I have recently received this lovely message from Alana. She and her partner Manny attended one of my group HypnoBirthing classes, and this is a summary of their darling boy Levi's birth.


Hi Jo,
Manny and I had a baby boy on the 15th of October. Little Levi is doing really well and we are so in love!

I ended up being induced 12 days over my due date. They gave me cervidil, then after a long wait of almost 24 hours they broke my waters. I was 1cm dilated, and after 7 hours they suggested that I have an epidural to see if it might relax things and help move them along.

Levi was posterior so I was having surges in my back as well. They checked me a few hours after having the epidural and I was 3cm dilated with some swelling on my cervix. Levi was still doing well but they suggested having a C-section as they were worried that he might become distressed.

So we decided to go ahead with that and Levi was born via C-section. I felt like the breathing techniques really helped me to get where I did.

When given information and suggestions we felt empowered to ask questions, and to ask for time to see if things would progress on their own. I also used to calm breathing throughout the C-section when I felt like I wasn't in control!

Doing HypnoBirthing really helped Manny through the process as well! He was really amazing, and was a great birthing companion utilising information and techniques that we learned during our classes.

Thanks for everything.

* Thank you so much to Alana, Manny and Levi for allowing me to share their birthing story*

I am so excited to share our birthing story with you. Looking back on the day our little man arrived, I feel so proud of what my body was able to do. Completing your hypnobirthing course made me feel confident as we approached our birthing day and now I am amazed at how strong I felt both physically and mentally during labour and post birth.

On Tuesday morning I woke with a period like cramp and said to David that this might be the start of labour! We both laughed it off, he went to work and I got ready for the day. I had to go to the shops to get a few things done and then was meeting my mum and sister for lunch. During this time I continued to have period like cramps and didn’t think to much of it.

At lunch I mentioned these cramps to my mum and she thought it could be the start of labour and that I should be timing them. When I went home I begun timing them and they were not consistent ranging from 40 - 14 minutes apart. I decided that it wasn’t labour and stopped timing them.

David arrived home and I told him about the cramps, we had our dinner and went off to bed. I couldn’t sleep and felt as though the cramps were happening more frequently, so at 2:00am we put on a movie and David started timing the cramps again. During the movie they became more regular ranging from 10 - 7 minutes apart, there were a few cramps that I had to focus on my breathing, but mostly they would come and go with ease. After the movie finished, I went to the bathroom and noticed I had a birth show.

At this point we contacted our midwife and told her that I had had a birth show and that the surges were 6-8 minutes apart. The midwife said that we could stay at home longer or if we wanted to head in they were ready for us to arrive. I decided that we should head in, I wasn’t convinced that this was labour and I wanted someone to confirm that our baby was actually on its way.

During the car ride to the hospital, we had the birthing affirmations playing and I had 4 more surges, which were becoming more intense and I was having to really focus on my breathing. We arrived at the hospital and as I was walking down the hallway I felt my membranes release.

In the birthing suite, the midwife asked me to hop on the bed for an examination which I refused to do as I felt the need to start breathing my baby down. David informed the nurse I wanted a water birth, but I no longer felt like getting in the water. I was helped by David to get on the bed into a kneeling position and started to breath my baby down. David asked the midwife if things were moving quickly, which she replied with “have a look, we can see the baby’s head.”. David put on the Rainbow Relaxation for me to listen to and he begun the light touch massage. I wasn’t enjoying the massage and asked David to do it with a cold wet flannel and not his hands which was much more effective. I had prepared some posters with the birthing affirmations, although things were moving very quickly and we did not have time to put them up. As I was breathing my baby down I was staring at a particular spot on the wall thinking it was the perfect spot for one of my posters.

My main birthing preference was to receive our baby myself. After being at the hospital for only 45 minutes, the midwife guided me in receiving our little surprise gender baby boy, Harry. It was the most empowering moment of my life, birthing my baby with no medical intervention, in a calm and loving environment. The nurses estimated that the labour length was approximately 4.45 hours, a very speedy labour!

Little Harry was immediately skin on skin with me and he begun feeding shortly after. Unfortunately I had a third degree tear and needed to go to theatre. I handed Harry over to David, who knew the importance of skin on skin and spent the next few hours cuddling our little boy. I had expressed some colostrum, which David was able to feed to Harry, whilst I was gone.

Throughout the whole labour both David and I felt confident and prepared. We are so grateful that we completed the hypnobirthing course, as we were able to welcome our baby into the world without fear, but with love. Watching the videos of other couples giving birth during our sessions showed me that having a calm birth was possible and that is how I visualised bringing our baby into the world.

Thanks again from the both of us.

Congratulations Kait, David and Harry and thank you so much for sharing your birthing story xx

Last Sunday the 26th of August we woke up around 8am and as I got out of bed I felt a warm trickle run down my leg. I put a pad on for an hour or so to monitor the leakage and sure enough it was my waters.

I phoned the midwife and she said I had to come in to the hospital as I tested positive on the strep B test. I was a little taken aback at this stage as I knew I would probably have to be induced and this was not in our birth plan. Regardless of this news I stayed positive and was excited to venture to the hospital.

I was getting small niggles here and there on the way. They checked the fluid on my pad and confirmed that it was in fact my waters. A cannula was inserted and I was given antibiotics for precaution.

At around 5pm the syntocinon drip was started. My husband Liam had only begun to set up the room with tealight candles and a soothing playlist in the background. Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to use our essential oils, bath or tens machine. I felt intense surges almost immediately and sat on the toilet for 2 hours. I felt safe, comfortable and at ease in this space.

The midwife checked me soon after and I was already fully dilated! I owe this to the HypnoBirthing techniques that you taught us. I used both my calm and surge breaths and also the blowing up a balloon visualisation.

I was moved to the bed to start pushing and I tried to breathe down my baby. This was more difficult than I had anticipated, so instead I visualised baby moving down. This helped immensely. Positive affirmations filled my head like 'I can work with my body' and 'my body was made to do this'.

After 2 hours of pushing, my baby's head crowned. My husband got to pull her out, announce the sex and place her on my chest. Within 5 hours little Indie was here. She was so calm, no crying and grabbed my finger straight away.

I feel so empowered and happy thinking about my labour and am so so proud that I birthed my baby without any pain relief. Thanks to our sessions with you, I felt informed, fearless, excited and confident. The strategies that you taught us were invaluable and I have continued to use them on my breastfeeding journey.


Thank you to Shari, Liam and Indigo for sharing their story xxx

(Photo and story shared with permission)

Labour is just one day in my life i kept thinking to myself as the period cramping started Wednesday afternoon. The surges brought both excitement and slight fear of the unknown-am I ready for this?

By the evening the surges became much stronger and my mind became focused on meeting our little baby for the first time knowing this was it! I asked my partner to apply the TENs machine at 1am which brought some relief but by 4am the surges were much stronger and felt different. By this stage i was more focused when listening to the rainbow affirmations.

We called our midwife and made our way slowly into hospital by 8am. In the car I started to feel bowel pressure but remained in a deep relaxed trance while listening to the rainbow affirmations track. This track was played on repeat for many hours and kept me so calm. In the shower and bath I was involuntary pushing for 45mins but started to feel intense constant pubic bone pain. By this stage i couldnt tell what was a surge and what was pubic bone pain. I was 7cm with a thickened cervix. I requested an epidural for relief.

After a further 6hrs I slowly dilated to 10cm and with a dense epidural managed to push our little boy out direct OP. Our midwife was very surprised as she and the doctors did not think this was the case. Without hypnobirthing my self determination and deep state of relaxation would not have occurred. Our birth could have ended in an emergency cesarean or forceps for obstructing but I trusted in myself. I let my body do what it needed to do while I kept my mind calm.

I know, this is the most commonly given piece of advice and I used to want to slap whoever said it to me. But....it’s true. It is so important for new mums to rest and catch up on sleep.

My first baby, Max, was (and still is) a terrible sleeper and I’d have to hold him for all of his naps or walk him in the pram. I had many people offer to hold/walk him so I could nap and it took me AGES to agree. But once I did, it was heavenly!

My 87 year old Grandma would come over and take Max for a walk so I could nap. She even brought lunch for when I woke up!

Thank you to everyone who offered, and kept offering, until I accepted!

As I mentioned in point number 1, I am terrible at accepting help. I am a type A personality who is very independent and ‘can do it all’. However, when you have a baby you don’t have to do it all, and there is nothing wrong or shameful about accepting help.

Please, if someone offers assistance just give them a list of jobs to do!

I found myself getting stressed about cleaning. I couldn’t put Max down long enough to clean anything properly and the house was getting messier, which added to my anxiety. My husband eventually agreed to getting a cleaner and she was the best thing ever!

But you don’t have to wait for someone to offer assistance. Please don’t be afraid to say ‘hey I need some help’. There will be people who have wanted to help but didn’t know how.

You will probably be inundated with friends/family wanting to come and see the baby (and you). This is the perfect time say that they are welcome to visit, but can they please bring some groceries/a hot meal/do some washing for you whilst they are there.

This is one of the best kitchen appliances for a family with a new baby!

One of you can prepare the meal during baby’s first nap - chop meat, vegetables and add the sauce.

You then just need to set it to ‘low’ heat and your dinner will be ready in 6-8 hours!

We had so many slow cooker meals when Max was young. The bonus is that you can fill the slow cooker bowl so it will make dinner for two days, plus some lunches and possibly enough to go in the freezer.

The supermarket has many ‘ready to use’ sauces that you can add straight in, or you can find a variety of receipes online.

I still haven’t done this yet, but I’ve been told that you can also cook porridge and desserts in the slow cooker. Bonus!!

At around 1am, the pressure in my pelvis was really intense and I was having difficulty keeping my muscles relaxed and focusing on my breathing. After chatting to my husband, and having another good cry, I decided to have an epidural.  I knew that I needed more help, but I was petrified of having the epidural, and I was scared that it would increase my chance of having a caesarean section.

The anaesthetist came around 2am and inserted the epidural. It was very hard to sit still so I focused on my affirmations and doing my calm breaths. Once it was in and working well I felt amazing! The pressure on my pelvis was gone and I was able to have a bit of sleep. Sharon, our midwife, took Matt to another room so that he could lie down and sleep as well!

Around 4-4.30am the pressure in my pelvis started to return, and I had a large mucousy show! I started getting excited as I knew that it could mean that my cervix was opening. Sharon performed an internal examination and I could tell by her face that my cervix was fully open and that my baby was ready to be born!!

The energy in the room picked up very quickly and my doctor was called. Kate, my birth photographer, who had been napping in the chair, went and woke Matt up.

I sat up a bit and was feeling an increasing pressure in my bottom when the surges came. I started breathing my baby out. Having the epidural made it harder for me to breathe down but soon I could feel his head starting to emerge. I was determined to ‘push’ him out myself.

At 0602am I gave my final ‘push’ and I lifted our son, Jack, up onto my chest. There is no better feeling on earth! He was really calm and just gazed up at us with his beautiful blue eyes. Just after 7am we phoned my parent’s house and told Max that he had a baby brother. He was so excited that he screamed.

Jack is almost 6 months old now. As I reflect on his birth, I am disappointed that I didn’t have the water birth that I had planned, but also really happy with my birth experience. I believe that I made the right choices for us at the time, and I still feel the same way. One of the key factors in feeling happy with my experience is that I had a wonderful team caring for us, obstetrician and midwives, who stood back and let me make the decisions, without pressure, so that I remained in control of my labour at all times.

Credit for the photos goes to Kate Tyzack from Bump to Birth Photography (www.katetyzack.com)

“I am prepared to meet whatever turn my birthing may take” (Marie Mongan)

The above affirmation was one that I never wanted to use, but I ended up repeating it many times during my labour with Jack.
 
It took us a while to conceive, and in the end we needed IVF assistance. Because of this, I already had negative thoughts that I needed to overcome before labour – mainly that my body had failed me when trying to conceive, so I’m sure my body will fail me during labour.
 
I had such an amazing and ‘easy’ birth experience with our eldest son, Max, that I didn’t prepare as diligently for Jack’s labour. However I did listen to my affirmations most days and practised my breathing techniques.

I wrote my birth preferences and discussed them with my Obstetrician, so that I knew she was on the same page as me. I chose this doctor as I trusted her and was confident that she would listen to me, and not pressure me into doing anything I didn’t want to.

On Saturday July 22nd (39+5 weeks) I woke up at 6am and went to tell Max to play quietly as we were trying to sleep. Whilst standing in his room I felt a trickle of water running down my leg, and knew that my waters had broken. Such a weird feeling! After getting myself sorted I went back to bed and told my husband what was happening. I was not having any surges at this time.
 
I then started to cry. As a midwife, I knew that my ideal birth was potentially out of reach. I cried for ages, letting it all out of my system. I called mum at 8am and asked her to come and look after Max whilst we went to the hospital for a check-up.
 
All was good at the hospital, so I decided to come home and wait for labour to begin. We booked an ‘induction’ date for 4 days’ time – as at my hospital this is considered the maximum safe time to wait for labour when the waters are broken, and I was happy with this.
 
After picking Max up we went to the shops. I wanted to have a reflexology foot massage to hopefully encourage labour to begin. After the massage we walked around for ages, did the grocery shopping and then went home. I had started having irregular, mild surges but nothing to get excited about.

Throughout the afternoon I locked myself away in the bedroom – no lights, blinds closed, oil diffusor with clary sage, sitting on the fit ball, listening to birthing affirmations, dozing on and off. At times the surges took my breath away, other times I couldn't really feel them.

We had already arranged for my sister in law to babysit so we could go out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. We decided to keep these plans as not much was happening. We enjoyed our last child free dinner for what I’m guessing will be a long time. Every time I had a surge my husband wanted to rush home, but they were still mild so we stayed to finish our dinner (and wine)!
 
I had difficulty sleeping that night, and just when I started ‘timing’ the surges they eased off completely. I tried to lie in bed and rest as much as possible, but also wanted to be upright on the fit ball to try and encourage them to get stronger.
 
The next morning we headed back to the hospital for a check-up. Everything was fine with me and baby, however I was starting to feel that something was wrong and that’s why I hadn’t gotten into labour yet. After emailing my obstetrician, chatting to the midwife, and a long discussion with my husband, I decided to stay at the hospital and have my labour augmented.
 
This decision led me to having another big cry. Once again I knew that my ideal birth was slipping out of my fingers; but I also felt deep down that this was the right decision for me. If we went home to continuing waiting for labour, I knew that I’d be anxious and worry and that wouldn’t help anything! I was a bit embarrassed about crying, given that I was in my workplace, but everyone was very respectful and gave me time alone to ‘grieve’.
 
My husband left to take Max to my parent’s house, so whilst he was gone I called my friend Emma who was coming to be support us, and Kate my birth photographer.

*Stay tuned for part two!*

Since it is Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Awareness Week, I’ve decided to share why my 3.5 month old son and I recently went to sleep school. I am a very private person, so I feel very vulnerable in writing this blog. Many of you reading this will know me personally. But I hope that by being honest, I will encourage someone else to ask for help.
 
My eldest son is 4 years old and I cannot remember much of the first few months of his life. I was so sleep deprived. In all honesty, I think I had postnatal depression or anxiety that was not formally diagnosed. I would have trouble sleeping even when he was asleep, and was constantly irritable, teary and very on edge. It took a lot for me to accept help, and I would never ask for it. I decided to go to sleep school when he was 5.5 months old, and this helped us both get more rest and helped me start to feel like myself again.

Second time around we had trouble conceiving Jack, and ending up needing IVF. I was very anxious during pregnancy and sought support from a psychologist.

Jack is now 3.5 months old and for the past 4-6 weeks we were co-sleeping as he would scream every time he was put in his cot. This led to me sleeping less, and even when he was fast asleep I would be wide awake for hours. My mind would never stop. I was irritable, short tempered, teary and shouted at Max all the time. I even had a minor car accident and I couldn’t tell you who was at fault.

I knew this had to stop. I could feel myself going downhill. Again, I sort help from my psychologist, and decided to go to sleep school again.

It was tough. I cried on 3 out of 4 of the nights; worried that Jack would hate me or start to reject me. I cannot handle hearing my children cry, so I always picked them up immediately and held, breastfed or co-slept so that they didn’t cry. But these things were no longer working for me.

At sleep school, they teach you to listen to the different cries, and to identify what each one means.  I learned not to rush in immediately, to give Jack a chance to help himself fall asleep. I comforted him when distressed, but left him alone when he was grizzling. He started falling asleep in his cot!

As I mentioned at the start, I am worried about writing this. There are strong opinions on this type of ‘sleep training’. I myself used to be quick to judge. What I have learned, and what I want people to be aware of is that if a mother is not feeling ‘right’, she cannot be the sort of mother that she wants to be.

For me, sleep deprivation is a major problem. I knew that once I was getting more restful sleep at night my mood would improve, my mind would be clearer, and I would stop shouting at my older son all the time.

I am happy to say that both Jack and I have been sleeping better since sleep school. He goes to sleep fairly easily, wakes for his breastfeeds and then settles quickly back to sleep. I am more alert, more clear headed and much more patient and tolerant.

So to finish up, I just want to say two things:

1 – Before you judge someone for ‘sleep training’, please consider that they might be really struggling, and it could be their last resort
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2 – If you identify with my story, or feel like you are drowning, please reach out and ask for help.
 
Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA)

• 1300 726 306
• www.panda.org.au