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I had the pleasure of teaching Sophie & Sam my short hypnobirthing course. This course is 6 hours of teaching time split over two sessions at around 36 weeks of pregnancy.

They came to me excited but apprehensive and wanting to birth with more knowledge and more power! There birth story will follow, but for now here is the news they shared with me following the beautiful calm birth of baby Isla.

I started getting twinges at 11pm and woke Dave at 4am when things were ramping up. I stayed home until 8am with a combination of warm bath, tens machine and breathing. When I got to hospital I was 9cm. As soon as I got into the birth pool I needed to push, and there he was!! I declined gas and air as the breathing was so much better!! I had a wobbly that I wouldn’t be able to deliver babies head, but Dave was amazing. Thank you so much for everything.

Anya Chandarana born on Tuesday 13th February at 6:05 am

“At 7:00 am on Monday morning I had my show. Although I knew that it could be days before I went into labour I couldn’t help but feel excited and hopeful that it wouldn’t take that long. I phoned the Women’s hospital to let them know and to ask for their advice as I had Group B Strep and I needed antibiotics as soon as I was in established labour. They reassured me that I could carry on as normal and I need not come in until I thought I was in established labour or if my waters had released.

So I carried on with my chores at home, picked Sienna up from preschool and took her to weekly pre tennis milkshake at Morrisons. After Sienna’s tennis lesson, we went home, I gave her dinner, cleared up and started getting her ready for bed. Just as I finished reading her bedtime story I felt a “pop”. I looked at Amit and mouthed that my waters had popped. I tucked Sienna in and said goodnight to her as normal and then I phoned the Women’s who advised that as waters had released (although it was just a trickle) I should come in so that I could take the antibiotics in time. I phoned my brother and asked him to come and stay with Sienna until my in laws were back home and Amit and I headed to the hospital.
We arrived at the birth centre at 8pm and were assigned a midwife who was quick to tell me that I wasn’t in labour and upon checking me advised that my waters hadn’t released.
When she checked again a little later she changed her mind and said that she could feel the baby’s head, that my waters hadn’t fully released and then came the words “Oh you’re 3cm dilated”. When Amit got excited and said “I told you you were in labour”, she was quick to correct him and said “she’s not actually in labour as she’s not contracting and is only 3cm”. She then said that she believed I would need to be induced to prevent the risk of the Group B Strep being passed to baby. Up until that point I was so focused on having a calm, natural birth like I had previously but the midwife had completely thrown me off. It hadn’t even entered my mind that I may need an induction, purely because I had told myself that this wasn’t an option. In Liz’s classes my brain blocked out the section on induction and now I was in a mild panic that I wasn’t prepared as I hadn’t listened. Amit reassured me that he had been listening and told me not to worry or lose focus. He asked the midwife if it was possible to carry on as we were naturally for a couple of hours but the midwife was adamant that the doctors would want to begin induction by syntocinin drip.

When the midwife left the room, Amit went out to speak to her again away from me. Amit tried to persuade the midwife to let us continue as we were for a couple of hours as he believed I had been having surges even though I had said I hadn’t felt any. The midwife told Amit that we would either have to go home (as I wasn’t in established labour) or start the induction process.

Thankfully the midwife was called away to another labour and a new midwife was assigned.

Amit explained again that we had been doing Hypnobirthing and that he thought I had been having contractions and asked if we could have a few more hours to see if things started naturally as I was already 3cm dilated. The new midwife was much more understanding and agreed that as it had not been long since my waters had released, there was no reason why we could not review in 2 hours to see if things had progressed naturally.

Whilst all this was happening, my surges had indeed started and Amit was happy to discover this when he came into the room to tell me the good news.

I continued to labour naturally through the night. At points I felt very tired and had to rest, after resting I found that my surges had slowed down and reduced in intensity. At some points I began to doubt that I could do it, Amit would tell me that I could and remind me to breathe correctly as I lost focus with it and forgot about the breathing techniques. Once I started breathing correctly again I felt I could manage the surges. Amit also gave me sacral massage which really helped.

At about 03:00 we moved into the pool room, by around 3:30 I went in to the pool. Moving to the pool helped ease the pressure and was quite soothing. At this point I was feeling exhausted, which again was affecting my focus and I was falling asleep. When the surges would start I would be half asleep and so wouldnt be breathing correctly. Amit would encourage me and remind me to breathe as well as breathing with me to bring me back on track.
At 5:20 I felt like I couldn’t continue, the midwife who had been with us for a few hours and had been observing and gently encouraging me following Amit’s lead, recognised that I was in transition and requested a mirror to check me.
After checking me she told me that I would be holding my baby soon.

Shortly afterwards I felt the urge to push, and I began breathing the baby down.

The midwife said that she could see the baby was still in the amniotic sac (it hadn’t fully ruptured when my waters released!)

At 06:05 Anya was born. I was overcome with emotions and asked if it was a boy or a girl and the midwife reminded me 2 or 3 times that I had to have a look to see for myself!

Thank you again Liz for your amazing support and helping us prepare for the arrival of our second little princess. We couldn’t have done it without you!”

“Dylan Spencer Allan decided to make an early appearance on a recent Monday morning, 3 weeks early! He eventually passed his blood sugars so we are now home.

So, as I expected, it was all a little bit quick… Surges began at 1:15am. I initially thought it was baby doing his usual head butting my pubic bone/pelvis and then started timing them…40-60seconds every 2.5 minutes! So I thought it best to wake Jonny, who good as gold, calmly rang my mum and the hospital.

We got to hospital and met the midwife at 2:12am….and Dylan arrived at 3:53am! So hypnobirthing… Understanding the process of labour, what options I had for positioning, the affirmations, breathing, massage and background music were all utilised – in my own unique way!

I did use gas and air but intermittently, mostly using my take on breathing – I struggled mostly to breathe in rather than out, which had been the case when I’d been practicing!! I did also ask for pethidine but then I changed my mind (as it affected me badly last time) – my inner hypnobirthing voice must have known better.

I bossed Jonny about a bit… He would say “breathe” and I’d say “no! Count!” as that was more helpful to me! He massaged my back but again I could only tolerate the heel of his hand and not his fingers or palm as he made me too hot!

At one stage I felt like I couldn’t do it and I said I was scared, but Jonny and my midwife were super encouraging and kept reassuring me. Also (I don’t remember) Jonny said I was also telling myself I could do it – must have been my inner hypnobirthing voice again.

I wasn’t a picture of serenity like the videos but I was able to zone in from time to time on the music and the spaces in between, which must have helped. Jonny really says hypnobirthing helped me. He thinks I was a star.

Thanks Liz. So very glad to have done the hypnobirthing course. It made this experience so much better!!”

“After spending the last few months preparing for and visualising my baby’s birth I can’t believe the time has come to write my birth story down. On the 2nd February we welcomed our second child, baby Lucy into the world, experiencing a birth that a few months ago I didn’t think was possible. My labour with my firstborn was long and traumatic and left me with feelings of failure, anxiety and guilt and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder almost 4 years later.

From the beginning of this pregnancy my midwife was fantastic and immediately referred me for counselling when I expressed my fears over giving birth again. I was also determined that this time would be different and after hearing a little about hypnobirthing from others I contacted Liz Stanford from the Enhance Your Birth on a recommendation and booked myself and my husband onto a taster session. Fast forward to a few months later, a one to one hypnobirthing course with Liz and a lot of TCBS techniques practice I was 39+5 weeks pregnant and feeling very ready to meet my baby!

At around 12.30am on Friday 2nd February I was woken up by the first gentle surges. After a while I started timing them to see if there was a pattern emerging and they were coming every 8 minutes or so. Suzy’s words from TCBS book were ringing in my ears; that if you are labouring at a time you would usually be asleep to try and rest as much as possible. With this in mind I breathed through the surges and stayed in bed resting and dozing in between each one until around 6am. This also allowed my husband to sleep so that he could be on full alert for the big day ahead!

By around 7.30am my mum came over to take our 3 year old son to hers and we waved him off with his little overnight bag packed. That Friday was a beautiful winter day, the sky was bright blue and the sun was shining so me and my husband went for a walk to try to keep things moving along. Once we were home I rested for a while, still breathing through each surge, embracing each one and staying relaxed and calm. My husband made sure I ate and drank as normal during the day to keep my energy levels up. We watched a feel good film and listened to music and my affirmations. By 4pm the surges were becoming quite intense and around every 4-5 minutes. I rang the hospital who advised I maybe stay at home a while longer and see how things go. An hour later the surges were becoming incredibly powerful and were now only 2 minutes apart. The app we were timing them on started telling us to ring an ambulance so we gathered the bags together and headed to the hospital at this point!

After a 40 minute rush hour journey (instead of the usual 15 minutes) we arrived at the hospital around 6pm. Between the carpark and the labour ward I had about 8 intense surges which stopped me in my tracks and my waters released as I walked through the doors of the hospital. When I arrived at the reception desk a midwife took us straight through to a delivery room and I was able to immediately have gas and air. She examined me and said that I was 5cm dilated but that she didn’t think it would be very long at all.

My midwife was absolutely amazing, she read my birth plan and completely embraced my hypnobirthing wishes and made me feel completely in control. Within 45 minutes I was fully dilated and I felt the intense urge to bear down. My whole body completely took over and I trusted it to do what it needed to do. At this point I stopped using the gas and air to focus on pushing. I certainly didn’t stay silent and serene like some of the women I’ve seen from hypnobirthing videos but I did feel incredibly empowered and strong. Less than an hour of pushing later, our beautiful baby girl was born naturally with no intervention, and the feeling of euphoria was amazing.

In the end there was no time for the water birth I had envisioned or the fairy lights, music and affirmations that I had planned but it turned out I didn’t need any of that. The change that had happened within me was all I needed; the self-belief in my body, the ability to let go, relax and breathe and the knowledge that a positive birth was very much possible. I am so grateful to Liz and to TCBS for enabling me to have such a life changing positive experience that not only will I never forget but that has healed so much of the negativity I felt the first time around”.

I thought I’d share my birth story as it’s not quite what we planned – but that was absolutely fine and we ended up with an absolutely perfect baby!

I was due on the Tuesday so the home birth midwife popped round to give me a sweep in the morning. I’d had a couple with Alice and didn’t really find they did anything but was willing to give it another go. Midwife had said I was 3cm but no contractions so a bit pointless on it’s own! She also said as I was full of cold and Alice ‘a bit’ (more later!) under the weather, that’d be on my mind so things were favourable but not all systems go!

So my poorly girl stayed at home whilst I went for a cream tea ‘due date’ treat with my mum and nan. Alice was sleepy, snotty but nothing overly concerning. We had a lovely cream tea and put the crampy feeling down to the sweep. Just period aches, nothing bad at all.

Driving home we hit a major traffic jam. The M42 was not moving…but my labour was! I suddenly twigged that I was possibly having mild surges so asked my nan to count them. I was trying to remain bright and breezy as I could see my nan eyeing up the stationary traffic all around and getting a tad stressed!

Although they seemed to be every 5mins, every other one didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable so I was reassuring everyone there was definitely more like 10mins between them. No panic there at all! Having dropped my nan home I did admit to my mum I should probably call Sam and ask him to come and drive me back from hers rather than carry on behind the wheel.

However, as I was phoning Sam, he was phoning me. Turns out Alice had actually had a seizure as her temperature had gotten too high so the ambulance was at ours. The traffic was horrendous driving back from my nans – it was crawling. All the while I’m trying not to think about the fact I could be in labour!
When we got back, Sam and I went off in the ambulance leaving my mum at ours. I was still surging regularly, but not too strong or long and I must have said several times over, ‘oh there’s no way this will carry on. The adrenalin will completely cancel out my oxytocin!’

We arrived at the hospital and the paramedic suggested timing the contractions as I didn’t want to be having a baby in the children’s hospital A&E. They were now every 2 1/2 mins but as they were only about 20secs I was still pretty insistent it would die off any minute and it’s nothing a bit of circling my hips couldn’t help.

They very kindly put us in a side room as we waited and I rang the midwife.

She asked if I wanted her to come and see me at home so it was decided Sam would stay with Alice and I’d get a taxi back. This was about 6.30pm and based on my labour with Alice I suspected we had a while.
I got home about 7pm, having rang my mum to come back (she’d left her phone in my bag so had ended up knocking from door to door to find a neighbour who was in. A very kind man actually took her home! Only to come back about an hour later!).

Anyway, by about 7pm midwife and mum were there and I was beginning to realise things might not be quite as I’d planned. The birthing pool wasn’t set up and that was Sam’s job! My music was on Sam’s phone. Sam had been practicing the massages, he was my birthing partner!

As it turns out my labour was a tad faster than first time round. Surges were pretty constant from arriving home and suddenly ramped up in intensity. The midwives (3 at this point) set about sorting the pool and I stayed in a dimly lit room listening to the affirmations. My mum had never heard them so I had to talk her through the ones I liked as my plan had been for Sam to keep reinforcing these to me.
Anyway she was fab at telling me how once it had passed, I was one step closer and kept telling me how calm I was. I stayed on my feet as I didn’t want anything to slow things down. For each surge I found the only thing that offered relief was leaning up against a wall so just kept doing that, then pacing.

I don’t mean to make it sound simple, but by 9.26pm she was out. I tried the birth breathing but found I’m a tad more vocal at that point, but still felt completely calm and in control. I was able to easily stop and pant when the midwife told me to, and consequently Lillian came out without tearing me. No time to get in the water and this time I know I pooed (sorry, it’s what all pregnant woman think about) but I just let it happen as I knew my body needed to do that to get that baby out!

Sam got home within the hour and was able to cut the cord.

So not as planned, but Liz, thank you so much because in my own way I took so so much from our sessions and what could have been a really traumatic time was completely manageable.
Alice is getting better and I have my beautiful baby after the quickest labour ever.

Sam might have missed the grand finale but I had my mum and I DID IT!! XX”