Just wanted to share this great article posted in the London Metro today. x

http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/836745-hypnobirthing-a-man-taking-charge-during-childbirth

Check it out here

It’s been a while since I updated my blog – family life has rather taken over of late – it’s been lovely though!

So thought i’d attach another very interesting article on HypnoBirthing.  Enjoy the read – I’m happy to answer any questions if you have them – just ask.

Here it is:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-497190/I-swore-Id-babys-birth-mesmerising.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7kA3PMJwA8

http://www.pregnancytoday.com/articles/childbirth-classes-techniques/hypnobirthing-1968/

http://www.five.tv/programmes/daytime/the-wright-stuff/67112

Your ‘tuned in’ and ‘switched on’ trainees have gone through the most amazing birth, as you’ve expected and we hoped for!

Our little bundle of joy Katarina, nicknamed Kiki while in the tummy due to her amazing kicking abilities, has arrived on Monday morning, 22 February 2010 at 8:42 am – whole 8 hours and 40 minutes after the first contraction!

As a true Pisces, she was born in the birthing pool and as a rarity – she arrived without rupturing the membrane!

We got to the hospital 5 hours after the first surge started and before leaving home, we called the hospital to let them know that the surges are 3 in 10 minutes. Of course, they didn’t believe us, even after I said we’re doing HypnoBirthing and to listen to my breathing over the phone through the contraction, they still said – if you haven’t opened up to 4 cm, we’ll send you back home!

When we got to St Tommy’s, all of the midwifes at the Home from Home Birth centre were busy so they couldn’t get us into a room. Instead, we stayed at the Birth Centre where we were first greeted by the head midwife who saw me an all fours at the reception thinking I’m a real softie, but when I lifted my head and in a calm voice between surges explained what happened in the last 5 hours and as my surge hit, I just said – excuse me, I need to do my breathing now – she probably thought that I’m either mad or haven’t even started the labour! It took them 30 minutes to get us into the room and the same head midwife did the examination – if only I had a camera to capture her facial expression when I asked what’s the situation and she said – you’re 9 cm open!!! J

As the labour progressed, we got the on duty midwife who walked in and asked if I needed any gas and air and when I said we’re doing HypnoBirthing she completely understood and from then on there were no talks of any anaesthetics and only positive encouragement from her and a student midwife who joined her. Suffice to say they were massively impressed with my breathing! Eventually we were wheeled on the bed to the room at the Home from Home Birth centre and were rushed down the corridor as they needed the room where we were previously for an emergency. I think we’re the only case that was ‘rushed out’ of the medically assisted ward into a natural birth one!

Around 7 am, my leg muscles started aching and my feet were going numb as I was on the bed crouching so we decided to move into a birthing pool. It took 30 minutes to relax the muscles, but it felt way to calming I almost slowed down the progress! Back to the kneeling position and within an hour, Kiki’s head started showing. By that time we had the initial midwife and student who were finishing their night shift joined by the midwife and student starting their day shift – all of them in amazement waiting to see the baby being born in the membrane.

Throughout the labour, Chris has been my strength and my quiet encouragement watching like a hawk midwifes’ facial expressions and reactions to make sure everything is going as it should – especially as I was in the zone and completely unaware of how many people was around me!

Kiki slid down into the water rupturing the membrane as her shoulders came out and went straight to my chest. Chris cut the umbilical cord and in his words ‘released his daughter into the world’ and as soon as we got back to the room, he got his t-shirt off and took his daughter into his chest.

Kiki took to the breast for her first feed within an hour and we got safely home the day after.

Healthy 3.4 kg and 53 cm, she passed all the tests with flying colours!

Fourth day in and she’s been an absolute angel , strong and calm even when I struggled getting the milk flowing last night – she was sucking on empty and snoozing throughout the night.

All in all – our ‘breezy’ birth experience would not be possible without the breathing techniques and the mindset we’ve re-confirmed throughout our HypnoBirthing course and your lovely, calm and positive guidance.

Thank you so much for being part of our lovely experience.

Lots of love

Chris, Jana & Kiki

Having found out about hypnobirthing from my friend in the States and reading Marie Mongan’s book, my husband and I decided to take Sophie’s hypnobirthing course together with a couple we met at our NCT antenatal classes. The hypnobirthing approach and the course enabled me to take a positive and relaxed approach to pregnancy, labour and birthing our baby.  It also brought me and my husband even closer together as we prepared ourselves for the arrival of our baby.

We planned to have a water birth at home, and whilst things didn’t go exactly to plan, the hypnobirthing approach was essential to the positive experience we had in birthing our son, Eliot. The birth would have been at home as planned, however, the local community midwife team failed to have adequate staffing overnight when I was in labour (on my due date).  This was disappointing, but it all worked out well as the birth was natural with no medical intervention, and the hypnobirthing techniques worked well given how things progressed towards Eliot’s emergence into the world.

The night before my due date, I started having period-like cramps in addition to Braxton-type tightenings, and I woke several times overnight.  The cramps continued on and off in the morning and when midwife came for a scheduled appointment at midday, she said I would probably be another day or so.  Through the afternoon, the cramps became more frequent, about 4 per hour. I pottered around the house as normal and rested. As the afternoon progressed, I used the hypnobirthing breathing, visualisations and affirmations, and I was really very relaxed about how things were progressing.  I was still thinking of the sensations I was having as cramps, but on reflection later, they were actually surges.

I refused dinner, which was not usual for me, and around 6.30/7pm I had the start of my “show”, which was accompanied by stronger cramping, and I realised these were definitely surges, timing 2 or so, every 10-15 minutes. They gradually got closer together, but I wasn’t in any pain, more discomfort for a few hours before things really took off.

Around 10pm, I got in to the bath as things got more intense, and while in the bath my husband called the hospital to ask the midwife to come out.  When the midwife rang back, around 10.30pm, we found out that no midwife could come for the home birth, as the one scheduled overnight midwife had phoned in sick and there was no cover available. They said I could have the birth at home “if I could hang on” until the next shift at 8am in the morning. This obviously made me feel tense, as I knew the birth must be close. I was taken out of my ‘zone’ by this, and it was at this point I did start to feel pain due to the situation, so I got out of the bath and started with the TENS machine.  I managed to get back into my breathing, and managed the surges pretty well.  Since things were progressing rather quickly, we contacted the hospital again around 11.30pm, asking if someone could possibly come out to check me over, but we finally ended up just deciding to go in to the hospital as the water birth room was available.

We got to the hospital at around 1.15am, I was examined at 1.20am and I was already 6cm dilated!   I felt very relieved, as I was preparing myself mentally to be told that I was only 2-3cm and that I would have hours and hours of protracted labour in the hospital. So, they tried to fill the pool in time for me to get in for the birth itself, but I never ended up getting in (assistant forgot to turn on the hot water!) and I delivered Eliot at around 2.30am.

In addition to the hypno breathing and support from my husband, the TENS machine and gas and air enabled a very smooth and easy birth.  I only needed 3 ‘pushes’ at the end, and Eliot came out without any difficulties.

So all in all, it went really well for us, and we feel very very lucky and blessed on all fronts, for having our beautiful son Eliot safely delivered healthy and well, for having it be a positive and pretty relaxed experience (despite unforeseen staffing failures by the community midwife team) and for having been able to successfully birth naturally.

Sophie and Baby Eliot