Helen and her husband prepared for the birth of their daughter with a Hypnobirthing PLUS course a few months ago, to help them to feel more in control, confident and supported throughout labour and birth.

Here is the story of how Ruby entered the world. Many thanks again for sharing this and congratulations!

“It was 17th September 2019 when Ruby decided she would make her arrival. I was 35 weeks pregnant, had just done the ‘big shop’ at Aldi and I was in the kitchen making the tea it was around 5pm. I felt a gush of water and my leggings were wet to which my husband asked ‘have you wet yourself?’ Knowing the answer was a definite no I knew my waters had broken.

We phoned the triage number and were told to lie on the bed and wait for an hour – if I stood up again and more water came out then they had definitely broken. Whilst lying on the bed I felt calm and Simon’s ‘jobs list’ begun which he remembered from our hypnobirthing class: run a bath, pack the car etc. Luckily I had packed 90% of the things we needed the week before in my hospital bag so shouting from the bedroom Simon packed the rest and loaded the car. By this time I had what felt like period cramps. I phoned my sister and mum to tell them and after describing my feelings told my mum to set off to the hospital to meet us there and she thought I was quite far on in my labour. I still felt calm and lay on the bed.

By this time I knew I was in labour and so we got in the car (no time for the bath unfortunately). I told Simon not to panic or drive fast as I didn’t feel we were in a rush. We got to the hospital and I FaceTimed my friend asking where to park and which bit was closest to the entrance – still remaining calm. I had downloaded an app which tracked my contractions and I watched a circle on the screen expand and contract whilst using the hypnobirthing breathing techniques which kept my focus.

We walked through the hospital and I had to sit down outside the lift to get let one of the contractions pass. We went up into the lift and got to the maternity ward. They asked me to wait in the waiting room and then we to lye on a bed to be monitored.

By the time the nurse had turned her back I felt an urge to push – ‘you are 7cm’ she exclaimed! To my shock I was already over half way there and hadn’t felt any ‘pain’ as such more like waves coming as each contraction passed over me. We were wheeled through straight to the delivery suite and told our baby would be here within a couple of hours. Simon couldn’t believe it – all the worry and anxiety had washed away.

During labour I tried the gas and air but felt it got in the way. I was breathing through each contraction and pictured myself on a beach taking myself away and remained calm. I didn’t have any pain relief – something which if you had told me this months before I wouldn’t have believed as i faint at the slightest paper cut!

The baby remained calm too despite being a few hours over what they expected the labour to be. The baby was rocking in the birth canal and as they came out went straight back in. It felt frustrating. Contractions then slowed down too and I had to have hormones injected to speed them up again. Something I was unsure of but was necessary to speed up the delivery.

In the end we had a forceps delivery and I had to be cut to allow for this. Again I remained calm – breathed through it and took myself away mentally. Then she finally made her arrival – a baby girl – Simon cut the cord: something he would have been scared to do had he not been to the hypnobirthing class. But we took it all in our stride.

Ruby Mae was born at 12:44am on 18th September 2019. The most magical birth and despite having a forceps delivery, needing stitches and having a longer labour than they had first predicted – we both stayed calm and that was all down to our amazing hypnobirthing course taught by Jenie.”