I really enjoyed reading Elisabeth’s birth story. She put in the reading, learning and preparation that meant when her baby arrived before the midwife she and her husband were absolutely prepared.
Her first birth was very much the standard birth experience for many, by taking the lead on her birth planning she really got to experience something quite special.
Over to Elisabeth…

Experience leading up:

My previous birth three years earlier was your typical hospital birth. Epidural, coached pushing, and not a great experience. Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely the best experience I could have had in a hospital, I’ve actually never heard of a hospital birth as smooth as mine, so I was definitely blessed there, but as I was pregnant and preparing to have baby number two I knew I wanted a totally different experience. 

I followed some Facebook groups and Instagram accounts to get an idea of what I needed to learn about and research surrounding birth. With my first I had the mindset surrounding pregnancy and birth of ‘I don’t even want to know, just take care of it for me’, so even though I had been through it all before, there was a lot of relearning to do. My favorite online resources I stumbled across were Instagram and Better Birth Stories’ Facebook group. 

I made the decision at 24 weeks to switch from my hospital midwife (medwife) who I had used for my first to a homebirth. Instantly I had so much peace and knew I’d made the right decision! I got Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and read it every evening. I researched and read everything I could and watched/read as many natural homebirths as I could find, and at one point when I went to my sister in laws house to watch her kids while she went to the hospital to have her own baby I remember thinking as I was driving that if she went into labor and couldn’t make it to the hospital I could deliver her baby because I knew what to do. That didn’t happen lol, but that was the kind of confidence I had.

At 35 weeks I still hadn’t looked into hypnobirthing, but I’d already decided I wanted to give it a try, I’m just a horrible procrastinator. I was also a bit skeptical about anything to do with hypnotizing, and didn’t know if that’s what it entailed but wanted to look into it and see if it was something I was okay with. I purchased the course from Better Birth Stories (the group convinced me to go with that one, I was aware of several and this one I’d already read lots of birth stories and it was also the most affordable) and went through it every evening! I even made my husband watch several videos with me. I was fully comfortable with it and felt prepared.

Birth:

I finally went into labor at 40 weeks four days, which is exactly the same as my first birth which I thought was funny! I woke up at 5am with contractions and they slowly progressed til at about 10:30am we had my son go to grandmas house and my husband started filling the birthing pool. I didn’t really want it yet, but I wasn’t sure how long it might take to set up so I figured it would be worth doing now while I still felt good. 

I hadn’t done anything hypnobirthing yet, other then the deep breathing I’d learned to get through the contractions. I had a bunch of stuff planned to use as I needed it, especially saving playlists and such for transition. What I was doing now during each contraction was breathing deeply while swaying. Each deep inhale I pictured my cervix rising and melting away and each exhale I pictured baby settling down. I didn’t realize til after, but this was the best thing I could have done, because I was breathing baby down with every breath for hours! When I breathed like this, focusing on what I wanted it to do in my body, I can truly say the contractions weren’t painful. If I got distracted or was trying to think of something else they were absolutely horrible, but when I cleared my mind and focused I was totally fine.

My midwife had said to call her back when the contractions got more intense and I was thinking we might be getting close to that point, but I was still going about normal life between contractions and they were anywhere from 6-8 minutes apart so I didn’t want to have her come too early and just be hanging out with nothing to do for hours and hours. My first birth was 24 hours of early labor and 16 hours of active labor, I felt like I was just getting into active labor so I figured I’d have another few hours before it was go time. 

Around 11:30 I went to the bathroom and lost the last of my mucus plug and this time it had fresh blood in it, so when I came out I told my husband I thought things were about to get intense and it was probably close to time for the midwife to start getting ready to come. Little did I know I would have a baby in my arms in about two minutes.

I almost immediately had a contraction and suddenly got very emotional that the birthing tub wasn’t full yet (??) lol. Looking back this was transition… in one contraction. It suddenly was so intense I tried to stay focused on the hypnobirthing and breathing and everything but my mind was racing cuz it was so sudden. Husband watched me for a sec and immediately grabbed my phone and called the midwife (maybe I told him to? I don’t really remember). I had another contraction back to back without a break in between and my water broke, I started feeling the pressure that I figured might be crowning and said something along the lines of ‘she’s coming’ or ‘I can feel her’. He ended the phone call with the midwife saying ‘HURRY’ and hung up on her (lol looking back we think that’s hilarious).

He tried to reassure me and told me after the contraction let up we were going to quickly get in the tub for some relief. I didn’t think I could but I don’t think I was able to say that. I had a third contraction with no break again and FER kicked in and baby was born! No pushing, no thought on my part. I had already been doing the work slowly and baby was already there and ready. Husband had thankfully grabbed a towel when my water broke and he caught her. Sort of. Lol she flew out so fast he kinda dropped her lol but I was on my knees so she was already pretty much on the floor anyway!  We called back the midwife (she hadn’t even made it out of the driveway yet lol) who picked up the phone to a baby crying nicely and my husband saying ’sooo… we have a baby…’ took her another 20 minutes to get there lol. The midwives came and helped with the placenta and everything afterwards! At that point I was just numb and ready to be done and rest! They asked my husband if he wanted to cut the cord and he said, ‘nah, I’ve done enough.’

We love the way her birth turned out! It was one of those things deep down I always wanted it to work out that way, but kept telling myself ’no, you probably don’t’, but we totally wouldn’t change it for anything! Lol it was great! And such a good experience for us to share as husband and wife too!

I can honestly say I’m excited to do it again! I dread the actual pregnancy more then giving birth again. 

It’s going to be so special to tell her about her birth once she’s older, and especially when she’s having her own babies. I highly recommend homebirth and hypnobirthing practices for every woman who can! It’s so special and has deeply changed both me and my husband. I will never go back and will share how special birth can be with everyone who will listen!

Want to learn hypnobirthing with us?

Don’t forget that we have a full Online Antenatal Hypnobirthing Class that you can follow in your own time anywhere around the world. It is only £39/$49.
The Online Hypnobirthing Course

We also teach antenatal hypnobirthing classes in London in person with our One Day Group Hypnobirthing Class.
In-person Antental Hypnobirthing Group Class

If you’d rather prepare for your labour and birth solo with Melanie you can do so in the privacy of your own home in person if you live in London or via the Zoom platform wherever you are around the globe.
Private Antenatal Hypnobirthing Classes