Phoebe + Ryan + Baby Nellie

From the off, I knew I wanted my husband and my mum to be present at the birth of my daughter. A friend of mine who was pregnant at the same time as me, but a few weeks ahead, recommended hypnobirthing and in particular, Ruth. I was a little pessimistic and thought to myself ‘how can hypnobirthing, a course, support me in labour which is one of the worst pains of any woman’s life?!’ How wrong was I. The sessions with Ruth, which we had 1:1 were absolutely amazing. We had them over zoom and from the get go we were all ‘wowed’. At the end of the course my husband stated how informed he felt, how much he had learned and how he felt he could support me so much more than he ever knew he could. My birth didn’t go to plan, however, this did not affect me using hypnobirthing and sticking to what I knew. I ended up being induced at 39+2, I was already 2cm dilated when they inserted the pessary, and that evening, the surges started.

“my husband stated how informed he felt, how much he had learned and how he felt he could support me so much more than he ever knew he could”

That evening we were taken down to the labour ward and I had a relaxing bath, listened to my birthing affirmations and remained calm… breathing through the surges, and reminding myself of what my body was doing was bringing me closer to meeting my daughter. The control I felt was unbelievable and I do not believe I would’ve felt so in control and so calm without the hypnobirthing. On the labour ward, my waters were artificially broken and the hormone drip was inserted. The surges intensified and I began pushing, my labour wasn’t progressing after almost two hours of pushing so the midwife drained my bladder to see if it was obstructing my birth canal. She got the consultant in who examined me, with consent, and he told me that my pelvis was too narrow to birth naturally and I was going to need an emergency caesarean section.

Although this was not on my plan, I continued using my hypnobirthing and remained calm, in control and focused on my daughters arrival.

The staff in theatre were incredible and all commented on how calm and focused I was throughout my daughter being delivered. The atmosphere was calm, I was calm and at 08:59 my daughter was born into the world, healthy and perfect. Myself and my husband can not thank Ruth enough for enabling us to feel in control, calm and happy throughout what otherwise could’ve been a traumatic birth. I would recommend Ruth and her course to any pregnant couple, it really is what I would describe as life changing and as I hopefully go on to have more children, I will continue to use put the knowledge Ruth gave us, into practice. Thank you Ruth, you’re amazing.