Welcome Hypnobub Alfie

I received this email a little while ago and could not wait to share this beautiful positive birth with you all. Well done superstar hypnomumma Helen and Jeremy, congratulations! - Nic

Little Alfred ('Alfie') John McCann was born last Wednesday at 6:04am. Absolute monster - 56cm and 3.99kg. Was not expecting that! But he is very happy and healthy which is rad.

The birth was really great. It was long - 24 hours or so- but I am really happy with how it all went and have recovered really well - feeling pretty much normal now! Not being pregnant is pretty amazing - I don't think I realised how uncomfortable I was.

Anyway, we laboured at home for ages (all day Tuesday) and it was really peaceful and calm. Jeremy did a stellar job of massaging my lower back for hours in the shower and the hypnobirth breathing was really really helpful. After having surges lasting around 1-1.5 mins, 3-4 mins apart for hours we went to hospital at about 6pm. They checked me and I was only 1cm dilated! So we went home again. Which was actually fine. Then when we got home I just alternated shower and birth ball with lots of massage and breathing and dark, calm spaces. At one point jeremy dropped the clary sage you gave us and it smashed all over the floor, so we were in a clary sage infused room. Pretty funny. Surges were lasting about 2 mins with a 1-2 min break for a few hours and we went back to hospital at 11pm and I was 8cm! Maybe it was the clary sage 😊. I ended up opting for an epidural, which I got at 2am, as I had been really calm and in control the whole time until then but could feel myself losing it. And I was a bit over it after 20 hours! It ended up being great because I had progressed so well upright for hours that labour didn't slow down at all and my surges kept coming regularly and strongly naturally. I just got a breather and a quick rest and then pushed for maybe an hour (I can't remember!) and he was born! No tearing either which is awesome (thanks largely to the midwives coaching and warm compresses and stretching I think)! We were in hospital for one night and then home the next evening. All the staff at RDH were really great and our midwife was awesome!

Alfie is being very good to us so far - very content and feeding and sleeping like a champ (most of the time!) :) We are enjoying it thoroughly.

Anyway, thanks so much for all of your help and guidance in the course. The preparation and education you provided most definitely was a huge part of our positive experience.