Dear Hulda and Tamara, my husband and I attended your Hypnobirthing course in June and July 2009 and we want to write to tell you about the wonderful birth we had, largely due to the skills we learned and practiced.
While we were taking the course, I felt I didn’t have enough time to practice everything I thought I should and was worried I wouldn’t be able to use the techniques well enough when I needed to. The breathing practices though really helped us relax, and we tried to do these every day, and as we got closer to the due date, we even found the affirmations helpful (we were both very skeptical about these earlier in the pregnancy!). Also, Hulda and Tamara’s positive view of birthing and the kind of information we were given by them left us looking forward to the birth and not at all anxious, making the pregnancy an enjoyable and relaxing time.


Once I had my show, we increased the breathing practice and affirmations and kept very relaxed. My waters broke at 8pm 2 days later (10 days before the due date) and contractions began at 9pm. I was so relaxed though that these were felt like backache that came and went, so we put on the affirmations and continued eating our dinner and then cleared up and then phoned the hospital. We ended up being in fairly close contact with Helen, a midwife at the Matilda, throughout. As the contractions got stronger, we did the breathing exercises and Phil used the prompt card and we listened to the affirmations, and the contractions were completely manageable, just a little uncomfortable really, but were close together. This confused us, as I thought I’d be in a lot of pain by this frequency. By 11pm, they had got stronger and were much closer. I was using different positions and concentrating on the breathing and was still very relaxed between them. However, Phil had to go out to give our key to a friend so she could walk the dogs (because this was happening 9 days early, we weren’t really prepared!) and without him, the contractions were more painful. When he returned, I got back in control of things and was even able to give him a haircut between contractions! I was still very relaxed and either time telescoped between contractions or I dozed off. Suddenly, around 1.30 am I had an overwhelming urge to push! Once Phil had assured me he couldn’t see the head (!), we called Helen at the Matilda and agreed we’d better get a car rather than wait for the 0420 ferry. Finding out that the car couldn’t come until 0230 tested the breathing - the contractions were strong but I also had to fight the urge to push, and that was hard. Phil kept me focused in the car on the way to the Matilda, and we arrived at 0330, fully dilated, +1. Little Harry was born 36 minutes later, no cuts, no tears, no pain relief, and Phil received him and cut the cord.


The labour and birth were incredible and we are so grateful to have been able to follow your advice and make the birth something special between the three of us. We had a very long bonding period with Harry, thanks to the wonderful staff at the Matilda. Both Harry and I recovered very quickly from the birth, which I am sure was because the whole labour was so relaxed and calm. Harry’s Agpar Score was 9 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. He is now a very relaxed, contented baby who rarely cries but is alert and strong. By Hypnobirthing him, we have given Harry the very best possible start in life. So, a very big THANK YOU to everyone at Annerley!  Micheline Stockton 2009