Dear Kat,
We were surprised by the early arrival of a baby boy on 4 March – born at 38 weeks and 2 days, and weighing in at 7lb.
He was born into the water at the UCLH birthing centre after around 11 hours of labour. We spent most of it at home and hypnobirthing techniques were a huge help here – Eddie created a dark, cavelike environment with candles etc. and I was kind of amazed that I was already 9cm dilated on arrival at the hospital. I was in the pool for about 3 hours – pushing for 2.5 hours (didn’t quite breathe him out – it was much harder work). The midwives were wonderful and incredibly encouraging when I was flagging and getting tired. And I didn’t have a single tear or stitch, which I’m very grateful for.
No doubt our hypnobirthing experience massively helped – we were calm and focused throughout and made it through with only two paracetamol.
It was truly the best birth we could have hoped for, and scooping our son out of the water, into my arms, was a remarkable experience. Thank you for sharing the wisdom and skills of hypnobirthing with us.

Laura and Eddie