Hugo's Birth Story: A Second Beautiful Hypnobirth

This Birth story needs no introduction.

Watch the video then read the story, but have the tissues ready.

These guys know how to keep hypnobirthing.

I am so happy for this beautiful family.

Hugo’s Birth Story

After a really great first birth with Harvey I was so excited to do it all over again.

I started educating myself on the things I felt like I had missed out on with Harvey’s birth.

I really wanted a maternal assisted delivery, delayed cord clamping and I looked into ways I could reduce my chances of having high blood pressure again.

I booked my amazing birth photographer, decorated my house with positive affirmation cards and the hypnobirthing pictures, went to water aerobics classes, practiced my hypnobirthing breathing and listened to the tracks daily.

At every appointment, I fully discussed all of my labour and delivery preferences with my Doctor.

He was very supportive of me using the Hypnobirthing techniques again and understood that I wanted to keep the labour and birth as intervention/drug free as possible.

Everything was going really well till around 38 weeks when at my OB appointment my blood pressure was on the higher side of normal and I had protein present.

I went for checks at the hospital every couple of days to make sure baby and I were okay.

This is how it started with Harvey so I accepted early on that I might not get to go into spontaneous labour. I was okay with this though because I knew I could have another great birth no matter what.

At 40 weeks my blood pressure was still high so we decided to have a light induction.

It was the best option for us as we were trying to avoid further interventions.

The next morning we got up early to head to the hospital at 6:30am.

Once in our room we started to set up our space. This is one of the benefits of having an induction!

I had created some birth affirmation cards, which I stuck up around the room and stuck up the hypnobirthing sign on our door.

We dimmed the lights, closed the curtains and began to play our own music. I sat on my yoga ball and began to smell my clary sage oil.

I showed my hand-written birth preference sheet to all the midwives as they came into the room.

They were all so lovely and supportive of everything that I wanted.

At 8:30am, my OB came in and checked me.

I was 2cm so he used one dose of the gel to help soften my cervix.

The plan was to take our time and see how we go.

Throughout the morning I stayed active by walking around the ward, smelling clary sage and bouncing on my yoga ball.

By later that morning I was already starting to feel light surges and it was even getting difficult to walk from one end of the ward to the next.

At 3pm, my OB visited again. I was starting to dilate and I was having mild surges so no more gel was needed.

Things were going so similar to Harvey’s birth so I was confident and happy that things were going well.

My birth photographer arrived not long after so we spent the night relaxing. By midnight, I was pretty tired so I decided to get some sleep while the surges were mild.

By 6:30am, the surges were coming every 5 minutes but as soon as I sat down, they faded.

My membranes still had not broken but I knew once they did things would move fast.

My OB came back at 7:40am. I was 6cm but baby’s head was high up in my pelvis. He broke my membranes and said he would come back at midday to see how I was going.

I started the surge of the sea tracks and I got up and started to walk around.

The surges started to come on fast. They were incredibly intense and back-to-back.

I sat on my yoga ball leaning back on Steven but I decided the shower was where I needed to be.

Not long after being in the shower I felt the pressure to bear down.

It was all happening so fast I really didn’t think I was ready but at the same time all the sounds I was making were very familiar.

The surges were intense and I thought I was losing it but I just kept breathing through each one.

My tone must have changed though because Steven suddenly rushed out to get the midwife!

He was so calm the whole time and knew exactly what I needed.

Steven helped move me from the shower to the bed.

My midwife was incredibly calm and was happy to deliver Bub in whatever position I wanted.

But I ended up most comfortable on my back with the bed head raised.

I was happy this way. She was also happy for me to help deliver Hugo.

Things then started to move fast.

You could already see part of bub’s head.

I had brought a mirror with me so I could watch Bub being born.

It was really helpful too with the bearing down because I could see exactly what was happening. It wasn’t until I looked in the mirror that I realised how much of his head was out already!

My midwife coached me into slowing down and helped guide Bub out as I breathed.

Once his head was out she grabbed my hands and told me to reach for my baby. I held him under his shoulders and I guided him earth side.

At 9:08am Hugo Ray was born. It was the most amazing moment! I actually can’t explain how incredible it was to hold him between two worlds.

I brought him to my chest where he spent the next hour.

We delayed clamping the cord and Steven cut it after.

I got to see the placenta too.

So amazing!

My OB came in 10 minutes after he was born. I think he was even shocked at how quickly things moved along.

Hugo had his first feed and we then weighed and measured him.

Amazingly, he was 10lbs 8oz / 4.7kg and I had not teared!

During the labour/delivery and post birth we had many midwives comment on how relaxed the room was and they couldn’t believe how I had delivered a big bub drug free.

Hugo’s birth was everything and more. I experienced all that I wanted. I definitely think the preparation for the birth made all the difference in making the birth easy.

Hugo’s Birth Story: A Second Beautiful Hypnobirth