One of my incredible clients Vicky had never considered a home birth until her Hypnobirthing course with me. After understanding all of her options and how the physiology of birth works, Vicky and her partner decided to opt for a water birth in the comfort of her own home. Vicky's birth story is just incredible and I'm sooo proud of her! Grab a cuppa & enjoy reading about how beautiful baby Finn was born...
'At the beginning of my pregnancy, home birth was something I had never considered before. After attending the hypnobirthing course with Kristina, myself and my partner felt so well informed about the different locations we could choose to birth our baby. After lots of discussion, decided we would like to try to stay at home and to hire a pool to have a water birth.
At times, (especially when I had finished work and had way too much time on my hands to think!), I did actually question if we were mad. ‘Wow, is it your first baby?’ ‘What will happen if something goes wrong?’ ‘You are very brave.’ - were just some of the responses other people gave. I remained focused on the positive affirmations work that Kristina had done with us and told myself that my body would know exactly how/when to birth my baby. These affirmations really helped me to continue to feel calm and confident. Around 36 weeks, we set up our birth environment with fairy lights, positive quotes and our favourite photographs.
I knew that my birth plan was exactly that - a plan. The first weekend after my due date arrived (Easter bank holiday), and I was told by my midwife that they had no staff on the home birth team for the whole weekend. I thought at this point that it simply wasn’t going to happen and we again, followed Kristina’s amazing advice for packing and checking our birth bag in preparation for attending the birth centre. I wanted to feel as prepared as possible for all potential scenarios.
The weekend came and went. My contractions started pretty much straight after my 41 week sweep on the Tuesday. During early labour at around 4pm, I was able to carry on normally: walking to the shop, watching some Netflix, enjoying tea with my mum and my partner. Things ramped up fairly quickly. The midwife arrived at 11pm. Again, thanks to the knowledge we had gained on the course, myself and my partner felt calm, prepared and completely in control when she asked us about our birth preferences and what we did/didn’t want. I used both breathing and distraction techniques to get me through the pain at this point. I was able to get in the pool around 12 midnight. Shortly after this, the second midwife arrived.
The midwives who attended my birth were fantastic. They took a step back and allowed me to listen to my body, without intervening. They never told me to push - this transition happened naturally as soon as I felt ready. I declined vaginal examinations in the final stages of labour, a decision which was accepted and respected. They coached me through the final stages and our beautiful son Finn was born at 5:07am. I experienced a slight tear but no stitches were required. I believe this was due to the fact that I was allowed to listen to my body, the perineal massage techniques which we learned on our hypnobirthing course and birthing Finn in the pool.
Hypnobirthing and learning about the process of labour highlighted to us the importance of keeping interventions to a minimum. We knew we wanted everything to be as natural as possible which supported our decision to have a home birth as many pain relief options, apart from gas and air, weren’t available. Overall, having our baby at home was an amazing experience and one which I will forever feel proud of myself for.
I cannot thank Kristina enough for the thorough knowledge she passed on to us during my pregnancy and for the way she contributed to us feeling prepared for all outcomes. Nothing was ever too much trouble and I knew that she was just a message away if we had any worries or questions. For anyone considering hypnobirthing with Kristina I would 100% say go for it! 🌟’