read some hypnobirthing birthstories

This is just a sample of the wonderful birthstories we are receiving....

Hi Helianthe,

Ella's birth was the most beautiful experience of my life! Absolutely amazing!

It went really well and was a quick one for the first baby (six and a half hours).

I woke up at 5:00 am on Friday and had a "bloody show", then a little later

some random contractions came on. They felt

stronger than the braxton hicks I had experienced

before so I knew it was the real thing. They

continued throughout the day, but they weren't real

strong or regular so Rick and I just hung around the

flat eating, reading, watching TV, and I even gave

myself a facial and painted my toes (not easy to

reach as you can imagine!). Then, about 2:00 pm.

the contractions became regular and were about 5

min. apart. The midwife came and took us to the

birth center. We had the place to ourselves so it was

very private. They have a small garden where Rick

and I walked around in circles (must have done

more than 50 laps!) I would just hang onto Rick during the contractions and

then continue walking. The midwives said the walking would help my cervix

dilate faster and it seemed to do the trick.

At about 5:30 the contractions got more intense so I got into the birthing pool

where I stayed for the next three hours until Ella was born. I listened to the

tapes, and practiced my breathing and relaxation exercises between the

contractions. All of the techniques helped me stay really relaxed, which I think

is why the birth progressed so quickly. I went through transition in about 15

minutes and then I felt ready to push. I pushed for an hour, which surprised

me because but it really only seemed like about 15 minutes. I did most of the

pushing in the pool on my knees with my arms and head supported by Rick on

the side of the pool. The pushing was very painful, but I never felt like it was

unmanageable or that I would need pain relief.

When Ella came out, the midwife caught her and handed her to Rick and he

brought her out of the water. I laid back and he put her on my tummy after he

announced that she was a girl. She laid on my tummy for maybe 45 seconds

while the fluid naturally drained out of her lungs (they didn't even suction her).

Then she took a deep breath and made a little yelp- she was so relaxed that

she didn't even cry.

As you can imagine, we just adore her and sit and marvel at her all the time.

It's hard to remember what it was like without her! She's a really sweet baby-

rarely cries and is calm and alert when awake. She sleeps really well- goes

down with us between 10:30 and 11:30 and waking around 2:30 and 5:00 and

then every hour after eight. The midwives say she is an efficient feeder

because she gets what she needs in about 10-15 minutes. Thus, I have been

able to get nearly eight hours a night. I just hope this will last!

Thanks for leading such a great hypno-birthing course. It really helped me

achieve the childbirth experience that I wanted for me and my baby!

Katie Vasicek

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Carl & Stine's Birth Story

Daniel was born six days after his due date on 6th of December 2004 at 19.25.

His birth was a wonderful experience thanks to the hypnobirthing techniques.

I started having surges in the morning

approximately 10 minutes apart. Carl and I got up

and started doing the 20/20 breathing.

The surges were slightly painful before I got up,

because I could not concentrate, but when I

focused on what we had learned at the course

and what we had been practicing at home the

pain disappeared. Carl made a big packed lunch

and we checked the bag to bring to the hospital. At lunchtime the surges were

5 minutes apart and we rang the hospital. They advised to come in if I could

not manage the surges, but it was not a problem. We went for a walk instead.

Carl got a bit nervous about the whole thing and he told me in the middle of

the street to breathe the baby out. I told him it probably was not the best place

for that!

We arrived at the hospital at 15.00 and went to the birth suite. The midwife

had not heard about hypnobirthing, but she could see we knew what we were

doing and left us alone most of the time. We had a midwife student present

throughout - she was amazed about how relaxed the atmosphere was. She

got the job of getting ice water and keep the CD going.

An hour after arrival my water broke and soon afterwards I went into a trance

like state pretty much up to Daniel's birth. Carl was invaluable. Without his

prompts and shoulder press I could not have done it so easily. Unfortunately I

relied on him so much, that I nearly panicked when he was not by my side and

the poor guy never had a chance of getting anything to eat. So much for his

packed lunch!

I started having the urge to push at 18.45 and 40 minutes later Daniel was

born. Seeing him for the first time was unbelievable and the whole experience

was amazing for both Carl and I. I did not really experience any pain during

labor except stinging in the last few minutes before Daniel was born. I was in

control during the surges and able to focus on relaxation, and as soon as

Daniel was born I was ready to do the whole thing once again. Daniel is a

content baby, feeding well and sleeps well between feeds at night, so much so

that we are already looking forward to give him a brother or sister sometime in

the future!

Thanks Helianthe for helping us have such a relaxing and joyous birth!

Love Carl, Stine and Daniel

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Dear Helianthe,

We are extremely happy to inform you about the miraculous arrival of our baby

boy Alexander. That was unbelievably easy and comfortable birthing. Waters

broken at 5 a.m., that I went back to sleep and woke up at 7:15 because of

surges (very mild surges). I remained in bed and we chatted over different

things. At 8:15 the interval between surges became 7 minutes and each surge

lasted for 1 minute, so we phoned our midwife Maddie. When she arrived one

hour later the surges were already with the interval of 2-3 minutes each lasting

1 minute. Surprisingly I felt no discomfort at all, just mild tension. I was easily

coming back after each surge and we discussed whether we are going to the

Birth Centre or staying at home.

Having considered all risk factors we decided to stay at HOME (and that was

the right decision). At about 10 am went to the toilet and felt really strong and

very painful surge. At this moment I started panicking, thinking that this is it,

this is the real birthing starts, and now this pain will be there for at least

several hours (Mikhail felt absolutely the same, he came to me wishing to help

me back to bed).

While I was in the toilet Maddie and Rachel (midwives) quickly unpacked

birthing matte and covered everything with disposable sheets. On my way

back to bed I had to stop and get on my knees, as I

had a strongest wish to push. I was expecting the

midwives would tell me not to push and breathe, but

they kept saying that everything is OK. So one push

- and Alexanders head was born together with one of

his hands (he was holding his ear). Another push -

and Alexander arrived to this world. 16 minutes later

placenta was born. I had no bruises no nothing. I

was absolutely shocked by the ease and comfort of

the process (it seems to me now that till the very end

I was not 100% sure that this is possible at all).

Mikhail was absolutely delighted. He also was not expecting everything to be

so perfect and great. Alexander is one week old now. He is a very calm and

smiley boy, sleeping and eating a lot. He almost never cries (only when I

change his nappy). Anna was at home and came to see her little brother just

20 minutes after he was born. She adores Alexander and really likes to spend

time with him, showing him toys, talking to him or singing to him.

We would really like to thank you for everything you have done to make our

experience unforgettable and just perfect.

Sincerely,

Elena, Mikhail, Anna and Alexander

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Beverley Turner & James Cracknell: Our Experience.

Beverley:

Helianthe's hypnobirthing gave me a birth experience that I could only have

dreamt about. Like all women I was anxious and uncertain about what to

expect. We were aiming for a natural birth at London's Birth Centre but

everyone kept telling me it was a ridiculous idea and I should go for the drugs.

I was determined to prove them wrong and I did! I was in the middle of writing

a book about Formula One and knew that being laid up with a caesarean scar

would be very debilitating. As it turned out, I gave birth at 9.30 am and was

back home, watching the Grand Prix and taking notes by 10pm. The next day I

went for a walk to the river.

When my waters broke I was calm and confident that my body would do

exactly what I needed it to. I stayed at home and began cleaning like a mad

woman. As the evening drew on my tummy felt tighter but not at all painful

because I was so relaxed. James and I watched TV in front of the fire with lots

of pillows. The midwives had been round and checked on me once but I

wanted to watch the end of Sex in th City and said I would call them if I wanted

to go to the Birth Centre. It was all very instinctive and I firmly believe that is

because of the Hypnobirthing training. The midwives knew that Hypnobirthing

mums give birth much more quickly but accepted my decision totally.

Finally at 3am I called them and we went into the Birth Centre where I got in

the birthing pool. We played the hypnobirthing tape over and over and in my

notes I apparently said "This is bliss." James wasn't as well-rehearsed as I

would have liked (I have made him suffer with that ever since) but he counted

my breaths and turned the tape over. I did get very tired towards the end but

when I got of the bath in order to get gravity on side our little boy appeared

pretty quickly. Because I was relaxed and because I had spent a few hours in

the water, I didn't need any stitches and had no tearing whatsoever. Croyde

fed well and was a lovely calm baby (he is less so now...maybe Helianthe can

do some hypnosis on a boisterous 14 month old!!)

I will never give birth any other way. It was a revelation and I'm afraid I have

become a bit evangelical about it. I recommended Helianthe to a friend who

had had a terribly traumatic time with her first - lots of intervening doctors and

an emergency c-section. She has since had a beautiful big baby girl

completely naturally at home and is elated by her experience - all the doctors

had told her it wasn't possible. My ante-natal pals also suffered a myriad of

complications as a direct result of meddling doctors and their own -

understandable - anxieties. Over half were given c-sections.

I cannot recommend Hypnobirthing enough. I even find myself doing some of

the breathing techniques when I am about to broadcast on TV or Radio! The

relaxation skills are very useful in everyday life.

James:

When Bev said she wanted to do Hypnobirthing I was very sceptical. You

might think that as an athlete I would believe in the power of the mind but I

needed some convincing. The main problem with

our lessons with Helianthe were Bev's giggles.

She couldn't stop laughing and on a few occasions

she had to go into the garden to get it out of her

system. I had hoped to be able to put her in a

trance every time I needed a shirt ironing but no

luck. The lessons themselves were great for me

too as I got to have a lie down and do some deep

relaxation. As I had normally come straight from a

training session on the river I quickly fell asleep.

But it didn't matter - although Bev was

embarrassed by my snoring. I was away a lot

during our pregnancy but Bev listened to the tapes

and seemed very relaxed about the whole thing. I

realized during the birth that I wasn't as well

prepared as I should have been and felt bad about it. At one point I asked bev

if she was ok and she growled back "Don't ASK me if I'm ok, TELL me I am!"

She was more annoyed with me than with giving birth...tip for the dads...do

your homework. it will make your lives a lot easier and your partners birth

much calmer. I was so proud of Bev and the way she kept in control

throughout. I held her head in the water for about 4 hours and all the callouses

on my hands peeled off. It hurt like hell when I got back in the rowing boat.

Bev said it served me right for not being better prepared. Next time I will try

harder and we will certainly do the training again. I think it is understandable to

be nervous and I expect that Bev will need to have any negativity erased

again. People are always telling us their horror stories. Helianthe's service

actually went beyond the hypnobirthing and she ended up giving us an

afternoon of marriage guidance when the stress of the pregnancy, me being

away and the looming Olympics all came crashing in on us. Bev was

struggling to explain how she was feeling and I wasn't doing a good job of

listening. Helianthe gave us a safe, objective space to discuss our concerns in

and it worked brilliantly. We owe her and hypnobirthing an awful lot.

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Hi Helianthe

Just a quick note to tell you that Julia give birth to a 6lb 12 oz baby girl named

Jessica three weeks early on 2nd Dec. Mother and baby doing very well.

We went to hospital at 11.00am, with Julia very cool calm and collected to find

out that she was already 6cm dilated, at 1.29pm she said that she wanted to

push as she had been very calm through her surges, suffering almost no pain

whatsoever, our little girl was born at 2.44pm with 4 stitches, no cuts and no

hassles, the placenta was delivered naturally after almost one hour and she

had NO drugs, NO pain relief and everything went REALLY well.

She attributes her easy birth to attending your hypnotherapy classes and

learning how to let her body take control of the birthing process. I am sure that

she will send you a longer email herself shortly after the house move but we

just wanted to thank you for all your help and to HIGHLY RECOMMEND your

course to ANYONE thinking of having a natural birth.

The midwives were superb in fact they were even proud of the fact that she

had an all natural birth and on several occasions stated that they "wished all

pregnant mums were like you, so calm and collected".

Thanks again Helianthe, will be in touch again soon

Regards, W. Paul Liggett

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Hi Helianthe

We had a beautiful baby girl on Tuesday 27th April. She was 6 days early,

born at home and I didn’t have any pain relief.

My labour start in the early hours of Monday 26th April. It was all fine and I

used the hypnobirthing breathing techniques to manage the surges. I went to

get my legs waxed when I was having surges every 5/6 minutes. Sue who did

the leg wax couldn’t quite believe it but I had this real thing about not giving

birth with hairy legs. Anyway she was amazed how calm I was at the time. To

be fair though the leg wax was

worse than the surges at that stage!

By 6.30pm labour was well

established and Becky arrived at

7.15pm. I was really starting to feel

the surges but kept breathing

through them. As the labour

progressed I kept up the breathing

and listened to the hypnobirthing

tape and tried to do the

visualisations.

It did become a bit painful towards the end and I did yell a bit! When it came to

actually delivering the baby it was amazing. I started pushing and didn’t really

feel very much then I gave a huge push and felt her head being delivered.

Becky told me that with one more push the baby would be delivered. I

gathered my breath and pushed and her little body just dropped out. When I

saw her for the first time it was just awesome. The cord was cut and the

placenta delivered 10 minutes later and then Becky ran us a bath and the

baby and I got in it together, I had her cradled in my arms and she was so

calm but alert it was just such an incredible experience. Becky & Rachel

tucked Adam, Amber and myself up in bed and left about 3.30am. I couldn’t

sleep as I was so excited, I spent the rest of the night awake just watching her.

Amber is just over 3 weeks old now and she’s really thriving. I often think

about the labour and delivering her and I am so delighted it went the way I

wanted it to. So many people go on about what a bad birthing experience they

had and I feel very proud to be able to talk about mine in such a positive

manner.

Hypnobirthing helped give me the confidence, belief and techniques to be able

to have that wonderful experience and for that I want to thank you for sharing

hypnobirthing with us. It made the birth I wanted a reality. Hope to see you at

some point in the future.

Love, Carole, Adam & Amber xxx

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Hi Helianthe

Thought I’d send you my story – thank you from the bottom of my heart for

making my birthing experience a very happy one. I believe that the

hypnobirthing techniques helped on 2 levels – The first to help me cope with

the pain and the second, to allow me to communicate with my baby and help

him on his passage. The picture was taken as he had just been placed on my

chest and taken his first breath – amazing! And to top it all – I have an angel

baby – he is so relaxed and happy being a mother is a breeze – I’m so

lucky.

Thank you ! Ali xx

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Hi Helianthe,

I went into labour six days after Leonardo's official 'due' date.

I woke that day at 6.30am with lower back pain - a bit like menstrual cramps.

The discomfort started to come and go at regular intervals and this is when I

realised that active labour had begun. I can only assume that I had slept

through early labour.

Marco awoke and I asked him to put on some water for a hot water bottle

which I held to my back and this went some way to alleviating the discomfort.

Marco then put on the rainbow relaxation cd and I concentrated on the deep

breathing. The most comfortable position for me was standing up where I was

able to start really concentrating on what was happening and relax.

At about 8am we left for the hospital which was only a 5 minute drive away.

Once there Marco dealt with the paper work and I stood leaning over a table,

breathing up every surge whilst the baby's heartbeat and my surges were

monitored.

At about 9am we were shown to a room and here I was only vaguely aware of

a number of people around me as I was concentrating on my breathing and

what was happening to my body. I found it really helpful to almost 'go into

myself' and picture moment for moment what was going on inside. I kept tellng

myself that all of these new sensations were

perfectly normal and that I should just go with the flow! I found the opening

rose imagery really useful at this point and I kept willing my cervix to open.

At 9.30am the gynaecologist visited me whilst I was standing since this was

the position I felt best in and she told me that I was already 8cm dilated so it

was high time to move to the delivery room.

By 10.00am the tub was ready and as I slipped into the warm water and the

weightless sensation that the water gave me was amazing. My back definitely

felt the benefit. It was at this point that my waters broke and I felt like a

deflated ballon - fantastic!

I was truly comfortable bobbing about regaining strength between the

pushing/breathing down stage - in fact I was so comfortable that when the

mid-wife suggested that I might like to try the birthing stool to speed things up

it took me at least 1/2 hour to convince myself to get out.

Whilst in the tub the midwife sat in front of me taking Leonardo's heartbeat at

regular intervals (which showed no sign of stress) and Marco sat behind me,

reminding me to relax.

Every time I breathed down I let out an instinctive birthing cry that I'm

convinced almost deafened the mid-wife and initally gave Marco cause for

concern as he thought I was in pain - I wasn't - the only downside was a

hoarse voice and sore throat once it was all over.

Since the birthing stage was taking quite a while I did eventually decide to get

out and try the stool. Marco sat behind me and applied the light touch

massage to my lower back which was wonderful. The midwife placed a mirror

on the floor so that I could see the head. In fact things at that stage started to

move fast so I was invited to get back into the pool which I had to waddle to as

Leonardo was now very low in the birth canal.

Once back in the water it only took 3 pushes for Leonardo to shoot out at

12.54 pm - 6.5 hrs after I started to feel the first surges. He was immediately

placed on my chest. Marco then cut the cord.

My perineum was intact except for a very small internal tear and I had no

stitches.

I can definitely say that I had a

wonderful birth experience which was

made possible thanks to the

hypnobirthing course and undoubtedly

the support and courage that Marco

gave me both leading up to and during

the birth.

If I can give any advice to future mums

I would say be prepared to really listen

to your body - these are new

sensations and it helps to remember

that your body is just doing a job that it

was programmed to do; choose the

most comfortable position for you - whatever it might be; remember to breathe

correctly - it is crucial.

Tanya, Marco and Leonardo.

Hypnobirthing STORIES

We have a range of

hypnobirthing sessions

available to complement your

hypnobirthing classes.

for example:

- induce your labour

- fear release

- turn your breech baby

- positive C-section

- and more

all our downloads are:

* easy to download

* relaxing

* full of effective techniques

* based on proven methods

* professionally recorded

* only £7.99 each

for more info, click here

info@hypnoclinic.net

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