Lou Ashwell & Tim, Saltdean

It was a home birth… I laboured really well from 8pm to midnight, relaxation breaths were great for surges, Tim did some excellent light strokes and although I wasn’t in a deep trance as there was worry about not hearing back from the midwives (service was overrun) the MP3’s kept me calm. After that it got a lot faster and we were more worried about lack of midwife, I wanted to be in the pool but just focused on the breathing. It was a mixture of just getting on with it and trying to visualise the balloon in my stomach, I tried positions I’d seen in the vids but nature took over somewhat! If a midwife had been able to come earlier (a midwife arrived at 01:34, time of birth 01:39!) I think we could have had a really special, amazing hypnobirthing. As it was, thank god we had some hypno management skills – although we were in a situation we had not prepared for, we were able to get through it confidently and powerfully. So thank you for your help!