Birth Story - baby girl

This sweet story was submitted by a mum who asked for names to be omitted. I really enjoyed working with her on the February/March group course: she was really committed to the approach and, over the five sessions, it was clear that she was gaining an understanding of how to adjust her mindset to look forward to birth and feel confident in her body's abilities. I think she describes her birth really eloquently: it was challenging but she knew she could do it and she had a group of supportive and loving people around her. Please read on for her own description of the birth experience...

We had a really wonderful birth - my sister and partner were the ultimate tag-team birth partners and my lovely friend was able to be our midwife on the day/night! I have the most amazing memories of laughing and joking with them for the first six hours. And even in the latter six, when things felt much more overwhelming and my own self-doubt crept in, I never doubted that they would get us there! The hypnobirthing course and audio practice was such a rescue... thank you! As things progressed, I found the increasing intensity a lot to handle and quite frightening at times - I relied at lot on the affirmations and relaxation audios. Although I found the surges very intense, between each I was able to completely relax into what felt like the calmest two minute sleeps! Looking back it was quite amazing and definitely helped me keep my brain out of the way! My midwife friend commented that she would’ve liked to use it as a case study for non-medicated birth! Our daughter is the most amazing little being I’ve ever met (I know every new must mum feel that way!) and I’m so grateful to have been able to bring her into the world without the stress of procedures that didn’t sit well with me and that may have had an impact on her. Even though I found it quite mentally challenging, our baby was calm throughout the birth and midwives and lactation specialists have said early on that they thought she’d had a good birth - that means so much to me and I think much of that is owed to the preparation beforehand, of which your hypnobirthing course was a big part - a huge thank you, Jana! :)