I gave birth to my little daughter, Freya on Saturday 19th December. She is my first child. I practised self-hypnosis with Maggie’s tracks. Through my second trimester, I only listened occasionally and then more regularly from about 32 weeks. Combined with pregnancy yoga and weekly massage, I truly believe that this preparation allowed me to have the birth I’d dreamed of.
I had predicted an early arrival of Freya (in fact I was only one day out – which goes to show my intuition!) and the evening before the birth, felt different. My labour must have started during the night because I got up at 8am, lost a small amount of my waters and had the first mild contraction. I woke my husband with the words, “Honey – our baby’s coming”. I felt very calm and in control. We made breakfast, washed the sheets on the bed, cooked a stew – I was pacing gently outside, concentrating on my breathing as the contractions started to become more noticeable and regular. By the end of the morning, they were my main focus and we started to time them. Eventually – around noon, 1pm I could no longer walk through the surges so got on my hands and knees and moaned though each one. I just knew when the time was right to go to hospital.
Taxi to hospital
One of the most remarkable parts of my active labour was getting into the taxi. I had often had Maggie’s tracks on in the car home from work. The association now was so powerful, I breathed quietly through the increasingly intense contractions and found myself almost asleep! I didn’t even put a track on to listen to because I felt my focus was enough.
Fully dilated on arrival
I arrived at hospital in transition, my waters breaking, fully dilated and with the baby’s head crowning. The first powerful urge to push was gorgeous. It took a little while, the pushing stage – but an excellent midwife used all her experience to get me into the right position. She and her colleagues were so impressed with what I had achieved by myself and were waxing lyrical about hypnobirthing. She was respectful of the birth plan I had written and gave me time and assistance to do it my way.
Freya arrived, yelling, and smelling like a meadow after a thunderstorm, tumbling out of my body at 18.23 in the evening. Our perfect little girl. I had no drugs and recovered quickly, I didn’t tear, she suckled within an hour.
It was everything I had hoped for
It was everything I hoped for and I truly believe in the power of the mind, the importance of eliminating fear and focusing on the natural process, rather than killing the ‘pain’. Of course, self-hypnosis might not work for everyone, I was lucky in some ways, well-prepared in others – but I don’t feel I wasted a second practising! Thank you!
You can listen to our free 15-minute pregnancy relaxation track to find out what they are like.
