Birth Story of Ella Jade - 12/04/2015
Birth Story of Ella Jade Bilston - 12/04/2015
When we first heard of hypnobirthing through Shari, we were curious about how we could give ourselves the best chance of a calm and natural birth, and so we booked in.
Upon starting the course, we realised that we had previously heard many negative birth stories and very few that were positive. That completely changed. The hypnobirthing stories we heard and the videos we saw throughout the course showed us that calm and beautiful births are absolutely possible and that we could learn techniques to give us the best chance of achieving the same. This helped to remove a lot of the fear I know I had been feeling about giving birth.
In preparation for our birth, I printed affirmations on some of
my favourite photos and put them up around the house so that I’d see them regularly. I also listened to the affirmation tracks in the car and practiced the relaxation breathing and visualisations. I found that the meditation tracks really helped me to unwind and, in the later stages of pregnancy, to get to sleep. In the last couple of weeks, Keith massaged clary sage into my feet each
night – a great excuse for a foot rub & a great way to unwind!
My waters broke late one Sunday afternoon. Although we’d planned to spend as much time as possible at home before heading to the hospital, my surges intensified quite quickly and so after a short time relaxing on the exercise ball and finishing packing the hospital bag, we headed in.
We had discussed our birth preferences with our Obstetrician during my pregnancy. As Shari recommended, we also took a copy to the hospital with us and highlighted the preferences most important to us. When we arrived, Keith made sure the midwife was aware of these & helped get the room ready by dimming the lights and playing our relaxation music.
Our beautiful daughter, Ella Jade Bilston, was born after a short, 5 hour labour. Although the labour was intense, we are thrilled to say that we achieved the natural birth we wanted. The techniques we learned through Shari’s course played a huge part in this. In particular, the breathing techniques and light touch massage helped to keep me more calm and focused.
I believe that understanding our options and communicating our preferences before birth meant we were much more calm and confident than we would have otherwise been. We learned so much useful information through Shari’s course, such as the benefits of delayed cord clamping and skin-to-skin contact, which meant that we could choose these for our birth. That first hour of uninterrupted time with Ella was so special!
Ella is a very happy and relaxed baby. We are so grateful to Shari for empowering us to welcome our beautiful baby girl into the world in the best way that we could.
