The Birth of George

George is our second baby, and first hypnobirth. His sister’s birth was straight forward, but long and we hoped hypnobirthing would give us a more positive experience this time round, we even planned a home birth.

Throughout the pregnancy George did things in his own unique style. He was breech up to 38 weeks, and after weeks of me hanging upside down to try and move him, we succumbed to an ECV to turn him. Little did we know George would continue to do things ‘his way’!

After delivering a little earlier than my estimated due date with his sister, I was surprised to find myself 13 days over EDD with George. However the hypnobirthing kept me sane and I used the time for plenty me time!

The day I went into labour, I packed everyone off and I had a relaxing bath, watched a film, napped, I even strapped on a Tens machine and went out for a pub lunch with my best friend! I worked through any contractions calmly and spent the day relaxing. When my husband returned home from work, things started to speed up and the contractions became more powerful and sporadic, I even started to push. Something in my instincts didn’t trust this, combined with George’s tardiness and previous breech behaviour, we decided to miss the home birth and go in to hospital to deliver.

We were right to be suspicious of George. After a very intense stage of labour, George appeared presenting back to back, face first and still sideways breech. What I am very pleased to say is that George was born naturally, drug free and without any intervention, other than an episiotomy for myself (which I requested). Apart from a great bruise on his head, George was in perfect health and arrived amazingly calm and content. My husband was calm and positive throughout, and I felt we remained in control at all times.

The next morning the midwives congratulated us on our efforts and we were sent home and in our bed for cuddles by lunch time.

George’s birth was clearly more challenging than we had anticipated, and I think it could have easily resulted in lots of intervention. However, because I was so well rested and in the right frame of mind, I truly believe this is what gave me the strength to be able to deliver naturally and give the birth the ‘welly’ it required.

Abby asked me if I would still consider the birth to be positive? Absolutely. I am so proud of what we all achieved and think we are pretty blumming impressive! I’d recommend hypnobirthing to anyone (in fact I do!).

Thank you Abby xx

Leigh and Alex, Roberttown