¨At around 3:00am I started to feel contractions, which I thought were Braxton Hicks as I was 2 weeks ahead of my estimated due date. They were very spaced apart. I started timing them and try to sleep through them as much as possible. Throughout the night my favorite pose to get through the mild contractions was child pose and hip circles.
By 7:00am I woke up my husband to let him know I think these were real contractions. His immediate response was to grab my pilates ball, so I could bounce through the contractions as they were spacing about 15 minutes apart.
At around 8:45am we decided to call the hospital to see if I should go in as the contractions were not consistent and during the phone call my water decided to break. I really felt that my bouncing through each contraction really helped progress my labour. At that point my contractions were coming no less than 5 minutes apart.
We arrived at the hospital and were admitted by 9:20am. We got brought to the labour room and found out I was already 7cm dilated. It was too late for my epidural that I wanted. My husband was in panic asking for it, but the only option I had was gas and air. The hypnobirthing classes that we did with Ana Piera from The Dancing Birth provided us the confidence to do this without anesthesia. My husband consistently provided me words of encouragement. I was reminded since I could move around that I was able to give birth laying on my side and I breathed through every last contraction.
My baby boy arrived at 10:10am which was world-wind as I didn’t expect for him to come so quick. Thank you Ana for all the techniques we learnt with you. Even if my birth was not as I planned I really feel all The Wise Hippo hypnobirthing techniques helped me through the vaginal birth of my baby boy.¨
