“HypnoBirthing made us both feel confident and prepared for the whole birth, which was simply invaluable”

After 6 months of daily affirmations and practice breathing, not to mention listening to the CD every night as we went to sleep, we were more than ready for our hypnobirthed bundle of joy to arrive. So when I started getting twinges in the eighth month, we were convinced she would be early, but then I was convinced she was a he – and had referred to the bump as ‘him’ throughout the entire pregnancy.
Imagine my surprise then when the twinges stopped and we somehow found ourselves 10 days past my due date – even two sessions of acupuncture with Alison hadn’t kick started any further uterine flutterings –  and so the dreaded threat of induction came looming.
Thankfully, a lengthy chat with the supervisor of midwives allowed us the opportunity to postpone it by two more days, on the agreement we went into the hospital for daily monitoring. We had 48 hours to beat the clock or the cascade of induction was going to come a knocking…
Ironically, it was as we arrived home on the Sunday after 2 hours of monitoring at the hospital that I got my first contraction. They continued throughout the evening and got progressively more intense and more frequent. This made the X Factor final an intensely painful experience for me and I will now always associate Coldplay and Little Mix with an intense searing pain, but then, won’t everyone?
So optimistic were we that things were happening, Joe and I – expecting the contractions to continue until the small hours before a trip to Whipps –  set about packing the bag and making sandwiches (n.b top tip – take food; I was famished by the time I’d had her) but annoyingly the contractions never came more frequently so we went to bed and tried to sleep through the pain, aided only by paracetamol,, a hot water bottle and my breathing techniques. Frustratingly, they were only ever 15 minutes for the rest of the night and into the following morning…
By Monday lunchtime I was getting impatient – how long was this supposed to last for heaven’s sake? Joe and I were advised by our wonderful Doula Caron to keep active, be less impatient and go for a walk. I’ll never forget having a contraction in the middle of our road, leaning up on a tree for support and trying not to wail like a banshee. By the afternoon we were exhausted so once again took to bed to try and recoup some energy for the labor that was apparently coming at some point in the future…
By the evening there was still no progress and I was getting very tired and very frustrated. We decided to continue as normal and even sat down (admittedly I was on a birthing ball) to eat some spaghetti bolognese , but I was exhausted after 30 hours of contractions and paracetamol wasn’t really helping anymore. Plus I still had the bloody Coldplay song in my head and it was driving me nuts.
A warm bath really helped at this point, I’ll never forget the relief the hot water from the shower hose gave my poor lower back. The hypnobirthing tapes also came into their own – I was tired and stressed and in great discomfort and they provided relief, comfort and distraction at a time when I needed it most.
It wasn’t until 2am that things really started to happen. Exhausted and drained after nearly 40 hours of contractions, we were losing momentum, Joe was falling asleep and I had lost the will to live. Caron came over and once again really helped, supporting us both, reassuring me that things were progressing and providing a fabulous back rub to boot. At 3.30 we decided we were going to have to go in to hospital to be assessed, even if it was to find out that I wasn’t remotely dilated. As luck would have it, within half an hour of her being there, the contractions finally came more frequently and off we set.
After what felt like a high speed race through the mean streets of Wanstead, whilst clinging to the front sear for dear life (I later found out it was a heady 15 miles per hour), we were at the hospital. A mean Triage nurse scolded me for not having turned up for my induction the evening before (the fact that I’d gone into labour spontaneously didn’t seem to be an issue for her) before assessing me and – to everyone’s relief – declaring I was 4 cm dilated.
However it seemed my dream of having a water birth was over  – as I was 12 days overdue, it wasn’t permitted apparently. No one had told us this, and I was devastated, as the bath had provided incredible pain relief at home. Instead we were led to the labour ward and rather grim looking room with no bathroom. We were gutted. But mercifully, the Italian midwife who had been assigned to us came in and announced that as I was still low risk, I was able to get use a nicer room with an ensuite shower. Yes, we got an upgrade! We were delighted and off we went to delivery room 15 which would be our home for the next few hours.
The contractions continued to come thick and fast and so I hit the gas and air whilst Joe set about creating the best birthing environment that he could, dimming the lights, playing the hypnobirthing music and saying all the right things. He was the perfect hypnobirthing partner -calm, reassuring and supportive, even when I threw up over him after overdoing it on the gas and air (damn that spaghetti bolognese).
The midwives were amazing, and we were later told, delighted to have a couple who were informed and aware of the birthing process, prepared for the forthcoming procedures and knowledgeable in their options and choices. Who says a birthing plan isn’t important? It made all the difference for us and it seems for them too…
The contractions continued to come thick and fast and the shower hose continued to give incredible relief. I got the urge to push very quickly, resulting in my waters finally breaking. This came with both good news and bad. The good news was they assessed me and I was fully dilated after only three hours! The bad news was there was meconium in my waters – a lot – and so from that moment on I needed to be monitored. So out went the squatting positions I’d envisaged and in came being strapped to the bed. This should have upset me, but I was so relaxed from the hypnobirthing that it felt fine, despite the fact that things got very complicated from there on in, although I have very little recollection of it because I was so relaxed and into my breathing.
To summarise, over the next hour there was lots of meconium, no heartbeat, stirrups, a drip and panic stations for everyone apart from me. Even the arrival of some specialists to attach a monitoring device to the baby’s head didn’t rouse me from my zen like state.
Alas, with my legs in stirrups and lying on my back meant that breathing the baby out was not going to be possible. Although I thought I was doing enough with my J breathing, it seems I needed to embrace the P word and push – and because of the complications they’d allowed me an hour to do it before they intervened, something nobody wanted. So I gave up on the gas and air and embraced the need to push. Indeed, it was only when I needed to push that I became more aware, but even that was relaxed and felt natural not scary or stressful – despite the wild grunting and wailing I may have been emitting.
With gently encouragement from Joe and Caron and advice from the midwives, not to mention some hands on assistance to avoid any tearing, I pushed April out in the hour they had allocated before further intervention was required.
And sure enough, after pushing so hard I thought I was going to burst, there she was! At 1000 on Tuesday 13th December April Grace Amodeo was born. A girl – a mucky little monkey girl covered in slime but still a girl! She fed immediately and has continued to be calm and happy like a true hynobirthing baby.
As for me, I not only escaped any damage, I also felt fine and leapt out of bed the next day. So there you have it – textbook labour in only 6 hours (well, apart from the 40 hours or so it took to get there) and a baby born on 13/12/11 at 1000.  Where’s Noris McWhirter when you need him?
 
Kat, thank you so much! We can’t say how much the hypnobirthing meant to us – not only did it teach us how to relax and give us more knowledge, most importantly it made us both feel confident and prepared for the whole birth, which was simply invaluable.
With love and all the best
Celia, Joe and April
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