Water Birth/Natural Birth of Samuel
Our little one, Samuel Quinn Anderson was born 12th May 2016
The birth went brilliantly. We had a long early labour with some contractions on the Monday night that built to a pattern by the Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning we had gotten to the stage where we had 3 in ten minutes each lasting a minute long so we headed to the hospital. We arrived at about 8am and my surges pretty much stopped when we got there so we headed back home a little frustrated to wait until there was some kind of pattern again.
During the daytime my surges were pretty much non existent and I was starting to get a little impatient for them to start up again. Luckily I read an article on the hypnobirthing Facebook page that very afternoon that reminded me to relax and get myself into a comfortable, dimly lit surroundings. I took to my room to relax and sure enough as evening came they started up again. We went back to hospital at 11pm and Samuel was born at 1:56am.
We were very lucky and managed to use the birth pool for a water birth - my weight was just shy of the 100kg cut off so we just made it! It was a really positive labour and birth experience with no pain medication. I did cave and take some gas and air when the doctor did my stitches at the end, probably mainly because I wasn't expecting to need or be offered anything at this stage as we hadn't thought it through properly. The small amount I had made me feel pretty rubbish so I was so glad I managed to avoid using any during birth. And this just proved to me how being prepared and using the hypnobirthing techniques really paid off.
My midwifes were amazing throughout my pregnancy, birth and aftercare. I went through the MIdwifery Group Practice at the base hospital. It was great to have a constant group of midwifes that I saw throughout, but most of all I feel like they were all really supportive of the hypnobirthing approach. So much so it was them reminding me to use the relaxation techniques when it came to me getting my stitches. Thank you again for all your teaching and support that helped us achieve a calm and positive birth. We have been so lucky to have such good care throughout the experience from our midwifes and yourself. Although I had a pretty uncomplicated pregnancy and birth I have no doubt that the choice to use hypnobirthing has had a huge impact on our experience.
Many, many thanks Laura, Kevin & Samuel
