Birth story - Jade and baby Theodore

After years of being terrified of the prospect of birth and some of the horror stories I was told from my teens to adulthood, I was adamant I wanted to try hypnobirthing after reading so much about it and the power it had to make you feel in control and in less pain. The thought of sitting screaming for hours, exhausted, really didn’t fill me with excitement and I wanted the birthing experience to be as positive as possible for us and our baby - especially having gone through treatment to conceive.

I downloaded the Freya app (which was an absolute god send) for labour and read the positive birth company book prior to giving birth and felt almost excited about seeing what my body could potentially do with the right tools and mindset.

On 7th August in the late evening, I started to get mild contractions - I kept thinking, well if this is it I needed to be as calm, energised and well rested as possible, so I had my dinner (as normal), got into some comfy clothes, continued doing my normal evening jobs (ie wash the dishes) in order to stay relaxed and occupied.

At 10pm things started to get very slightly more intense so I went on my birthing ball and watched a comedy box set. I sent my husband onto bed (he’s a bit of a flapper and would have wanted to help but probably get me anxious) to get some sleep and I said I’d wake him if things revved up. I continued to drink lots of water, go to the toilet frequently and laugh at my box set whilst using the Freya app and tens machine through contractions.

At 1am I called the birthing centre to say the app had notified me I was in established labour but everything was fine and I felt very much in control. They suggested calling back in an hour or 2. I continued until 3:30am and woke my husband to say it was time to go in as the contractions were coming in faster now. We called the birthing centre and they welcomed us in.

I felt like I was near pushing stage in the car and once there started to push in the corridor so they got me into the room quickly where my waters broke. The midwife started filling the pool up and I was still working through each contraction with the app and my tens machine. I felt so in control still and kept my mind focused on ‘the moment’ at all times. I had to remove the tens machine before getting into the pool so at this stage it was just me and my husband working through each contraction as they came, with breathing techniques I had learnt alone, and lots of sarcasm (we were still joking up until giving birth) and encouragement.

At 5:59am after being in the pool for 30-40 minutes we welcomed our beautiful boy Theodore into the world weighing 8lb 1oz and it was the most incredible experience!!

I didn’t tear (another fear gained through horror stories and this was from the power of breathing slowly - ‘panting’ my way through each contraction at that point). At no stage did I feel overwhelmed, out of control or stressed by the experience and it’s absolutely changed my mindset entirely about the female body and the power of breathing. Thank you SO much hypnobirthing for giving us the tools to have the most wonderful experience.