Hi Sharon,
Just to let you know that Arthur Michael arrived on 15th March weighing 7lbs 6ozs. He was exactly 2 weeks late (!) and I was booked for induction at SDH on the 15th. I went into labour naturally at midnight on the 14th (I think he knew what was going to happen!!) but due to being booked in already I had to go to the hospital for checks. While Arthur was perfectly happy and things were progressing slowly there was a bit of a cloud around when my waters had broken as I hadn't had anything noticeable and the midwife could feel no waters round his head, only his hair. And then I said it could have been weeks ago as I did wonder if I had been losing some fluid. So while I had ideas about what I would like to happen it was taken out of my hands and I had to have the Syntocin drip to speed him along.
Despite this I felt perfectly well informed, I used my Cartesian questions while discussing the plan with the Consultant and then with the midwives but also understood the urgency of the situation. The labour time in total was 18 hours as he started at midnight Weds 14th and he arrived at 18.31 on the 15th. This is the good bit though, despite contractions being the most painful thing I have ever felt, I had a few hours of no pain relief, then a few hours of Entonox. What was really interesting though is that on the heart monitors Arthur was very happy and relaxed all the way through and my blood pressure was as low as it has been all through my pregnancy. At about 5pm I said I had the urge to push into the contractions instead of breathe through them and the midwives I had said if that was the case then I could begin the delivery process. My body completely took over. So I had some morphine to take the edge off as my cervix wasn't quite dilated fully but I wanted to go with how I felt. I then took the advice from the midwives and what my body wanted to do. I had natural pauses and worked with it and he was delivered perfectly healthy and I had no tears or stitches. Not even a graze! So I was up and out of bed in an hour and spent the night on Post Natal for obs. Arthur was the quietest and most content baby (I thought it was due to the small amount of morphine) but he has continued to be a very happy and content baby. The midwives are astounded by him! He settles perfectly and also soothes himself, most of the time I don't even know he's there. He's just so relaxed.
His APGAR score at birth was 9 and rose to 10 after 5 minutes.
While I didn't use the hypnosis to its full effect I feel that what I learned on the course and keeping calm and informed really helped and I trusted my midwives. I've felt really good since and have recovered well, so coping fine with the interrupted sleep. He only wakes twice a night to feed and change so I really do have an angel baby. Simon was also present the whole time and when I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere he used my anchor and it got me back and focused. I honestly feel it couldn't have gone better, despite the induction.
My anchor was Mile 18 of the London Marathon. All the time I was running my aim was just to finish. When I got to Mile 18 it was the point I knew that I would finish (as people say if you can run 18 miles you can run 26!) and achieve a lifelong dream, so when Simon said Mile 18 I was right back at that feeling of euphoria knowing I could do it. And then I knew that I would be able to deliver Arthur safely.
So thank you very much for your course and your knowledge and insight. I fully believe it works and it has contributed to my very happy, robustly healthy and beautiful baby.
With love and best wishes,
Anna xxxx