Helen and Baby Nia

“Nia arrived safe and sound last night, record fast labour and it really wasn’t painful! 6lb9oz. Heading home now.”

“This was me half an hour before she was born. I was having a great time.” Helen

Helen has an incredible story to share with you. She is an anaesthetist so is highly skilled and trained in pain relief for labour and birth.

For her first baby, she planned from the start to have her pain managed with an epidural, as that’s what she felt most comfortable with and it is what she knew best. When she was pregnant with her second baby she got in touch with me about HypnoBirthing as she felt that although her first birth was a positive experience, she couldn’t help but feel curious about whether she really should have gone down the medicalised route for a healthy Mum and healthy baby.

For her next baby she really wanted to do things differently. Learning about HypnoBirthing completely transformed Helen’s outlook on what an incredible experience labour and birth can be. When you change your mindset to how incredible the birthing body is and what can go right, it opens you up to possibility thinking. It is then amazing what can happen.

“Thank you Nicola for giving me the skills to approach labour in such a different way!“

After working with me over lockdown, with weekly online HypnoBirthing classes, Helen went on to have a completely incredible, pain-free, natural birth. I am so delighted and so proud to be sharing this story. You are just an inspiration Helen. Congratulations x

Helen’s Story

I would love to share my birth experience. It was so amazing! I went in on Wednesday morning to have my BP checked as it had been high on Monday. It was borderline so they offered to do a sweep but when they examined me I was 2cm dilated and said they could just break my waters. If my BP went any higher it would start really medicalising things. At that point they were happy for no cannula and using water etc so we said yes. I went home for a nap and came in that afternoon.

They broke my waters at 5pm, I had mild contractions while I mobilised and snoozed and listened to my hypnosis tracks. Then at 9pm they started being a bit more regular and stronger. They weren’t sore, just powerful. I started using gas and air but mainly as it made me feel wonderful! At 9:45pm Bob went for a little walk about. 9.55pm they were struggling to pick up heartbeat as she was so low in pelvis. So they examined me to put clip on babies head. At this point I was 4cm dilated.

I was listening to music and very much in a deep relaxed zone. I then suddenly felt the need to make noise and then had a “I don’t know what position to be in” moment and was up, down, on toilet. Bob thankfully came back in 10.05pm. I felt the need to push, got on the bed on all fours and just let my body do what it wanted. I was just aware of Bob telling me I was fine and my inner voice thinking “I totally am, Bob doesnt need to tell me”.

It felt like I was in a complete dream state and not really there. I pushed twice and out she came! Her heart-rate did go very low at the end so there were a lot of people in the room. But I wasn’t really aware of that.

It was amazing! Just so raw and powerful and primal. Amazing!