A Positive Induction Hypnobirthng Birth Story
I’d like to share with you the story of Archies birth. My husband Tom and I met fairly late on in life – nothing quite pans out the way you think it will when you are 21 after all.
I was 36 and he was 37 and of course thinking about or trying for children when you have just met is really not on the cards. It was a couple of years later when we were living together and enjoying our freedom and nights out, weekends away together etc that we thought we should be getting on with it.
I always wondered if I would be able to get pregnant as I have poly-cystic ovaries and although have no real symptoms, I couldn’t be sure that I was ovulating regularly. I did seek help from the GP and alternative therapies to regulate my cycle but was always told that I really wouldn’t know the outcome until we started trying. It could take 2 months or 2 years...well in the end it took 4 years before I conceived at 42 yrs old. After four years of wanting and hoping we had given up hope of ever having our own baby and thought we would adopt. We were ecstatic. We had also just booked a fabulous holiday in South America. Well we still went on holiday, even the wine tasting in Argentina where I watch my husband guzzle my share of the wine – I was by then nearly five months pregnant.
I hadn’t really thought that much about the actual labour up until I was about 5 months and then it really dawned on me that this bump was coming out and my whole reference point and experience of births was what I’d seen on the TV or in films, much like for many others I guess. I just had this nagging feeling that giving birth should be natural and beautiful and not only messy and painful. I believed that my body would do what it was meant to do. I felt strongly that my baby was healthy and would enter this world when he or she was ready. I had not really bargained for the hospital process that we became part of and the fight to have a natural birth.
Different hospitals have their own policies which I could understand and at our local hospital the consultant said to me from fairly early on that I would be inducted at about 39 or most certainly at 40 weeks given my age. The reason given was that after 40 years old, there is some evidence to suggest that the placenta does not work as efficiently after 40 weeks and can start to deteriorate. This could lead to having a still born baby even after having such a healthy pregnancy. I really went into denial at this point, thinking that I would do everything possible to bring my baby into this world by natural remedies if he or she did not make an appearance on its own.
In the meantime I looked into alternatives to induction and read more about hypnobirthing which led me to find the course which we subsequently attended. I just knew that hypnobirthing would help me although at the time I had no clue how. I didn’t even really know what it was but from what I read I thought that deep relaxation could only really help with labour. I attended the hypnobirthing course with my husband and we were both excited about it because we thought that it was something we could really do together and Tom would have an opportunity to participate and share in the actual birth process in some way.
I remember vividly in the first session of the course watching a video of a first time mother giving birth in a birthing pool at home and being moved to tears. I said to our teacher something like: “Wow! I knew that giving birth could be like this...” it was a mixture of excitement and relief. The course really helped bond us as a couple as we had a focus in preparing together for what seemed like the most important moment in our lives. I loved the exercises we did in the class, we both learnt to relax and use self hypnosis to focus our breathing and visualisation to focus our minds. It was great that Tom could join in and experience it all as well. Tom loved learning how to give me light touch massage which he used in my labour consistently and it definitely gave him something to do and helped me no end. The course allowed us to work through our worries and fears about giving birth and most importantly to reshape our thinking about labour and birth. I had received negative messages for most of my life about how painful labour was and how I would probably end up screaming in pain. Reframing my thinking was so valuable and by the time I went into labour my head was definitely in the right place.
I did feel a constant pressure from the hospital about induction and at every appointment I went to after about 30 weeks we had a consultation which focused on induction and me being an older mother. It really didn't help my confidence and I felt as if I was constantly batting the decision away and didn’t want to believe that I would actually be inducted. Finally after thinking things through in detail with Tom I had in my mind a cut off that I would ‘allow’ myself to ‘go over’ my guess date by a week and then agree to induction. I did agree to having sweeps and in the end I had three starting at 38 weeks. Looking back this was way too early and I and the baby weren’t nearly ready at that stage. I did read a lot and looked at stats of older women and labour and the risk of having a still born baby which does increase very slightly as you get older. Having all this information was definitely empowering but I still wasn’t convinced that I should be inducted. It is very hard to stand up to the medical profession in hospital because you do wonder if they know best as they do it all the time plus they tell you straight about the devastating impact a still born baby at full term would be. I did go into induction well informed and having thought through the process endlessly with Tom and weighed up all the pros and cons using the BRAINS tool you showed us we agreed to my induction at 40 weeks plus 3 days. We felt that after all the trying, hoping and waiting for a baby plus the fact that I might be unlikely to conceive again at my age we couldn’t bear any unnecessary risk to the baby. I did feel strongly however that I would work with my body to enable the induction process and that I would not need full induction (the syntocinon drip) and this is in fact what happened.
There was something quite lovely, (maybe it was the certainty), after all the waiting, that I would have my baby in my arms within the next day or two. The day before my induction, Tom and I went for a walk in the sunshine and talked and reminisced about our long and difficult journey and how it was nearly over. On the day of my induction we arrived at the hospital, anxious and excited but definitely ready. I had a final sweep and then two prostaglandin pessary gels, six hours apart and my body and mind took over and we were off. I was most certainly nervous but also very excited and confident that things would be ok. Tom was fantastic and helped me walk up and down the hospital corridors once my surges started. I was told and had read that walking really helps get things going and I knew that if I didn't progress with the gel that I would be pressurised into taking syntocinon. Soon the surges were strong and regular and I was back on the labour ward where my waters broke. All the while I listened to my hypnobirthing affirmations and Tom gave me light touch massage, rubbing oils into my lower back and giving me water to drink. I did have a few puffs of gas and air – about four in total and it made me feel light headed and sick. After vomiting once I thought I could manage very well without pain relief and did not have any more. I did use a tens machine and found it helpful but looking back I found that it was probably a good distraction more than anything else.
My surges lasted six hours in total and I went with everyone of them. I believed my body knew what to do and the techniques I learnt in class allowed me to have confidence in the process and I felt very connected to my body and baby. The midwives were fantastic and we had the hypnobirthing music on while Archie was born. He came into this world slowly and calmly. He didn't breathe straight away and was whisked off to have his airway cleared whereupon he promptly cried and was handed over to Tom initially as I had some post birth shaking. All quite normal I hear. I was soon holding our little boy and we were both in tears as we absorbed the enormity of bringing a little life into this world.
I strongly believe that hypnobirthing helped me to have as natural birth as possible considering that I was inducted. I have no regrets about my labour and I loved learning more about my body and my ability to cope with labour. Tom and I talk fondly about our classes and have recommended hypnobirthing to friends. You can't control what might happen once you go into labour but I believe hynobirthing prepared me to cope with the unexpected by equipping me with information and confidence and connecting me to my body.