E. and A. Cleevely, London

Our birthing experience unfortunately didn’t go according to plan…he was breech and the advice from the doctors was that the chance of the turning procedure working was relatively small and likely to lead to an emergency C-section. We opted to have a ‘planned’ C-section the following day instead, the day before he was due. In the end, it was uncomplicated and a relatively comfortable experience. The C-section wound made the night in hospital was very difficult. Whilst hypnobirthing didn’t come in handy for the birth itself, it definitely helped us get out of hospital faster and bond well with our new baby together. We managed to get out of hospital 22 hours after Magnus was born, due to our strong belief that birthing is a normal human experience and our ability to deal with the situation calmly. In particular, hypnobirthing gave us the courage to believe in our convictions – everything from asking lots of questions of the medical staff to ensure we knew what was happening, to continuing breast feeding exclusively despite the health visitor’s assertions… Above all, the course gave us a dedicated time to really think and talk about the birth of our baby together, in a way we wouldn’t have done otherwise, and gave us a shared understanding of what we wanted for us as a family, not just in birth but in the first weeks and months of his life too.