Hey Hannah!
Thought I would just touch base and let you know that we welcomed our beautiful baby girl, 'Maeve Goldie' into the world a few weeks ago!
My estimated due date was the 7th, so she ended up arriving 41 weeks and 6 days. I had a great pregnancy and felt really well all the way up to the end.
If it weren’t for hypnobirthing, I’m not sure that we would have waited that long for Maeve to arrive, and we are so glad that we did. I had a strong feeling that she wasn’t ready & needed longer & hypnobirthing gave us the knowledge and confidence to ask the relevant questions around induction & if it was necessary.
Luckily, we had the most amazing midwife in the MGP & she fully supported us waiting beyond the ‘10 days over’ time frame. She suggested we head into hospital around this time and do a big check just to make sure everything looked good and healthy, which it did! We definitely didn’t feel the same support from the Dr in hospital who made us feel quite uneasy about not being induced and even printed out a study from Sweden about the risks of waiting until 42 weeks. Our midwife reminded us that it is our choice and that we shouldn’t feel bullied into it and that we were making an informed choice, not taking a huge risk. After a bit of back and fourth, we decided to be induced, but to wait another few days.
I was anxious about induction as I really wanted to do everything naturally and without intervention but it actually ended up being great.
The midwife broke my waters at 8am and agreed to give me some time before oxytocin. By 12:30pm, contractions were very mild so I had the oxytocin drip. By 2pm contractions were getting intense and by 4pm I was in active labour. Around 5pm I started using a tens machine and absolutely loved it. I think clicking the START and STOP helped me psychologically as there was a beginning and an end to every contraction and I knew rest was coming after the click. I didn’t even think about asking for any pain relief, it just didn’t cross my mind once. The midwife hadn’t checked dilation since the morning so at 8pm she got me on the bed and said, “what would you be happy with?” I was thinking 6cm and she said, “you’re 10cm Claire, baby isn’t far away!” They set me up a mattress on the floor and I flopped over a fitball (kind of like on all 4s position) holding onto Lee, then pushed little Maeve out at 9:10pm. My student midwife caught her and she was amazing too - we truly had the best experience with MGP. I had a few tears so a couple stitches but then was able to go home 4 hours later and get a decent sleep in our own bed!
In the months leading up to labour I listened to both Rainbow Mist & Surge of the sea daily which I loved (they really helped me sleep!) I played the affirmations regularly and had the cards around my house. I went into labour feeling really strong and confident in my body’s ability.
Music played a huge part in setting the tone for my labour! I had 2x playlists - one for calming/relaxing and creating a peaceful atmosphere through contractions and then one that I got Lee to put on for the last hour while I was pushing and that had powerful, uplifting songs on it. I could not imagine not having music on the whole time - it was essential for me!
During contractions I consciously thought about ‘flopping’ my body and having a relaxed face - this really helped. I found a lot of comfort in having Lee close to me the whole time and he used soft & anchor touch a lot. He used some of the affirmations too and the one that really helped me mentally was “every surge is bringing our baby closer to us”. I thought I would be more vocal through labour but was very quiet and really went within the find the strength. The midwife seemed very surprised when she checked me at 10cm!
Overall, I had a really great experience and am so happy with how pregnancy and labour went. I’m very grateful to have had the midwife we did as well as so glad we did hypnobirthing.
Maeve is an absolute chiller and we are loving our newborn bubble. We’ve had a few challenges with feeding but getting better and better as we go.
Thank you for running a fantastic course and for being so passionate about what you do. I am loving following you on Instagram too, thank you for all the info!
Thanks, Claire
Birth story and photos shared with permission.