Hi Hannah,
Josh and I did your hypnobirthing course and welcomed our second baby boy, weighing 4.06kg. He was 11 days overdue and induced in the end, which we weren't expecting given our first son was born on his due date. In terms of having an induction, it was not the birth I was hoping for, but feel I was able to manage as well as I did with a lot of the skills and knowledge from your course.
At 41+2 days, few things changed quite quickly for me. My MGP midwife went into quarantine, so was guaranteed to miss the birth, and my cervix was still very posterior so the stretch and sweep I wanted, couldn't be done. Also, our little boy's head was to the right side of the pelvis. So I agreed for the balloon catheter induction to start the following day. In hindsight, I should have put the induction off for a couple more days, because I hadn't fully accepted that this was now the birth path I was going down. That said, I feel really lucky to have had another great MGP midwife deliver my baby. She was a great support of my feelings and helped manage the hospital pressure to continue with an ARM and then Syntocinon as quickly as they wanted. Also, the Obstetrician was very respectful and empathetic, and did a hypnosis with me when they did the ARM. I know I definitely could have had a worse experience there!
Although I delayed the Syntocinon for about 8 hours, my contractions didn't progress much until I agreed to start with 12ml. Our baby was then born 1 hour later! I got through the birth with your affirmations, hypnobirthing tracks, a playlist of favourite songs, LOTS of massage and support from Josh, and nitrous oxide for the last 15 minutes or so. I had also done some OMP in the lead up, which I think successfully moved his head to a central position the day before he was born, although he didn't engage until being born. Most of the birth was on all fours on the floor. It took his shoulders a little longer to come out, but as soon as I changed to a lunge position, he was born. He needed some oxygen and was checked over by a paediatrician, but was with me for skin on skin after 15 minutes and stayed with me after that.
The hour with the syntocinon was incredibly intense and a completely different experience to my first birth where my labour started spontaneously and steadily progressed over 9 hours. But in the end, I feel like I managed it well and have a beautiful and thriving little boy who is feeding really well. At 2 weeks old he has 500g on top of his birth weight and we are very happy.
Thanks for all the resources you provided us during the course and online. It was all really helpful!
Andrea and Josh.
Photos and birth story shared with permission.