My Birth Experience: from Pain Relief to Hypnobirthing

As I neared the end of my pregnancy, I had to turn my attention to my birth plan preferences. I was very relaxed about how my birth went as I didn’t want to have too many expectations. However, one thing I was sure of was having as little pain medication as possible.

I watched numerous positive birth videos to try and prepare myself for my own labour. Many of the women I watched opted to go down the hypnobirthing and unmedicated route.

Hypnobirthing

This sounded like an amazing idea especially as I had so much anxiety and fear around giving birth. So I enrolled on an affordable hypnobirthing course and fully immersed myself in making my birth as calm and holistic as possible.

I created playlists of meditative music filled with affirmations and invested in a portable speaker to take to the hospital. I also packed a diffuser and aromatherapy oils to help during my labour.

During my antenatal classes I learnt everything there was to know about the stages of labour from the latent phase to active labour. After going through different options, I felt confident in my preference of having a water birth with as little intervention as possible.

Labour

Fast forward to the day I went into labour, and everything went out the window. While the lead up to going to hospital was very calm surrounded by my family, things went from 0-100 incredibly quick when I arrived at the hospital.

I was so pleased to learn that my labour was progressing well when I was first examined but my contractions became incredibly intense very quickly.

My dream of a water birth changed when I learnt that baby had passed meconium. I opted for pain relief in the form of an epidural because my contractions were so close together that I personally couldn’t take the immense pain.

There was no time at all to set up my dreamy, holistic birthing room that I envisaged with fairy lights and music, and I accepted the fact that my birth plan had taken a bit of a detour.

My mum always said that you surrender when you give birth and I did, none of the extras mattered, all that did matter was ensuring my baby arrived safely.

Expectations

Looking back I realised that I felt a lot of pressure around creating my own positive birth story which included being able to proudly say that I went without any pain relief and just simply opted for gas and air. I definitely went as long as I could with just gas and air but in the end decided that I needed to do what was best for me.

Much of what I learnt in the hypnobirthing course also took a backseat as things progressed at a fast rate. One thing that hypnobirthing did do for me was dispel a lot of fear and instead replace it with trust in my body, but I now know that every birth experience really is unique and birth isn’t a one size fits all.

Another great aspect was the deep breathing technique during the initial stages of my labour which allowed me to get through the latent phase at home with more ease however, I didn’t get as far as down breathing during the pushing stage because of quick progression.

Having now been through childbirth, it occurred to me that there shouldn’t be any pressure to go unmedicated even though this is now favoured by many. I wanted to be able to proudly say that I braved it and went without but the truth is each and every women is brave and strong no matter the birth they have.

Although I was hard on myself at first for having the epidural, I gave myself compassion because it was what I truly needed at the time, and it enabled me to be as present as possible during the birth. To me, this was a very positive birth because it was calm and peaceful, and I felt so comfortable.

My takeaway from my first birth experience is that you don’t need to have set expectations and pressures, it’s ok if you do need pain relief and finally, wow the body is truly amazing.

Happiness

The golden hour was a bit of a blur because I was on such a high but I can honestly say that I have never felt happiness like it, I looked down at Azaiah and couldn’t believe that he was mine. It all felt so surreal but I was so proud of myself and incredibly grateful for my midwife who was amazing.

For all the stretch marks and changes, they will always be a reminder of what my body did in bringing my boy into the world.