An Email from a mother who had a positive home birth following a previous traumatic birth. A cathartic experience for both her and her partner. A treasured memory for life.
Hi Maureen,
I found out I was pregnant with my second child and instantly started to feel anxious about the labour. My first baby was born in hospital. I was in labour for 12 hours and eventually gave birth to my daughter with the use of forceps. I had an episiotomy and haemorrhaged after I’d given birth. The whole experience was just awful and I did not want to go through that again.
I started looking into hypnobirthing and this is when I spoke with you about it. I remember you saying to me that once I’d finished the course, I’d want a home birth and I remember thinking at the time that there is no way I will do that. I was convinced I was unable to birth without medical intervention.
My husband and I met with you at our home and we had a total of five sessions with you. I am so glad we did these sessions and you were right, by the end of the sessions I was determined I wanted a home birth. You explained everything so well and the fact that you are such an experienced midwife also put our minds at ease. My husband was also sceptical about the whole thing and by the end of our sessions, he was also of the opinion that we should have a home birth.
I went into labour at 41 weeks. I had a warm bath and got into bed at 9pm. At 10pm I started having very mild surges which were 20-30mins apart. My husband came to bed at 11pm and I told him that I was having surges but that he should get some rest. I lay in bed relaxed and sleeping between surges and then breathing through them when they did arrive. I woke my husband at 12.30am and suggested we needed to go downstairs and fill up the birthing pool.
We called the midwife team and they said they were short staffed and that we should head to the Women’s hospital. I told them we were not willing to do this and that I wanted to birth at home (not to mention our 6 year old was also in bed). They told me they would try to get to me but I may need to free birth. In any event, I should call back if my surges are 5 minutes apart. We called them back 40mins later!
A midwife arrived at 1.30am and although I was doing it alone, I did feel at ease once she arrived.
She said that just by looking at me she could tell I didn’t have long left. My waters still hadn’t broken and there was a lot of pressure in my back. The midwife suggested I try and break my waters and I
did this as I got into the pool. The instant release of pressure was immense. I breathed through each of my surges and can honestly say that whilst they were intense, they weren’t painful. I did have a moment of panic when the baby’s head was crowning and thought for a moment we should be in hospital but then the head popped out and I was calm again.
Our beautiful baby boy was born at 2.34am. He was born with the cord around his neck and this was quickly moved by the midwife, no panic whatsoever. I was in labour for just over 4 1/2 hours and it went in the blink of an eye.
We climbed into bed with our boy at 5.20am and our daughter woke at 5.30am to the sound of her baby brother. She woke up a big sister.
I will be forever grateful to you Maureen. You put our minds at ease and gave me the confidence to believe in myself. Birthing my son at home is my greatest achievement in life. I will treasure the memory forever. I am so proud of myself and what I am capable of doing.
I would highly recommend KGH hypnobirthing to any woman who is expecting.
Thank you so much. I won’t be having anymore baby’s but if I was, you’d be the first person I would call.
Forever grateful to you xxx
Lesley Sullivan Hi Maureen,
