in the morning on the 29 th November suddenly, I had no signs at all through the day, went for a walk as usual and did some exercises for hips and pelvic floor.
Went bed at around 11pm that night , wasn’t able to sleep properly but this has been normal to me in the last month or so. At around 3 am in morning I woke up with pain in abdomen like light period pains lasting for a couple of breaths and then disappearing and then coming back around 5 minutes later. I could not sleep at all so I woke up and walked around the house a bit. After 30 minutes the discomfort was a bit stronger and had to go toilet for a number two like three times. At around 4 am decided to woke my partner up and told him I though I was having contractions so he helped me monitoring them. At around 4.30 am ish the discomfort was a bit stronger, still lasting for a couple of breaths and then fading away slowly.With these surges I had to stop what I was doing and go on my fours on the floor. We decided then to call the midwifes that had a chat with me and asked me if I wanted to wait till I was having 4 surges in 10 minutes.
At around 5.30-6 we called the midwifes again as the surges were coming 4 every 10 minutes. At this point I had a paracetamol a d started using the TENS machine , we inflated the pool as well and put all the cosy lights on in the living room.
At 8.30 I started feeling the surges coming stronger. At around 10 ish I think the transitional phase started as I remember saying can’t cope no more, felt dizzy... So they made me go into the pool with essential oils and gas and air. Around 11 the surges were very strong and felt like an intense lower back pain mainly, so when they were starting I was pushing my lower hip area with both hands while my partner was holding the gas and air for me. I did not feel the famous ring of fire I think thanks to the pool. At 11:19 my little angel was born in the pool without complications! I birthed the placenta 8 minutes later and did delayed cord clamping and skin to skin straight away.
I think giving birth at home was the best decision I could of taken.
The midwifes were impressed with my breathing thanks to hypnobirthing (kept my relaxing songs on the whole time and kept saying to myself that surges were just intense for a couple of breaths and then disappear..) My baby’ s heart beat remained stable during all process I think thanks to the way I was breathing as well.
I strongly recommend hypnobirthing / meditation, it will help a lot!!!! My partner was very supportive all the time which I think is very important too!!
