Babyworld member, Sandra, reveals how self-hypnosis CDs helped keep her calm during labour and birth

I posted a message on my antenatal club

I was woken by regular contractions at about 3.30am and knew it was the real thing. They were occurring about every ten minutes and lasting for about 30 seconds or so, and felt like a combination of tummy ache, backache and mild period pains. I got out of bed at 6am and posted a message on my antenatal club. The contractions were still coming regularly, every
ten minutes or so. I decided to start timing them, so of course they fizzled out into nothing! I phoned my mum who lives 200 miles away at 6.30am to let her know I was in labour, then ‘phoned my husband’s parents to be on standby as they would be looking after my two-and-a-half-year-old, Cameron.

At about 11am but the contractions had more or less fizzled out, and I was a bit disappointed. I decided to go back to bed and put on my hypnosis birth preparation CD. I stayed in bed for about two hours and dozed off but had to get out of bed again for comfort as the contractions started up.

Contractions in Asda

At 2.30pm, I experienced contractions low in my back, not exactly painful and not really like period pain. It felt a bit like gas pains, when you need to go to the toilet when you’ve got a bit of a tummy ache. I went downstairs all excited again but of course they fizzled out. Again! Each time a contraction would come I took the opportunity to practise relaxing my tummy and through abdominal breathing.

At about 3.30pm I decided to go for a walk to help speed things along. It was raining quite heavily so we decided to go to Asda so I’d have a large area to walk in and we could stock up on some food essentials such as chocolate and cakes! I put on a maternity pad just in case my waters broke, and we got into the van. This was not nice at all; it was a very bumpy ride. We walked around Asda for about half an hour. I think I had about three contractions. I had to stop and lean over the trolley with each one, pretending I was looking at something on the shelf!

Nature’s cure

By now I had had enough of these half-hearted contractions, so I dragged my husband upstairs to try out one of nature’s induction methods… As soon as we started, the contractions started properly. I had a shower afterwards and it must have been the world’s quickest, as I had about 3 contractions in there. The water felt nice, but I didn’t feel like standing up; I felt like I needed to get into a comfortable position and concentrate. Lee got me into a supported sitting-up position, propped up with millions of pillows, so my back was at a 45-degree angle to the bed. He then coached me through a few contractions, telling me to relax and breathe down into my stomach whilst the relaxing backing track to my hypnosis CD was on. The contractions were ranging from 45 seconds to a minute, but were between
3 and 6 minutes apart.

No room at the hospital

At 8pm I told Lee to load the car while I listened to my CD. When he came back upstairs 40 minutes later I told him to ‘phone the hospital to let them know we’d be coming in that night. Lee gave me the last piece of news you want to hear when you’re about to give birth: they weren’t sure if they could accept me at Royal Oldham. At the moment they were still open but we were to phone back before we came in to make sure they were still open. Not long afterwards, I realised we’d miscalculated the time between contractions and they were coming more frequently than I’d thought, so I said forget the bath, we’re going in! Lee phoned the hospital to let them know we were coming in…and they said they were closed! The midwife said she would have to ring around all the local hospitals to see if anybody could take us, and she would ‘phone us back or we’d have to consider a home birth! Wow…talk about last minute! I thought I would rather have a home birth than try and find some hospital I’ve never been to; I’d end up having the baby in the car knowing my luck! She phoned back five minutes later to say nobody could accept us, so we should just come in. (Phew!)

We jumped into the car, forgetting to bring my pillows with us. Lee dropped me off outside the maternity building while he parked the car. I had a couple of contractions while I waited for him. It was about 10.15pm by the time we were settled into a room. The midwife did my one and only internal and pronounced me 7cm! She said the baby’s head was really low
down and she could feel it. She said she was amazed that I was so far dilated as I was really calm, talking normally between contractions, and not wanting any pain relief. The contractions still couldn’t be described as painful, more a feeling of very strong pressure. Each time I stood up I felt like the baby was about to fall out, so I preferred my semi-sitting
position.

The contractions were enjoyable

The next couple of hours passed by very quickly. My room was the only one without a CD player (of course!), so I couldn’t play my hypnosis CD. Luckily the lovely midwife managed to find one for me. Soon the contractions changed and I felt like I needed to push. It was a very strange sensation, but quite enjoyable. At 00:26, sixteen minutes after I started pushing,
Jacob was born and delivered straight onto my stomach. I didn’t realise at the time but he was in a posterior position, which is supposed to mean a longer and more painful labour. He was gorgeous. I had a natural third stage, and the placenta was delivered 14 minutes later. I needed some stitches for a couple of tears as he had been born so quickly. It was the most amazing experience of my life.