Alexandra’s fab birth story!

Alex and Harry’s inspiring and interesting birth story. She was allowed to push for 3 hours. Normally the baby would have been “extracted” with ventouse or forceps in this situation but Violet was such a calm hypnobaby, showing no signs of distress. These babies can hear my voice in the womb!

“On Tuesday afternoon I started feeling uncomfortable in (what I thought was) my bladder and assuming I had a UTI, went in to Homerton to get antibiotics. When they tested me for it, I showed no signs. Midwife offered me a sweep (I was 5 days overdue) and I thought I might as well. Turns out I was 2cm dilated!

So I went home, relaxed in front of Netflix and waited for things to happen! Had ‘a show’ at about 5pm. Mild surges started around 1am on Weds morn so Harry put on the scripts and encouraged me to try and sleep. Managed to get some sleep until surges started getting stronger. It took me a while to get in to ‘the zone’ and I was trying really hard to focus on the scripts but realised I didn’t have to and just let them play in the background – as Jo had previously said ‘your body will know what to do’ and it did! I got into the rhythm whilst Harry gave me light touch massage.

At around 6:30am my waters broke and we made our way to Homerton. I stuck my headphones in for the taxi ride which thankfully helped keep my focus as having contractions whilst going over speed bumps was not pleasant!! We got to triage and had to wait what felt like a very long time! I started to lose concentration and was getting frustrated but Harry just kept telling me to relax and focus on the scripts (still had headphones in). In fact, headphones were essential!!

After about an hour the midwife examined me and said I was 4cm dilated and we were taken to our amazing birthing suite in the birth centre. We set ourselves up and got told my next examination would be at 12 – by this point (it was 8am) I had a little wobble as surges were coming fast and strong and I was feeling them mainly in my back (but baby wasn’t posterior) so couldn’t imagine how I could carry on like that for 4hrs until next examination!

Harry kept reassuring me I could do it and he was just amazing – massaging my lower back and reminding me to ‘relax’. I had a shower for about 2hrs which really helped the back pain. I tried gas and air but it made me sick so I just focused on balloon breathing and kept telling myself that I would have a little baby at the end of all this! I found the birthing affirmations really helped at this point. Before I knew it, it was midday so midwife examined me – I was 8cm and I could get in the birth pool! Hearing this news made me so happy and confident that I was nearly there and could do it! Jo those words ‘you can do it, you know you can’ are so powerful!

By 2pm I was fully dilated and my body started pushing. This was the toughest part as I was pushing (with the help of birth breathing) for 3hrs! I think they let me carry on as Baby’s heart rate was steady and they knew I wanted a water birth. However after 2hrs they got me out of the pool (in hindsight they should have got me out sooner!) and I got in to leaping frog position on the bed with Harry supporting me. At 5pm our lovely little Lettie (Violet) was born and I felt euphoric!

I could not have done it without Hypnobirthing – Jo’s soothing voice and tinkly music were with us all the way – Thank you Jo!”