** Riva Vitler- 4th April 2017 - 2.98kg - Family Birth Centre **

I don't think anything can prepare you for the emotions that you get when those 2 pink lines appear. Excitement quickly turned into reality. How will I cope? How will I manage labour? How will I manage to raise a baby? And I am very fortunate to have a loving and very supportive partner.

I enjoyed and stayed active throughout my pregnancy. The few things that had put me off having children for years was the idea of being in a hospital, surrounded by people I didn't know, telling me what to do and the thoughts of having no control over my labour was pretty daunting. We decided (upon the recommendation of a dear friend of ours) to try a hypnobirthing course. Laura's hypnobirthing course taught us to discuss our fears, why we had those fears and how to move past them for a positive birth experience. I found this especially helped me to realise that the things you see on TV and in movies are dramatized and the stories you hear from friends and family are their own individual experiences. Mine was going to be different and I was determined to make it my own.

15 days until my due date, and with plenty of time still (or so we thought!), we made the trip out to Jarrad's Aunty, to pick up the music I had planned to play during my labour. Lucky we did, as not 5 hours late, at 530pm, my waters broke at home. Cancelling TV and dinner plans we had made the day before with friends, we headed to the Family Birthing Centre near KEMH, and met up with the midwife. We didn't manage to get a positive reading for amniotic fluid to confirm I was in labour, so we headed back home when I started to notice mind contractions. I managed to stay home as long as possible, using the warm shower to soother me lower back pain, soaking in the bath and then finally rolling on and leaning over the fit ball while listening to hypnobirthing tracks. At 2am I woke Jarrad to let him know we needed to head in. I was thankful it was early so we had a clear run into the city, not having to fight the freeway traffic. Jarrad was adament we were not going to be that couple who had the baby on the side of the freeway.

Nicole the midwife met us there just after 3am and I was confirmed 4cm dilated. I remember thinking, is that it!? How will I ever manage to get through the next 6 hours or so of labour? But I did! I remained as calm as possible and took each hour, each minute, each surge at a time, again using the warmth of the shower to help ease the pain. I changed positions alot, using the bean bag, bed, couch and floor to help. The music played and along with the massage oils we had picked up earlier that day too, I managed to remain in a calm state.

By the time I had enough and asked for some pain relief with gas, I was already fully dilated. Managing to be carried into the lovely big and warm bath at 530am, and just as my good friend and second support person arrived (good timing Zoe!) thing because quite intense and I didn't remain as cam as I had imagined I would be at this stage. The water certainly helped though.

Nicole was quite suprised when Riva started to crown and was still in her sac! We an En Caul birth! I am proud to say, I managed to birth Rive without any pain medication, without intervention and a water birth, just as planned. The sac burst right at the end and Riva was born at 612am and placed straight into my arms for some skin-to-skin contact, where she stayed until her cord had stopped pulsing, it was cut and she was then placed into her daddy's arms.

She was checked over, weighed, measured and we left as a family of 3 just after mid-day. Birth certainly wasn't pain free but the tools and knowledge we learnt from Laura certainly helped make birth a positive experience for us.

** Jacob Bryant - 23rd November 2016 - 3.12kg - SJOG Murdoch **

Long before I was ever pregnant I knew I wanted to have a hypnobirth. I'd heard such beautiful stories of calm and natural births. I couldn't think of a better way to bring a baby into this world.

When I found out I was pregnant, a friend referred my husband Phil and I to Laura and we got started on our course around 24 weeks.

Most nights I would fall asleep listening to my hypo tracks and each morning I would listen to my birth affirmations while Phil drove us to work. The one affirmation that really struck a chord with me was "I am prepared for whatever turn my birthing may take." My biggest fear was getting all the way through and ending us with an emergency caesarean. I really wanted to be prepared and open to wherever my birth may end up.

At 37 weeks and 5 days I had an ultrasound to check if my placenta had move out of the way to allow a natural birth. Unfortunately it hadn't. I was absolutely gutted!! All those weeks of visualising my perfect hypnobirthing and now I had to be booked in for a caesarean in five days time.

Over the next few days I listened to my affirmations for a caesarean birth continuously. I also listened to the fear release track.

On the morning of Jacob's birth, I was surprisingly calm. I was excited and quietly reflecting on how our lives were about to change forever. I listened to my affirmations on the drive to the hospital while feeling my baby boy tap dancing in my tummy. He must have known it was a special day.

We got settled into our room and before long we were being wheeled down to theatre. With Phil at my side I practiced my calm breathing and kept my thoughts focussed.

The vibe in theatre was very positive. There were lots of laughs while we got prepped and ready. The longest part was putting in my epidural. I held Phil's hand and looked into his eyes while doing my deep breathing to keep myself calm. Then we were ready to go.

Within minutes, before we even know if was happening, we heard Jacob squeak. We were so surprised to hear him (this was before we even know his gender). A sudden flood of emotions just took over me. I will always remember that moment. Before long, the paediatrician came around the curtain and introduced us to our SON. We were so surprised, we'd been convinced by everyone that we were having a girl. We were absolutely thrilled.

I have to thank my affirmations and visualisation for keeping me calm through my whole birth experience. It really was such a special day and I only have positive thoughts when I reflect back on the day. I honestly don't feel live I've been cheated out of my chance to have a natural birth. Besides...theres always next time :) Thanks Laura for all of your help

Lots of Love,

Nadine, Phil and Jacob

** Kallan - 29th August 2016 - 5.2 kg - SJOG Murdoch **

I had to make the choice to have a Caesarian because my baby was macrosomic and high risk for an emergency c section so we made the choice to have an elective one.

Leading up to the day I was very uncomfortable because bubs was so big but used the hypnotracks to calm myself to sleep when I needed rest. They were amazing. I also downloaded the c section cd and listened to it pretty much daily to prepare myself before the actual day.

On the actual day I was nervous but confident that my birth would still be everything that I wanted it to be. During the morning I talked quietly with my husband and relaxed in the room. Whenever I felt anxious I just remembered all of the affirmations of the tracks I listened to and it calmed me right down. I was probably the most worried about the epidural. The breathing techniques I learnt for coping with pain with Laura really helped as the anesthetist put the epidural in and I continued to breathe and remember my affirmations. It was painful but uncomfortable. The best part of my Hypnobirthing was once I was on the table and the surgeons were delivering my baby boy the anxiety left and I was able to visualize my baby coming to me rather than any of my anxieties. It was incredible. When they lifted him out to me I was of course overcome with happiness and was able to enjoy cuddles as we 2 became 3. My husband was a great support just holding my hand and telling me I was doing great.

The whole time I felt very in control and confident and I put it down to the tracks I listened to prior to delivery. My whole birth experience was very empowering.

Recovery was smooth for me aswell and I know we made the right decision for my baby and me. Although my birth plan had to change from what I originally had planned I couldn't have wished for a better birth. Thanks Laura ! :-)

** Lincoln Brown - 29th June 2016 - 3.98kg - Family Birth Centre **

I stumbled across hypnobirthing when I joined a Facebook group at 12 weeks pregnant. I’ve always wanted to have a water birth and wanted it to be as natural as possible, so once I read the Info about it I knew I wanted to give it a go. I started my classes a bit late due to my husband working away but once I got to 32 weeks he started working closer to home again and Laura accommodated us into a group class.

I went into the classes with an open mind and even though a part of me thought it would be a group of hippies chanting and smelling weird oils I decided to give it a good go! I’m so glad I did. After my first session I realised that it’s all common sense and makes perfect sense to trust our bodies. There was no pressure that if we didn’t achieve a natural birth that we had failed in any way, and everyone was lovely and normal !

I had my last session on the Sunday and felt ready to have my baby! I listened to the affirmations and practised the visualisations and also went to yoga and had a few floats to prepare myself mentally. I really didn’t know what to expect but knew that I was excited about the birth and didn’t fear it.

I had booked into a birthing centre and the midwives there completely supported my choices. On Wednesday the 29th of June I woke up at 8am and felt a bit queasy. I put it down to not having had much sleep but after I had a cup of tea I vomited it straight back up. Afterwards I started getting some tightenings in my tummy but assumed it was a bit of a tummy bug and, after an hour, I realised they were starting to form a pattern.

I text my midwife to let her know and said I should call in if it started to progress more. I carried on pottering around the house for another couple of hours and thought I was probably in very early stages and wondered if my baby would be here before the end of the week. Around lunchtime I decided to have a bath and listened to some hypnobirthing tracks. Once I started to relax and listen to my body I realised that the surges were starting to get quite close and stronger. They weren’t painful but I had to concentrate when they happened.

I called my husband and he came home. I told him to have a shower and get lunch before we decided what to do next. I still hadn’t lost any of my plug or waters so thought I would stay at home for as long as possible. However once I got out the bath things started speeding up and I felt like I should get to the birth centre. I rang ahead and they asked me a few questions and suggested I stay at home a while longer but I had a feeling I should get there soon.

They agreed to me going in as we live over 30 mins away and we could always go home again if needed. The car journey wasn’t the most comfortable as I was sat down and wanted to be upright, I listened to “Surge of the sea” on the way which is my favourite track and found it helped me get through the car journey.

Once we got to the birth centre, I was taken to my room and the midwife asked if I would like to be examined. I agreed as I wanted to know if my instincts were right and the surges seemed to be pretty constant now without much break between. We all got a shock when she checked me and told me I was already 9cm. She disappeared to get the pool ready and I sat on the floor and breathed through the surges. Ryan did the light touch and applied pressure during surges – I don’t think I opened my eyes once.

By the time the pool was filled up my body was involuntarily bearing down and I had no control over it. It was a strange sensation and I just went with it and trusted my body and didn’t try to stop it. My waters were still intact and were starting to come out like a water balloon. I was comfortable on the floor crossed legged but the midwives said if I wanted the pool I had to go now. I made my way across the hall and got into the pool. The water felt amazing and I moved around until I got into a comfortable position. I carried on with my breathing and was completely unaware of my surroundings and even who was in the room.

All of a sudden I felt a different sensation that was still not painful but different. I heard the midwife say that the head was out and to get ready to meet my baby! I told my husband to go and catch him and he went round to the side of the pool and Lincoln was born into his arms. Still inside his waters. He brought him up to me and laid him on me and the midwives removed the membranes from him. He was so peaceful and didn’t even look like he realised he was born.

We stayed in the pool until the cord stopped pulsating and then we went back to our room for some rest. After a while I was checked and i was informed that I had a quite nasty tear which I didn’t even realise at the time. I hadn’t felt any pain like you would’ve expected. I would have to go up to the hospital and go to theatre for a repair.

I feel this is where the hypnobirthing got me through something i wasn’t expecting. I started to feel quite panicked and really didn’t want to have the surgery especially as it was to be under a spinal. I started going over the affirmations and the relaxation breathing and felt much better about it. I had the surgery and before I knew it I was cuddled up in bed with my gorgeous boy. He was, and still is, amazingly calm - everyone comments on how content he is.

Although things didn’t go as I imagined afterwards I am so thankful that I got to give him the entrance to the world I did and if anyone asks me how the birth was I can honestly say it was the most amazing and empowering moment of my life. I really did feel like Wonder Woman that day! Everyone is so quick to share their horror stories and I think everyone should know that birth doesn’t have to be scary - we are made for this. Even if you need intervention or things don’t go as planned then the mindset that hypnobirthing gives you can prepare you for that and not let you dwell on it.

Thank you to Laura for giving me the opportunity to have this experience and I will be talking to everyone I know about hypnobirthing!

** Jasper Keeley - 2nd May 2015 2016 - 3.98kg - Narrogin Regional Hospital **

On the 2nd of May I gave birth to a healthy hypnobub.

During my pregnancy I was diagnosed with pregnancy induced hypertension, so I was put on blood pressure tablets to stabilise my blood pressure to avoid the possibility of developing pre-eclampsia. After doing some research and having a discussion with Laura I decided to enroll in the online Hypnobirthing course – The best decision I have ever made.

On the day of my babies birth, I entered the hospital the most relaxed and calm that I had been in a long time but most importantly I was open minded and ready to let my body do what it is naturally designed for, to birth a child.

Unfortunately due to my blood pressure elevating during labour and putting my baby into foetal distress I had to have an epidural – something that I was quite opposed to initially due to having compressed vertebrates in the area the epidural is administered. At that point in time I put on my head phones, and on went my hypno tracks – I was in control.

I am not going to go into step-by-step details of how my labour unfolded but at times things got a little intense and in the end became somewhat ‘hurried’ to get our little man out. Through the whole process though I did not lose focus, I stayed in control. I was quiet, I breathed through the contractions (by the time my second epidural was administered, the first one didn’t work, I was ready to push) and I let my body do what it needed to with little fear.

In closing I would like to say that I am so glad that I decided to have a hypnobub, if we are blessed to have anymore children I will definitely be putting hypnobirthing in to practice again.

Last but not least I would like to introduce our handsome little boy Jasper <3

** Taj Bloomer - 23rd December 2015 - 3.91kg - Fiona Stanley Hospital **

I first started my hypnobirthing classes with Laura at 30 weeks pregnant and I continued to practice the techniques learnt during the remaining of my third trimester. On December 21st 2015, I was admitted to Fiona Stanley Hospital to be induced as I was already 40 weeks + 11 days into my pregnancy. I felt calm and well prepared going into hospital, I was ready to finally meet our little man. I had packed all the hypnobirthing essentials including the hypnobirthing cd’s, birthing partner’s cheat sheet, the aromatherapy relaxing lavender spray mist, and our birth plan.

Before the medical induction, I had tried every natural induction method possible. I made the decision to have an induction massage with Laura on Saturday the 19th of December, which successfully started my urges. The surges started Saturday night through to Sunday although; my body did not advance into more intense urges. The massage did allow me to redirect my energy on the final days of my pregnancy and enabled me to prepare for my upcoming birth.

The induction of my labour started on the Monday night and this allowed my waters to break naturally at 1700hrs on the 22nd of December. At this stage I was 1cm dilated and I was so excited that FINALLY I was in labour after waiting for almost 2 weeks post my due date. During this initial stage of birthing I found relief from the use of breathing techniques and gentle rocking motion on a fitness ball. My husband, Dan also played hypnobirthing tracks in the background and sprayed the room with lavender mist for aromatherapy. If I needed it, he would use the soft touch technique to help with the surges.

At 2030hrs I was transferred from the postnatal ward to the birth suite and I met my midwife Vicky who would look after me during my birthing. I was then told that I was dilated to 2cms. I found the news of this to be emotionally difficult to hear. After this I started to doubt my ability to birth my baby and felt that I could not last to 10cms. Dan really helped me to refocus myself and reminded me that I was able to do it and to not give up.

Due to being medically induced I was restricted in what I could do during the birthing, and so unfortunately I was unable to have the water birth that I so desperately wanted. My midwife, Vicky, suggested other methods such as hydrotherapy, which worked as instant pain relief and helped me relax further. I also found the use of heat packs applied to my lower back helped. With the use of these techniques I did not feel the need to use other methods of pain relief, however, I did use gas and air to help me as the surges intensified.

My birth partner, my hubby, Dan, was amazing. He gave me so much strength. He stayed within metres of me during the entire labour, fulfilled my every request: giving me water, applying lip balm, placing heat packs on my lower back, telling me how wonderful I was and how well I was breathing. I continued to progress in the labour throughout the night. I do not recall how long each surge was or the rest periods between them. I just listened to my body and zoned into my breath.

By 6:30am the next morning I reached 10cms dilated and I felt the urge to push. At that time Vicky was on break and the covering midwife called her as I had reached 10cms and was ready.

Unfortunately, I experienced a prolonged 2nd stage of labour and later experienced complication in the delivery known as shoulder dystocia. Although, this resulted in a stressful ending to his birth, both Taj and myself recovered without any lasting complications. Taj was born a completely healthy baby boy at 0952hrs on the 23rd of December without the need of special care nursery. After his birth I did skin-to-skin contact for 2 hours. I felt amazing with so much energy and felt completely pain free.

Even though my labour didn’t unfold exactly as I imagined it to, labour was still a very positive experience and it has taught me many things. Hypnobirthing allowed me to have a relatively drug-free birth with only the use of gas and air. Our birth story is one that I am forever grateful for and obviously immensely proud of. I personally believe that the hypnobirthing classes educated my husband to be confident and calm during the birth, which was reassuring to me.

My son is now almost 5 months old and he is truly a hypnobirth bub as he is very relaxed in his nature, content and he is quite observant of his surroundings. I would highly recommend hypnobirthing classes to any future mums wanting the best for themselves and their babies. Best of luck to all you hypnobirth mummy’s- you can do it!

** Henrique Pangler – 24th November 2015 – 3.41kg – Armadale Hospital **

I'm Mechelle, mother of 2 beautiful boys. I attended hypnobirthing classes due to my not-so-good experience with my first child. I had lots of things going on with my first birth, like pain relief, and a 15 hour labour. I wasn’t planning for epidural, but because of prolonged agony I had it done and I tell you wasn’t the best choice I have made.

My experience through my second labour was very different. Using hypnobirthing I have learnt that using the tools and methods of breathing was really useful to me. Even listening to audios, exercising the breathing techniques was a huge help. I have also been positively thinking that with the help of my body and my baby I will be able to give birth easily, which I did.

On November 24th 2015, it was 5:00am when I woke up – certain that today is the day. I felt like I was calm, I was ready. I even got prepared for breakfast, sent my oldest son to daycare. I said to my husband at that time “I am going in shower now as by the time ill get to hospital ill be giving birth straight away” (bare in mind, I was having surge every 15minutes from 5-to 9am). I finally arrive at the hospital around 10:30am. The nurse said she’ll do a cervix dilation check and see how many cm I am – if I was not at a certain cm she’ll send me back home. My response was I don’t think so, I’m giving birth now. But I let her do her thing and she quickly rush me through the delivery room as she didn’t want me to birth in the hallway.

She said to me “how can you still be smiling, looking great, and not drastically looking horribly in pain when you are about to give birth”? I said I’m doing hypnobirthing, so she sent me to a midwife that’s understand hypnobirths. During the birth I almost lost track and I’m about to scream, but thankfully the midwife kept talking to me to keep listening to my audio and do my breathing. At exactly 12:55pm I give birth to a beautiful boy and thanks to the hypnobirthing techniques it was a calm and easy birth, unlike my first.

Thankyou to Laura for introducing me to this method.

** Taj Bloomer - 23rd December 2015 - 3.91kg - Fiona Stanley Hospital **

When Zoe and I found out we were pregnant we were really excited. After a couple of weeks she came home saying she has being looking into Hypnobirthing. I was quite skeptical at first, having never heard of it. I was like “Okay…what is it?” Zoe had done her research obviously knowing what my reaction was going to be!! Really I didn’t want to do much away from the normal as was our first baby and in uncharted territory. Once she went through it, I realised its not that bad. “After all, you are the one that has to go through it, I’m just a support role for you. So look into it and I’ll do whatever makes you happy and easier for you.”

While Zoe was in labour I felt pretty calm. It was our first child and my first birthing experience so I had no idea of what was considered normal and exactly what was going to happen. Zoe was unreal and she really wanted to met our little man, so she was in the zone. My role then was just to act as support and do whatever she needs to get through the labour. Obviously as things started getting more intense, Zoe would begin to slip a little, that’s where I would come in and use the techniques taught to me during the Hypnobirthing training, I was successfully able to re-focus Zoe!

In our particular case, the techniques we found most useful were the CD’s on rotation playing in the background off her laptop, the lavender spray every so often in the air and when she really needed a refocus, the light touch with the count down back from 40 really helped aswell. I think the main thing is, there are times when your partner will freak a little but you as the birthing partner just need to remain calm, stay quite firm in talking to her and use whatever techniques you need to re-focus her. Stay positive and keep the cheat sheet at close proximity so you can refer to it for help if needed. But just stay positive and always relay a calmness to your partner even if your racing on the inside!! After all, she does look in discomfort from time to time and that’s obviously not easy to just sit by and watch. But I felt in Zoe biggest moments of support, if she looked at me being calm, positive and supportive, then she relaxed and calmed quickly and was able to refocus!!

On the whole, Zoe was amazing. She was that focused and determined that she could have almost done most of it by herself! She had done a lot of research into the Hypnobirthing techniques before hand and could focus herself quite easy. It made my job quite simple. Just be there when she needed it. In between surges she could relay to me which techniques were really helping her and which were not as effective. So then I could use the effective ones the next time a surge came along!! That’s the key, constantly re-enforce her and ask her what’s working and what’s not. It is my opinion that without using Hypnobirthing, Zoe would have definitely needed more pain relief. As it was, she only used gas and air to help her out. Zoe really wanted a water birth, but as we were induced this was unable to happen. But the Hypnobirthing was able to help Zoe adapt to the changes with ease and move along with the labour!!

I would definitely and have already recommended Hypnobirthing to other couples who are pregnant. In fact, a bloke from work said to me the other day, my Mrs is looking at this weird Hypnobirthing stuff, sounds weird to me!! I was like, mate me and Zoe just went through a Hypnobirth and began telling him about it. He knew nothing about it and then after our chat, he was like, “oh that’s not as bad as I thought, actually sounds pretty good!!” Especially when I explained the terminology and the reasoning behind it. That really makes sense. And definitely makes for a more relaxed and calm approach to child birth! The problem is, mostly only hear of the horror stories with child birth, and to be honest, only after doing the Hypnobirthing experience had I ever really seen women going through child birth relatively pain free and with little to no discomfort.

You don’t see that in the everyday representation of child birth. And for them reasons alone, I would recommend Hypnobirthing. We will definitely use the same techniques for baby number 2.

** Navannah Rose Schulze-Slob - 18th September 2015 - - Armadale Health Service **

At 10.30 on the night before my estimated due date I went to the toilet before bed and while sitting there I felt a pop and a small trickle. We headed to the maternity ward to get checked out. When we got there they confirmed my waters had broken and I was 2-3cm dilated.

We got back home about midnight and as soon as we got there my surges started and were intense. I was feeling them through my back and my most comfortable position was on all fours or leaning over with Scott putting pressure on my lower back. We tried to time my surges however they were irregular, anywhere from 45 seconds to 2 minutes apart and in length. It was relentless so we called the labour ward who said to stay at home as long as possible but I wasn’t comfortable so we headed in about 4am.

Upon examination I was 7cm dilated so they called my midwife and filled the birth pool. By the time it was ready, Jodie was there. After a bit in the pool I felt my body start pushing. It was the strangest feeling to have no control over such an intense action but with Scott reminding me to relax and breathe deeply, I went with it, though did make some really weird noises !! At one point I decided I couldn’t do it… I wanted it to stop and I wanted out !! Scott made me focus on him, told me what I needed to hear and the next thing I knew she was crowning. I told Jodie I could feel her hair and continued to try to breathe my baby down. She remained in the same position for about 10 minutes and the midwives were concerned she’d become distressed so they got me out of the pool and onto the bed. I had been pushing slowly however when they told me they’d need to give me an episiotomy if she didn’t come out in the next push, I knew I’d rather tear so pushed with everything I had. 2 pushes and her head was out. Another and she was on my chest, Calm and perfect! I had no tearing and felt on top of the world! We went home that afternoon.

I feel so lucky to have had such amazing support which allowed me to have an amazing birth.

Laura from True Focus Hypnobirthing gave me the tools to have such a positive experience. The knowledge, breathing techniques, visualisations and affirmations were absolutely invaluable. It was never about everything going perfectly to plan and I truly was prepared for any direction my birth took thanks to Laura and Hypnobirthinh! Also, And maybe even more importantly, for giving Scott the knowledge to best support me. The awesome midwife who took care of us on the day – Jodie, who supported and advocated for us and our wishes without jeopardising bubs or my health. And most importantly Scott – I couldn’t have done it without his support and focus! I am one lucky girl to have such an amazing husband and now a beautiful daughter!

** Preston Bavaro - 15th August 2015 - 3.06 kg - Family Birth Centre **

Before completing the hypnobirthing sessions with Laura, I didn't know anything about it. Over the four weeks, I learnt how to support my wife during labour by keeping her focused o relaxation through tools like massage, breathing and visualisations. As a result, everything fell into plan during the birth of our son. When my wife felt overwhelmed by the intensity of her contractions, I was confident n my ability to help her through them. As a result, the labour was short and drug free. I will forever be grateful to Laura for sharing these tools with us. She was down to earth, clear and knowledgeable, and open to answering the millions of questions we both threw at her during the sessions.

** Alice - 26th December 2014 - - Royal Women's Hospital Melbourne **

I had many fears coming into the birth of my baby girl Alice. We knew that she would be taken away from me within minutes after birth. She would be taken to another hospital where she would have to have open heart surgery to correct a heart defect, which we knew about during pregnancy. We knew she would be in the ICU for two weeks. We knew that being in Melbourne away from family and any support person would be difficult. I knew having to deliver with my 14 month old child in the room would be difficult and not being able to have my husband help me through my birth as he was holding my child would be distressing too.

I also knew having to be induced due to the medical reasons wouldn’t be natural and would also cause fear. My other daughter Ruby was induced and it was a horrible birthing experience. No pain relief or guidance of it. Ruby became stuck on the way out and had shoulder dystocia. It took me weeks to recover as I had countless stitches and was damaged as they tried to help my girl birth. She was in the ICU for a few days after that. Because of that experience I didn’t think I would be able to birth with confidence again. This is where Laura came in. She introduced me to hypnobirthing.

My birth with Alice was completely different. I used the rainbow mist CD while birthing. I was given the gel at 11.00am, contractions started at 2.00pm. I was able to go eat lunch and play with my daughter through the surges. I was excited with every surge as I knew baby was coming. My waters were broken at 8.30pm. Within 10 mins I felt the surges change. I got onto the bed and prepared for the birth. Being a high risk baby there were lots of nurses and midwives around. My daughter was playing but yet that 2.5 hours seem to escape me. With each surge I would sit up and do my long breathing, thinking of the sea and the waves, see it through and lay back and go back into my relaxed state. At 10.30 I was 4cm. At 11.20 the surges changed again. The pain started. The fear started. As the pain increased I couldn’t control my breathing as well and asked for the gas. We had it at 40 percent.

At 11.30 the midwife said I was 10cm and it was okay to start pushing. As I did my first push I imagined seeing her hair as I would be opening up. The pain seemed not to distract me any more. The second push the midwife told me to stop. So I did. The third push I imagined her head, shoulders and body coming out. They did! She was born. Within those two pushes I was now holding my baby.

They cut the cord. I was amazed. I had done it! They did take her within than min but I wasn’t stressed out as I knew I had done all I could to start her life off the best way. Once she was rushed away I listened to the tranquil chambers CD. Not needing any gas whilst they stitched me up. I recovered within days. After my girl was out if ICU we tried breastfeeding. She took to it straight away.

I thank the affirmations CD for that. I would constantly say those phrases while expressing. My story is not like most other hypnobirthing stories but neither were my circumstances. Overall though, a successful birth story!