Hypnobirthing helped alleviate anxieties

After a quite traumatic birth with my first born I wanted to approach the birth of my daughter with more knowledge and techniques to try and achieve a more positive experience.

Imogen took my birth partners and I through an incredible 1:1 hypnobirthing course that really helped to alleviate the anxieties I had following the birth of my son and the guided meditations and information about my ability to choose what I wanted made me feel empowered.

Throughout my 2nd pregnancy things weren’t completely smooth sailing. I had low PAPP A, developed gestational diabetes and also had excess amniotic fluid. All of these meant that I had a number of additional scans towards the end of my pregnancy and around 36 weeks the growth scan showed that babies growth was tailing off. Not only this but the baby was breach and so at this stage I had made the decision that an elective caesarean would be best for my baby and I.

I told Imogen about the change in my birth plan and we scheduled in an additional to go over how I could still get the birth I wanted and she also sent me a caesarean specific guided meditation. The night before I listened to this to help keep me calm and get a good sleep! 

 

The morning of I was excited but also had nerves. When the doctors came to do their pre-op questions with me I knew there were some things I could ask for to make my birth more unique to us and less clinical. I practiced my breathing techniques whilst waiting for and getting my anaesthesia as I really wanted to be as calm as possible throughout! My partner put our birth playlist on and the surgeon told us just as my daughter was about to be born so the song we wanted to be playing could be put on! The sheet was lowered when she was born and she was lifted up for me to see her gorgeous face. That moment will stay with me forever it was honestly magical! We had discussed previously that I wanted delayed cord clamping and for my partner Aaron to cut it when the time came. Immediate skin to skin was also important to me and my daughter was quickly placed on my chest. I suffered quite badly with after birth shakes though and didn’t feel comfortable with holding her safely so she was then quickly passed to my partner who continued skin to skin. Once I was out in the recovery are she was placed back on me and within a few minutes she wriggled her way down, latched and started breastfeeding!

 

My choice to have an elective caesarean was not taken lightly but with all the tools that hypnobirthing had given me I knew it was 100% the right decision for me, my baby and my family! It helped to make the whole thing a truly magical experience.