I felt so elated when I birthed my own son and held him in my arms for the very first time.

Our son Elijah was born in a public hospital in Perth on the 11/12/16 at 9:46pm.

Actually, Elijah was born in the carpark at the front entrance to the hospital on the front seat of Vicki Hobbs’ car and I am so grateful for everything that she taught my husband and I in her hypnobirthing classes. 

I knew when I fell pregnant that I wanted to enroll and do Vicki’s hypnobirthing course. I didn’t know very much about it however I had friends who completed Vicki’s course and spoke so highly about her.

This is our second son that I was pregnant with and this time round I wanted to be educated with as much information as I possibly could regarding natural births.

I was induced with our first son Noah and after completing my hypnobirthing course I realised that I was so naïve the first time round. I believed and trusted in the hospital system and I didn’t question anything.

I really didn’t even know what induction meant even on the morning that I was induced.

Noah stopped breathing 3.5 hours after he was born and we spent 10 days in Princess Margaret Hospital after his birth and it was one of the most harrowing experiences that we both went through, still to this day we have never been given an answer to WHY Noah stopped breathing. They did so many tests on him and as first time parents with no family here it was definitely one of the most challenging times of our lives. I have come to terms with Noah’s birth and it doesn’t upset me anymore, however it is always something that we will question but we had to move on from it!

Second time falling pregnant I was determined to follow a different route. After completing Vicki’s course I felt so empowered. I trusted her insights so much and I followed her instructions as to how to have a positive birth and I used all of the tools in our toolkit. I learned how to use breathing techniques and to visualise my breath giving oxygen to my baby and helping him down the birth canal when it was our time to birth together.

Relaxing every single day was very important for me. I was determined to use the time that I had left and use the tools that Vicki empowered us with and I really believed that we could have a positive natural birth.

I actively made time every single day and listened to my relaxation and my affirmation tracks. I found them so powerful. I love the meditation side of the hypnobirthing course, it really and truly does work. I used to fall asleep every time I listened to my tracks and I was worried that I wasn’t taking it in because I would get so relaxed and fall asleep, but Vicki assured me that subconsciously I was taking everything in and when it was time to birth I would remember everything.

My husband would use light touch to massage me while I was on my fit ball, which released hormones and again helped me to get into my zone and relaxed my body even further. Vicki made a room spray for us which was made from mandarin essential oils and it was so relaxing. I would spray it above me when I was meditating and the scent automatically had me in a tranquil state.

We had so much respect for Vicki as a Practitioner that we were delighted when she  agreed to be our Doula and our support person on the day of our birth.

Now let me tell you how Elijah was actually born.

Our due date that we were given by the hospital was the 21^st of December but with hypnobirthing we don’t use terms like “due dates” so we told people our baby was due around the end of December.

For any pregnant woman wishing to have a powerful, positive, natural birth I would recommend looking into hypnobirthing because as women it is our birth right and we are strong enough that we can absolutely do it.

I was going through Braxton Hicks contractions all weekend and my husband flew up to work on the Friday the 9^th December and he was due home on the 16th December.

To be honest I was a little bit anxious because in my head I was thinking baby is due 5 days later!

I decided that whatever happened Paul could get back to me in time and honestly I felt so positive that I had Vicki’s support and expertise that the worry just left me.

Low and behold Elijah decided that he was going to be born early.

We had a Christmas party that morning for my son’s Martial Arts and we stayed there for around 4 hours.

We arrived home at around 2pm and we had another Christmas party to go to but I decided it was better to stay home. I was tired and I needed to have a rest and my 4 year old son had been my little support person all day Sunday.

I honestly believed I had the worst case of constipation ever, because I was induced with Noah, everything that I was feeling was new for me but I just went with it.

I rang Vicki and explained my symptoms and she asked if I felt like I was in labour, which I promptly negated, and she suggested having a bath to relax my body and perhaps get some prune juice or ask the pharmacy what I could safely take for the constipation.

Normally I would have a nap however this particular day I wasn’t able to sleep because of the discomfort.

I’m surprised I didn’t realise until later that day that I was in labour.

I had a bath and again I was using the hypnobirthing techniques. I was using the deep moaning techniques (sounds like a cow) to open the airways and get my breath down to baby. Vicki discussed with us that if you are screaming and using a high-pitched tone you are closing off your larynx and constricting your breath, which in turn will make your muscles tighten.

I was using all of these techniques automatically, just going with my body and trusting in it.

Noah jumped into the bath with me, and he asked me if Elijah would be born in the bath. He was afraid that his brother would drown in the bath, but I explained to him that he is in a little sac in Mommy’s tummy and if he did decide to come in the water he would breathe when he got to the surface of the water.

As the afternoon progressed, and after a few text messages and conversations with Vicki who on more than one occasion asked if I thought I was in labour (rather than being constipated) I came to the realisation that this could quite possibly be labour, I was just in denial, so I decided to record how fast my surges were coming, and at that stage they were coming every 4-5 minutes and it was time to ring Vicki again.

Vicki came over as soon as I called her, and it was such a relief to see her.

Noah fell asleep on the couch – it had been a big day for him looking after me.

Vicki put the tens machine on my back and started doing some really nice lower back massage and that did distract me from the discomfort I was experiencing.

My membranes broke an hour or so after and things started to progress really fast from here!

Vicki said that was the pressure that I was feeling.

I have never felt that sensation of my membranes breaking and it was a huge gush of water.

Next thing we did was ring the hospital and let them know we were on our way.

Our neighbour arrived to look after Noah and Vicki and I drove to the hospital in Vicki’s car.

It was definitely an unpleasant car ride. The pressure to bear down was unbelievable.

Again I have never felt this sensation and my body was just taking over.

My body knew what was happening and my instincts took over.

Vicki did mention on the 15 minute journey that if I needed her to pull over to let her know. The pressure of the surges were very intense however Vicki managed to get us to the hospital just in time and all the while she encouraged me to concentrate on my breathing and to visualise meeting my baby.

There was one stage on the journey that I actually asked Vicki to pull over. We were so close to the hospital, and I felt as if I couldn’t hold on, that baby was coming, but we literally just parked the car at the set down area of the hospital entrance and by the time Vicki jumped out of the car and around to my side of the car to open my door the baby’s head came out.

Vicki rang the labour & delivery suite to let them know we were downstairs, and they asked her to bring me up as they were busy.

There was a slight pause when she told them that my baby’s head was out and that the midwife needed to send someone down to help me get up to the labour ward.

The midwife then said, “did you just say that the head is out?” and Vicki confirmed that it was and she said they would be right down.

I asked Vicki to take a photo of me, in her car, legs up on the dash, with my baby’s head right there and me with the biggest smile on my face, so that I could send that photo to Paul.

The next surge our baby was born, and I was the one that reached down to catch him.

I still find it a little bit surreal that I birthed my own baby with no interference or interventions.

I felt a sense of overjoy and such happiness that our baby was here.

An overpowering surge of love just engulfed me and I wasn’t one bit upset that my husband missed the birth.

I was floating on love hormones and so elated that our baby decided to arrive early.

Suddenly there were people all around us and one of the midwives was trying to cut the cord straight away and she was a little confused when Vicki stopped her and said that we were doing delayed cord clamping. She attempted to cut it again and Vicki repeated my request.

The midwife really couldn’t get her head around how to transfer me to the trolley when the cord was still attached to me and baby. Vicki suggested helping me out of the car with me holding baby and guiding me onto the trolley. She emphasised that this was a “great idea” when the midwife repeated it so it seemed as if the midwife had suggested doing this!

Vicki’s course was worth every single penny.

The guidance that I received from her and the resources that were available for us was invaluable.

Second time round I knew I had the ability to birth this baby naturally and I trusted every instinct I had.

Throughout my entire pregnancy the doctors kept on mentioning that I was a high risk candidate and that I could develop pre-eclampsia due to my high blood pressure. I did not develop pre-eclampsia however the stress that they were putting me under with the suggestion that I could develop it I’m amazed I didn’t automatically get it!

My last appointment with the hospital was 2 days before my son was born. On this particular day the doctor was trying to book me in for an induction, however I now had the tools and the voice to say NO and I did this.

I got the doctor to go through my birth preferences with me and again I informed her that I did not want to be induced like I was with my first son. She was against it because of the high blood pressure and the possibility again of pre-eclampsia ( I was so tired of hearing this ) but I insisted and I felt so proud of myself walking out of the hospital knowing I was not in that induction appointment book!

Two days later my beautiful son Elijah decided that he was ready to make an appearance into this world and that is exactly what he did. He is absolutely thriving and he is such a strong healthy baby and so so content.

We are blessed with him, and our other son Noah is in love with his little brother. The amount of kisses Eli gets daily off Noah is adorable.

I would like to finish off by saying a heartfelt THANK YOU to Vicki for everything that she did for us, for giving us the tools and the knowledge to understand our rights and to be able to decide for ourselves what was right for the birth of our baby.

I feel well prepared if we decide in the near future for baby number 3!

THANK YOU AGAIN BEAUTIFUL VICKI.

LOVE FROM

MAGGIE, PAUL, NOAH & BABY ELIJAH.
January 2017