Four Years ago I put more thought into which travel system I was going to buy than how and where I was going to give birth.
I suppose I knew I had choices with the pram, as far as giving birth was concerned I’d only really seen ‘that video’ as a science teacher, the one that’s made to terrify teenagers (and probably most adults) into celibacy!
Then there are TV soaps and of course the notorious One Born Every Minute. In the end, my travel system didn’t cost as much as a car, and I was quite relaxed about the birth ready to just take it as it came and see what happened.
I won’t go into too many details, no pregnant woman wants to read about the horrors of childbirth, and seriously don’t be tempted to watch One Born!
The important take-home messages from my first birth were
“Why the hell does anyone do this more than once?”
and
“If I ever do this again I’ll need to keep that hypnobirthing CD my sister in law lent me”
I didn’t have my first baby locally and there were lots of things that happened that made me feel, weak, vulnerable and neglected.
So in answer to the question, you forget what it was really like and you just really want another baby. So Here I am 4 years later pregnant again.
The negative feelings carried over from my last birth were still strong in my head and I knew that the only way I was going to get through this birth was to do hypnobirthing again.
This time I had met Steph from Blossom Hypnobirthing and when she offered for me to review her one to one sessions I jumped at the chance!
From the first session I felt instantly at ease with Steph, she was pregnant with her first baby (yes the thought what can you possibly know about childbirth did cross my mind, sorry Steph).
As soon as she started I realised how wrong I was, Steph was armed with tonnes of biological, psychological, historical and anecdotal knowledge – she’d done her research, was clearly very passionate about her work and I trusted her.
Much of the time in the sessions was working through the course; Steph gives you a book and other materials to read as well as just chatting with you about your previous birth(s) and potential anxieties.
Each session had at least one hypnotic relaxation and you get tracks to download and use at home. For anyone sceptical of hypnosis let me tell you this, I’m a scientific person and yes the idea of hypnosis and alternative therapies in the past made me snigger.
Until I tried a self-hypnosis CD and I was completely gone. Not asleep but not quite present either; almost like driving to work and not realising how you got there! It works, just open your mind to the possibility, it’s worth it trust me!
By the end of the first session, Steph had helped me to see my first birth in a new light. Perhaps the words weak, vulnerable and neglected weren’t all I felt!
I’d actually got myself through the first stage of labour without any pain relief or support at all, and I’d done it in a hypnotic state.
So much so that the staff in the hospital massively misjudged my state and assumed I was in the very early stages of labour. An almost textbook hypnobirth, except for the fact that I didn’t know that’s what was happening and my other feelings clouded over my success and made me feel let down.
The following sessions we went through the physiology, of childbirth and different breathing techniques, then we looked at birth choices and how to be clear about your birth and what you do and don’t want.
I was genuinely sad when we got to our final session, Steph was about to give birth herself and I was over the moon with the support and knowledge that she had given me.
As I get closer to my second birth, I feel so much more confident and in control over my birth. In a word? ‘Empowered’.
I wish that I had met Steph before my first birth and perhaps I would’ve felt a lot better about it. That being said I really believe that as a second-time mum I have taken away a little extra, I’ve been able to make peace with my previous birth story and see the positives.
One thing I do know is that whatever your wishes are for your birth you have to be prepared to be flexible as nothing ever quite goes to plan, but at least with hypnobirthing, you can feel confident that you are in control and you can make informed decisions without feeling pressured down a particular path.
And the travel system that I spent so much time on?
Was a load of rubbish and I’ve since been through several pushchairs in my quest to find the one, which was 1/3 of the price of the travel system. I really wish I had invested the money in preparing myself for my birth. Buy a second-hand pram that you can sell on for the same you paid if you don’t like it and consider booking onto one of Steph’s group sessions, or really treat yourself to a one to one course. I wouldn’t give birth without her ever again!
For the purpose of this review, Steph provided her services free of charge. I only ever recommend products and services that I genuinely rate highly, regardless of any payments or freebies that I may receive. Would I pay for Steph’s hypnobirthing course? In a heartbeat!