The most amazing experience of my life

Hi Kate!!! 

He’s here!!! (3 weeks early!) 

Fraser decided he wanted to join us early! (I knew you’d like the name Fraser).

It was about 8pm Thursday night and I was laying on the couch waiting for Cam to get home from work. Of all days, Cam had a late meeting that day. He gets up for work at around 3am but is usually home by around 4pm. On this particular day, he didn’t leave work until around 8pm so I knew he was going to be tired and probably a bit cranky depending on how his meeting went.  

When I was laying on the couch, I felt this little ‘pop’ and thought ‘hmmm that felt a bit weird’ but didn’t think anything of it. Cam called to let me know he was on his way home just after 8, and when he called I stood up and felt this little trickle down my leg. I told him I thought maybe my waters had broken and he laughed it off and said no way. Sure enough they had broken with the trickle continuing to come. He was about an hour’s drive from home so I called him back and said I’m pretty sure this is it and said I’d call the hospital to see what they say. They said I had to come in so they could check if it was my waters.

I started to have little surges but nothing painful. I think I was in a bit of denial it was happening and fully expected us to drive another hour to the hospital for them to say false alarm. My bags weren’t packed (of course they weren’t), so while I waited for Cam to get home I got a few things together just in case. I also started cleaning the house and put a load of washing on. 

Cam got home and sure enough, he was cranky and like me didn’t quite believe it was happening. I told him to have a shower and take our time before we headed to the hospital. My surges were coming around every 10-15 minutes but I still didn’t believe they were real surges. I thought it was all in my head. 

We arrived at the hospital at about 10.30pm and she confirmed that yes, my waters had broken and I was 2cm. By this time, surges were coming around every 7 minutes but still very manageable. 

Cam set the room up with little candles and started playing my tracks. He helped me put my TENS machine on and I started pacing the room trying to find a comfortable position for every surge. I tried so hard to get into the ‘zone’. 

It’s all a bit of a blur. Looking back now I feel like it went super quick, but I remember looking at the clock between 12 and 12.30am and thinking omg that was the longest half hour of my life. I continued to move around the room trying to find a comfortable position and I think by this stage the ‘boost’ button on my TENS was just constantly on. I couldn’t really feel it anymore. At around 2.30am I asked for some gas, the midwife checked me and I was 8cm and by this stage I was really starting to struggle. I remember thinking, ‘I know I can do this without the epidural but I just don’t think I want to’. I wanted to be able to enjoy the birth and the negative thoughts were starting to get louder (I guess because I was on the verge of transition). I asked if I could have the epidural. Cam asked me if I was sure that’s what I wanted and reassured me I could do it but I think I had already decided in my head. Looking back now I’m so happy I did. We were able to get an hour’s sleep before I started pushing. The nurse came in to check me after an hour and I was 9cm and she said have another hour sleep and then you should be ready. 10 minutes later she came rushing back in because Fraser had very rapidly dropped into my pelvis and his heart rate started to drop so my doctor said we needed to get him out now. I started to get a bit panicky but Cam was so great at keeping me calm. I started pushing and  it was just the most amazing experience. I wasn’t in pain anymore and I could really enjoy the process of him coming out. I only pushed for about 15 minutes and when his head was out my doctor told me to reach down and feel his head. Oh my god that was just the best. One more push and our boy was born. He was crying, I was crying, Cameron was crying. It was just amazing. 

My doctor put him straight on my belly. The cord was quite short and wouldn’t reach up to my chest. Cameron got to cut the cord and once he did that I lifted him higher. I looked down at him and our eyes locked and we just stared at each other. It was such a surreal moment. 

I honestly had no idea how my birth was going to go but I can truly say that it was the most amazing experience of my life and I 100% believe my hypnobirthing techniques helped me achieve that. Even though it wasn’t a drug free birth I’m still so happy with how it went and the feeling is just indescribable. 

Thank you so much for all of your support and guidance!! I have recommended the course to all of my pregnant friends and will definitely be revisiting it (waaaayyyy down the track) when we think about baby number 2. It truly was a game changer!!! 

Thank you so much again!!!!!! 

Taneal

Photos shared with permission

My husband knew his role and how he can be an active participant

Good Afternoon Kate,

He’s here ♥️ Kai Levi

He arrived 13th May 2020 at 23:40. 

Labour was about 20hours: 2 hours of pushing, tolerated 12 hours of natural labour.

We did everything we were taught from our Hypno course - we set the room up, I had my hypno tracks plugged into my ears, we did the acupressure, the breathing excercises, dimmed the room and just the two of us.

Post 12 hours I was only 4cm dilated. I was offered nitrous and thought I would give it a go - it was helpful but it made me feel dizzy. I ended up getting an epidural and was loving life after hahaha, I was like why didn’t I get the epidural earlier!

Now I’m cat napping when I can and enjoying all the new born cuddles.

My husband Mud and I cannot thank you enough we advocate to everyone the positivity and beauty of the hypnobirthing course. What we loved the most is that my husband knew his role and how he can be an active participant.

Take care, all the best and thank you again, 
Samantha

Photos shared with permission

Cervidil induction, with epidural and syntocinon

“Hypnobirthing taught us that our birth can take any direction, and it gave us the tools to ask questions and be kept informed.”

Hello Kate! 

So lovely to hear from you. I’ve been meaning to email you to tell you that our precious Humphrey entered the world on the 07/03 at 954pm. 3.8kg and 51cm long. He is a perfectly healthy baby and just absolutely beautiful. 

My labour was very long, complicated and exhausting. I unfortunately had to be induced. It started on the Friday with the insertion of cervidil, which I had a reaction to. My uterus hyper stimulated for 4 hours non stop which was awful and useless. Thankfully at 230am Saturday morning my waters spontaneously broke and the contractions started almost immediately and they were very full on. As I had to be monitored the whole time we weren’t allowed in the birth centre so we went to the delivery suite. I was 2cm dilated when I got down there at about 330am. I tried different positions but ended up in the bath. At about 730am they were going to start the syntocinon drip, and the contractions were so full on I wasn’t coping. After the previous day’s episode, I was already exhausted. I asked for an epidural. I tried the gas first and then they rechecked me and I was still 2cm!! The epidural was put in at about 9am and provided instant relief, however I then had the shakes for the remainder of the birth. 

My blood pressure and heart rate and temperature were all elevated. As the syntocinon started and the infusion was increasing, baby’s heart rate was dropping. The OBs were in and out all day and I had to move from side to side to help baby’s position and heart rate. They kept mentioning we may need to have a Caesarean. 

I can’t remember what time, but I had gone from 4cm to 9cm within an hour! Which was great. And then I just stayed at 9cm for hours. And they weren’t sure what was stopping me from going to 10cm. They gave me 2 options - we go for c-section now or we wait 2 hours and see what happens but we can’t guarantee what will happen in 2 hours time as it may end up an emergency. They also said his position wasn’t ideal and they may have to use forceps as the ventouse wouldn’t work. I was completely exhausted by this stage and was ready for a c-section to just get it over with and preferred that over forceps. Matt and our amazing midwife made the decision for me to wait the 2 hours as it would’ve taken an hour to get me into theatre anyway as they had another case in there. They were also thinking we would have to go to theatre for pushing in case we needed to have an urgent Caesarean.

We had midwife change over at 8pm. The new midwife checked me and I was finally 10cm!! So... we started pushing. I’d just had a top up of epidural as I had a severe pain in my left hip from his position. The midwife put her fingers inside and I could just feel where I needed to push. We had some practice ones and then the two OBs and paediatrician came in. I was given 3-6 pushes and if he wasn’t coming we’d be off to theatre. 

Apparently my pushing was amazing and he was coming out. When his head was out the OB told me to touch it! It was the most amazing feeling in the world and I just screamed, ‘Come on team! We got this!’ and the next push he was out. The OB let me catch him and pull him on my chest and reveal his gender! I am so grateful we had a vaginal birth and only a small 2nd degree tear. Then my placenta wouldn’t come out so I almost went to theatre for that but thankfully with extra medications it came out. 

In the way of hypnobirthing - this was by far the complete opposite of what I would’ve liked. However - hypnobirthing taught Matt and I that our birth can take any direction and it gave us the tools to ask questions and be kept informed as to what was happening. 

Throughout it all I was able to use my breath that we were taught to keep calm and get through each contraction as best as I could. Although I had an epidural I could still feel contractions which I liked. 

We had dim lights the whole day - even at the end the team respected our wishes and kept lights to a minimum. We had fairy lights, a beautiful music playlist, affirmations, a diffuser. And everyone who entered our room on the ward pre and post delivery and in the delivery suite commented on how beautiful it was. 

What a journey !! 

Photos shared with permission