Abbie and Aaron's 1 in 80,000 baby!

I’d woken up at 2am with what I thought were really bad cramps and got straight in the shower to ease it. They soon intensified and became very close together so Aaron called Wallingford who said to come in for 4am. When we arrived I was examined and was already 6cm dilated. I asked for the pool to be filled and Aaron played one of the mp3 tracks from the course. The water made me feel weightless. The whole time I was completely focussed on my breathing and tried to shut everything else out.

I asked for some gas and air to help me control breathing during surges. For every surge, I would inhale a total of 11 times and knew that once I’d reached 6, it had peaked and it would become more manageable.

The lovely midwife even offered a diffuser, I chose lavender and mandarin which I found so relaxing.

I knew I would be examined again at around 8:20 as it had been 4 hours since the previous examination, but suddenly my body really took over and started convulsing to try and push the baby’s head out. I was on my side as I found this most comfortable, within 40 mins of the pushing stage she was here - a little baby girl! I couldn’t believe I’d done it. Flo’s head was actually born still in the sac- which is really rare and only happens in 1 in 80,000 babies so the midwife was amazed.

We had skin on skin and Aaron cut the cord. The whole Labour start to finish was under 7 hours. I’m certain that without the tools and techniques taught by Sarah I would have had a completely different experience- I really did take myself to a new world  where no one else was present.

Aaron -

Initially I was a bit sceptical about Hypnobirthing as I’d never heard of it. After the first class these worries disappeared as I could really see the benefits.

I was always worried that I would feel like a spare part and useless during labour, but with the help of the hypnobirthing class I felt like I could support Abs as much as possible and felt really involved. When the time came I was so excited. I was present for the whole labour and it was the most amazing experience. I could see that she was completely in a different zone - she didn’t say a word for hours.