Abigail’s Feedback

My Birth Experience with Hypnotherapy – By Abigail Peck

I was intrigued by hypnotherapy for birth preparation because my midwife said the only woman she knew who experienced no pain during childbirth used hypnotherapy. I was also very disconcerted by the stage hypnotherapy stories from university such as; people doing things involuntarily or having flashbacks to horrific past experiences. In reality it was not at all sinister and far more wonderful than I could have hoped.

I first went to see Debra Sequoia when I was about 20 weeks pregnant. She suggested it was too early to do specific birth preparation so we talked about my hopes for the birth in general terms.

Debra suggested we focus on bonding with the baby. Using my own words about my feelings and hopes for my loving relationship with my baby, she made a beautiful tape with her soft American accent. It was like a guided meditation and I was quite relieved to be completely in control of myself at all times.

I took the tape home and my husband and I listened to it every night as we fell asleep. It was just wonderful, we both really enjoyed it and it intensified our feelings of closeness to her.

I also took home some homework. A book by Elizabeth Peterson to work through so any negative feelings around previous birth experiences or my childhood could be released so birth could happen. I then wrote a list of metaphors for each stage of birth as I imagined how it might be from reading books, my birth yoga preparation and my own hopes.

I did not want a mental epidural where I switched off from the birth experience. I wanted to be part of the process and really feel what was happening, with confidence that I could handle whatever came.

I chose a sea theme based on a childhood experience on a beach in Cornwall. I imagined myself as see kelp during contractions, deeply rooted into the sand at my feet and my body moving with the currents allowing the waves to come and go. I imagined my opening perineum as a sea anemone, dark red, glistening and bulging open. I imagined myself at peace lying on the beach between contractions willing the next wave to come so I could ride it.

I then had a really odd thought of a cabbage at crowning. I couldn’t explain it at the time and I couldn’t think of anything else.

From my collection of similes, Debra made an exquisite tape imagining the birth in the most positive light and with readiness for every eventuality. I am of the opinion that a C-section is not a failure, it is a fantastic modern fall back when there is no other way.

Again I listened to the tapes every night and imagined my lovely birth.

On the night my waters broke, I phoned my midwife who warned me it may be some days before I gave birth. She suggested I went back to sleep and call her when the contractions were at least a minute long and 5 minutes apart. I prepared the living room as I had planned a homebirth. I drank a camomile tea and tried to sleep on my beanbag. Every time I had a contraction, I stood up with my back to the fire, swivelled my hips and moaned a long note. I was sea kelp, there was no imagining I could really feel it. In between I didn’t think about the beach, I was just trying to get back off to sleep.

My husband went to pick up my sister. When they came back my contractions were harder, the pain was no different to period pain only lasting 40 seconds. They were very irregular and totally manageable with the sea kelp, movement, moaning and the hot water bottle on the perineum worked best. I had to change the movement and moaning subtly for each contraction to adequately manage the pain so it felt like problem solving by feeling.

By this time I was on hands and knees for each contraction and I did feel like I was flopping down on the sand after each one. I kept needing to go upstairs to the loo which I found frustrating as I was still trying to go to sleep as the midwife had told me. As far as I was concerned birth must still be ages off because the contractions were still 4 to 15 minutes apart and no longer than 40 seconds. I did feel very sick and I was getting really irritated by the nausea.

Finally I allowed my husband to call the midwife for advice and while he was on the phone I shouted, ‘OH MY GOD, I AM PUSHING!!!’. ‘I am on my way’, the midwife replied.

In hindsight the nausea and frustration was the start of transition. I became very emotional when I realised the midwives would not be there for the birth. I sat on the loo crying and hugging my sister in exactly the same position when we found out I was pregnant.

My sister made me get off the loo and go on hands and knees with my bum in the air to slow things down. This was the most difficult part of the whole labour. At that point I just rubbed my belly and said, ‘Come on darling, we can do this together.’ After that my confidence never wavered again. I turned to my husband standing above me and said, ‘See, it is not that bad!’. I was told afterwards that it is highly unusual to be so lucid and coherent from transition onwards. I got in my bath, again to slow things down then came downstairs when I came close to crowning to give birth in front of the fire.

I could feel the perineum stretching and I massaged the area to allow it to open further visualising a sea anemone. With each contraction I could feel the head pushing harder against the perineum. I thought she was going to come through and then I could feel I wasn’t ready this contraction. I knew the head would come through at the next contraction and I thought ‘This is going to hurt’. When it came I couldn’t believe it, I really felt cabbage, a cool smooth cabbage that just opened out with no pain, even though I anticipated it. It was truly wonderful.

My sister, who had the job of catching my daughter in the absence of the midwives rested, thinking the body would come out at the next contraction. Well my daughter was not going to wait and she moved her shoulders and flew out with my poor sister catching her mid-air in bare hands.

She was absolutely beautiful, pink and round. I put her on the breast and she latched on immediately. Then we looked at the clock, it had been 4 hours since the first contraction we had no idea how long established labour had been and this was my first birth.

The whole thing was truly amazing. We all went to bed and woke up to the snow covered landscape now a family not just a couple.