Ruaraidh’s positive birth story
Sarah and Connor’s first birth with Hypnobirthing
Read the extraordinary story of how Sarah and Connor used everything they learned in their hypnobirthing course to navigate an ambulance ride and a suspected cord prolapse as they met their beautiful boy.
Having followed Claire’s social media for a while, I already knew pre-pregnancy, that hypnobirthing was something I would be interested in.
I have high levels of anxiety in medical situations and really wanted to feel more confident when the time came to birth our baby.
My partner was sceptical about signing up for a hypnobirthing course and had preconceived ideas of what hypnobirthing was. Despite this, we signed up on a one-to-one course with Claire in May, after recognising that we needed to try something to help my anxiety, and because I felt so strongly that this would help us from my research.
After our first session, I can honestly say our minds were blown! We looked forward to each new week coming as Claire shared her knowledge and experience with us. We had fallen in love with hypnobirthing, and I felt a complete shift in my mindset. I was excited to birth our baby but now the work started as we began practising our techniques and tools before our baby arrived.
My partner and I did our breathing together, listened to Claire’s very soothing birthing tracks/mediations and covered our house in positive affirmations. My poor partner was quizzed nightly on “JBRAIN,” and “Umbrella” and I created my dream birthing mood board full of lots of happy oxytocin boosters! We felt confident and informed.
At 39 weeks, after a very straightforward pregnancy, I started to feel my body was changing and I was getting what I felt were practice contractions, but I didn’t feel like I was in labour. I continued to 39+3 when I had a day with no contractions and said to my partner “I don’t think this baby is coming for a while”. We felt no rush for our baby to be born and enjoyed the time knowing they would come when they were ready.
At 3am the next morning, after a late night, I was a bit restless in bed when I felt and heard a gentle ping noise. I sat up intrigued by what I’d felt when I noticed my pyjama bottoms were wet and I had a moment of “is this my waters or have I wet myself?!” Thanks to everything Claire taught us I knew what to look for as my waters began to trickle for the next hour and my mucus plug released too. My contractions began quite quickly after my waters releasing and were close together with very little periods of rest.
At 4am I decided I would call the midwives to inform them I was in labour and that my contractions were about 1-2 minutes apart, with very short or no breaks between them. The midwife assured me that I was having a rush of hormones due to my waters breaking before my contractions and that they should slow into a more regular pattern soon.
I woke my partner at this point to tell him I was in labour but that he should get some more rest and that I would continue to breathe through my contractions using my birthing ball in the living room. The lamp was on, and I listened to a playlist I created to help me feel calm and controlled.
My contractions continued to be around a minute apart with no rests and at 5am I asked my partner to get ready to go. My instincts told me that my labour wasn’t slowing down, so I put my tens machine on in preparation for the car journey. We called the hospital to inform them we were on our way in, and my partner began to get the car ready to go.
However, I found it helpful with each wave of my contraction to have my partner holding me up and forward. I asked that he called my mum who lives around the corner and ask her to drive us so he could continue to support me. She arrived 10 minutes later but as she did, I felt an immense and powerful pressure and a true urge to push. I climbed onto our bed and lay cuddled sideways into my pregnancy pillow and began to use my down breaths to birth our baby out. My partner contacted the midwife led unit who asked us to call for an ambulance to assist. My mum called for an ambulance as my partner supported me with light tough massage between each push and with a drink to keep my energy up.
The paramedics arrived quickly, with a-lot of noise and commotion (none of which I was aware of), and my partner informed our paramedics of our wishes for a calm environment and a hands-off approach with hypnobirthing. He assured them that I knew my body was doing what it should and that we were breathing our baby down.
The paramedics monitored from a distance and tracked each contraction quietly.
At around 7:15am the paramedics believed they saw the cord descending first and that I was having a cord prolapse. My partner and I agreed with the paramedics that we needed to get to the hospital, and I was quickly but calmly wrapped up with a towel and ushered into the ambulance. We moved on blue lights the whole way to the hospital, and this is where our hypnobirthing techniques really changed everything. I was aware of what a cord prolapse could mean for me and our baby but knew my body needed calm so thought of an affirmation to help me stay focused. I repeated, "You will go for a C-section, you will wake up in a few hours and our beautiful healthy baby will be safe and well.” I said this internally, all the way to hospital as my partner used positive messages of love to reassure me too. I felt an overwhelming sense of calm and okay.
As our ambulance arrived, a midwife jumped in the back, and I consented to a vaginal exam. She informed us that we were not having a cord prolapse, that the baby was safe but was about to be born imminently. I was quickly transferred to the first room in the unit and my midwife began coaching me to push. This made me flustered, and it was reflected in my breathing. My partner reminded me to use our down breathing to relax my face and as he did, I could feel my pushes get stronger and more controlled. Around 10-15minutes later, I had pushed our baby’s head out. At this stage, we informed our midwife of our wishes for my partner to assist in our baby’s birth, and to reveal the baby’s sex to me. On my final push, my partner held and lifted our baby out and up onto my chest for skin to skin. I have never felt more joy than hearing him tell me “We have a son!.” We waited for optimal cord clamping when it had turned white, and my partner cut the cord. We had some quiet private time together as we began our life as a family of three.
Since that very first moment of my waters breaking and still to this day, I would choose to experience this birth over again. It was not the birth we wished for but with Claire’s help it was a birth we felt in control of. We used our planning techniques to help make informed decisions and it was a truly empowering experience.
It’s not just me who raves about hypnobirthing now, but my partner too!! It has helped me confront and manage my medical anxiety and we both truly believe in the techniques and tools we learned.
Claire has an invaluable amount of knowledge, passion and love for her job which shines through. Her course was the best thing we ever invested in for our baby and our family. I would do it all again and I can’t wait to, if and when we are blessed with another baby in the future. Claire, a million thanks and endless gratitude!
Sarah & Connor.