I love that Paula has shared her birth with so much detail. Hypnobirthing is an antenatal learning that can prepare you for EVERY type of birth. She sums this up beautifully when she writes 'hypnobirthing is not merely a drug-free vaginal delivery, it is the experience as a whole that you go through.'
This was a good birth. It may have changed path but it was still positive and she will have these memories for a lifetime.
So, over to Paula…

My husband and I undertook your in-person course, just before Christmas last year and I wanted to thank you for the resources and techniques you shared.

I listened to the recordings every night before bed, my favourite being the waves versions and 'My Friend Ran a Long Race...' being the most played. I was actually incredibly excited to give birth, I was keen to see the limitations of my body and how my baby and I would undergo an experience together to meet for the first time. There was no fear, just anticipation.

I was offered inductions from 38 weeks, but I was keen to let my baby decide when she was ready to enter the world, so Richard and I decided together not to interfere with the process.

At 41 + 5, I had a sweep, because at St. Georges, if you are 42 + 1, you cannot go on the Midwife Led unit, which was something I really wanted to do.

That same day, I began to have intense cramps, which they said could happen as a result of the sweep. What I didn't realise was that they were actually contractions (maybe I was in denial), and so I was labouring for a solid 14 hours before I realised they were not cramps, but contractions. Thankfully, Richard was more in tune than I was and had been tracking the timings. We had your recordings and used your breathing techniques and a Tens Machine to get us through to the following morning.

We made our way to the hospital around 6.30 (at this time I was 41 +6) and headed for the Carmen Suite. Thanks to your education, I knew I could choose to have my dilation checked and this was something I refused upon arrival and only opted to do three times throughout the whole experience. I enthusiastically asked for Gas and Air and was excited for some pain relief, until I vomited all over the Triage Room and realised that Hypnobirthing and my TENS machine were my only aids, again based on your course, we had decided together that we would prefer not to have the other pain relief.

My entire pregnancy had been "low risk" and so we began to labour in water, again with your recordings, breathwork and using your mantras. My favourite was to bear in mind that each contraction was one less to meet my baby.

After several hours the midwife suggesting giving the water a break and moving. Around 3pm, my blood pressure spiked and I was moved straight to the Delivery Suite, where I was in a much less spacious room, centered around a bed and hooked up continuously to machines for the next few hours. This made moving difficult and breathwork and mantras were what got me through (at this point, I think I stopped being able to hear recordings!)

I developed severe hypertension (which at the time they thought was pre-eclampsia) and my blood pressure became the focus of the next few hours. The Team couldn't get it down, using oral labetalol and nifedipine. Around 7pm, I was offered an epidural as a way to try and lower blood pressure. At this point, neither Richard nor I had slept in 36 hours and sheer exhaustion was a factor in my agreement. The team at George's were fantastic and the epidural was administered almost immediately.

Around 21.30, after a shift change, the new team advised that the baby was on OP position and as I'd been at 9cm for several hours, some kind of intervention would be needed. They offered oxytocin and an unplanned c-section. From your course, we had decided beforehand that if it came down to that choice, we would elect to have a c-section.

We were given an hour or so to sleep and prepped for theatre at some point around 23.00. Again, the team were fantastic and 3.8kg of Emmeline was delivered at 23.48 on 21st April, 12 minutes off being two full weeks overdue. Our decision to go with a c-section was the right one as the surgeon stated that based on her position, the oxytocin drip would not have been successful.

This has been a incredibly long e-mail and I apologise, but I wanted to let you know that your teachings were truly our North Star as we went through the process. So many people said afterwards that they were so sorry I didn't get to have a hypnobirth, to which I have replied that I did, hypnobirthing is not merely a drug-free vaginal delivery, it is the experience as a whole that you go through. The preparation and the mindset has left me with a really positive memory of what could be objectively viewed as an incredibly difficult labour.

Anyway, I've wanted to let you know for such a long time how big an impact you had on the most important day o our lives and how fondly we look upon the experience as a result.

I hope everything is going well and we might see each other again in a few years for baby number two!