Since I found I was pregnant I dreamt about having a water birth with little or no intervention so I started looking into ways to cope with labour without anaesthetic and that’s when I started looking into hypnobirthing.

I spoke with woman who gave birth to their first baby without any pain relief and their amazing experience gave me strength to continue pursuing in this direction. I dragged Nuno - my husband and birth partner -  to a Hypnobirthing workshop, recommended by a work colleague. He said this would be a waste of money. 

By lunchtime of day 1 Nuno felt really empowered with the workshop and knew he had such an important role to play.  From all the tools we learned I can’t stress enough the importance of breathing!! The positive cards spread around the house were also great reminders to me. “Each surge brings me closer to meeting my baby” is my fave!

Sunday 05.05.2018 my waters broke just before midnight. Nuno rang the birth centre and described what was happening. As I had no surges and the colour of the waters were normal they asked us to stay at home, try to get some sleep and call again in the morning so I could be assessed.

I started to have some surges during the evening but very mild and not frequent.  We went to the birth centre in the morning for a check and as I was not in stablished labor and there was no concerns with baby they sent me back home.  During the day the surges were coming more often but as I was about to find out later on, I was not in established labour.

We went back to the hospital in the evening - 24H since my waters broke to be assessed and at that point I was given 2 options, go back home and give my body a last chance to kick off labor naturally (if nothing happened I would be induced in the morning) or stay and be induced. As there were no concerns with baby we decided to go back home. That night the surges really kicked off. Throughout the night Nuno was putting hot towels on my back and was helping me to stay focused on the breathing. 

At 8am we decided that was time to go to the hospital. On my way to the hospital I was listening to my YouTube sound track so I could focus on breathing and not get distracted with surroundings.  I got the most wonderful midwife I could wish for. Although she knew it would be a challenge for me to give birth in water (due to the risk of infection) she gave me a room with a pool and said that she was going to assess me first and then decide what we could do. When she finished the internal examination - this was the first internal assessment done - she confirmed I was fully dilated and she could feel baby head - I was thrilled - she was happy for me to go inside the pool. 

Once I got into the pool my surges started to slow down again and at that point I had 2 doctors coming in and suggesting to accelerate the delivery.  The midwife said she trusted my surges were picking up again and I would be able to deliver with no intervention. The doctors gave us 10 minutes and if baby wasn’t born they would need to intervene.  All the pushes were done in all fours so I had gravity by my side and I put all my energy on each surge. Despite all my effort the baby was being blocked on my full bladder My Hypnobirthing teacher repeated how important is to stay hydrated and go often to the loo but for some reason I wasn’t able to wee all morning! After emptying my bladder he started making his way out and baby was out at around 12pm, straight to my arms. 

When people ask me how painful it was..... I can’t really relate pain to the birth of my baby. No doubt it was the most powerful and wonderful experience I had in my life.