It’s been a few weeks since I gave birth to my second child, Annabelle. From around 34 weeks I was told she was head down and having had a c-section with my son, Angus, because he was breech, I was delighted that I was going to be able to give birth naturally using all the hypnobirthing techniques I’d relearned this time around.

Things, of course, did not go quite to plan. My waters broke at 5pm and surges started properly around 7pm. I stayed at home until 2am and found the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 relaxation exercise particularly useful.

When we arrived at the hospital I was told I was 5cm dilated and that baby was back to back. Which explained the intensity of the surges – not at all like what I’d experienced last time.

What followed was requests from me for the birthing pool (which I was told was still broken unfortunately), a heat pack, then gas and air then eventually Remifentanil. I was able to get to 10cm on just gas and air, but by that point Annabelle had turned 90 degrees and gotten a bit stuck.

Eventually, the decision was taken that I should have a spinal and forceps to help turn baby the last 90 degrees. This is exactly what happened and from there I was able to birth Annabelle myself in two surges.

In the days following Annabelle’s birth, I got mastitis, ended up back in the hospital because I was bleeding heavily again, got a dental infection and then we both got thrush. Again, nothing like my experience with Angus, which I realise now was a breeze! Add to all of this the fact that I really struggled to come to terms with the labour and birthing experience this time round – I was so determined to have a relaxed, natural birth and I felt like a failure when it didn’t go to plan.

Having had a few weeks to reflect on all of this, I realise that I didn’t fail. I brought a human into the world. That can’t be a failure. And having spoken to my husband Craig, he tells me that despite being pretty out of it (ladies, Jade was right – birth breathing teamed with gas and air creates quite the trip!!) as soon as he started any of the relaxation scripts, he could see me tune in and saw my body immediately relax. Also, all of the stuff post birth, particularly the pain during feeding, I’ve found much easier to manage with the help of the hypnobirthing breathing exercises. And as soon as I relaxed, so did Annabelle.

I cannot recommend hypnobirthing enough. The tools and skills you learn are invaluable during pregnancy, labour and post birth. They even come in handy when dealing with a two year old! Expectant parents, give Jade a call – you will not regret it.

Thank you Alison for sharing your story with us!

If you’re interested in joining our Hypnobirthing classes, click here to see what’s currently available for booking.