I’m so thrilled to be able to share with you this wonderful birth story! I taught my private hypnobirthing course to Zoe & Dan in the comfort of their own home and really enjoyed getting to know them both. Well done Zoe and Dan and thank you so much for allowing me to share your positive birth story with others! xxx

My husband Dan and I had private hypnobirthing classes with Pea in the Pod a couple of months before I was due to have my first baby. I had chosen Burnley Birth Centre as my place to give birth and I know that they are really supportive of hypnobirthing there.

Two weeks prior to my due date I was offered a sweep. However, as I wasn’t particularly uncomfortable and baby wasn’t yet due, I decided to decline the sweep. Something that I wouldn’t have felt I could do without the knowledge of BRAIN through the hypnobirthing classes.

Then on my due date, 3rd November, I was booked in for another sweep. This time I felt ready to have one. We met a different midwife – Sally and we instantly felt a connection with her. The sweep was performed and she told us that she was working on bonfire night so she had her fingers crossed that the baby would arrive on her shift. We hoped for the same as we had such a nice rapport with Sally.

At 1am on Saturday 4th November I woke with my first surges, they were quite spread out so I tried to sleep between them. Early in the morning they had become closer together so I got into the bath and started recording the surges on my Freya app. By 10.00 I was having 3 surges within ten minutes so I called the birth centre, they told us to head over and that Sally was working.

The drive over was as relaxing as we could make it with our playlist on, and I continued to monitor the surges on Freya. We arrived at the birth centre to a lovely welcome as Sally had told the other midwives about us. Sally was tied up with another delivery but I managed the surges by standing up & putting my hands on the bed leaning forward while Dan rubbed my back. I was assessed to see how dilated I was – 8cm so I was fine to get into the birthing pool. For a number of hours I was in the birthing pool holding my comb, using the Freya app and managing the surges with Dan rubbing my back. He knew what to do for me thanks to our classes where we had discussed what I wanted during the labour.

I finally got the urge to push at around 5pm, I stayed in the pool and the midwives didn’t think that it would be long until I met my baby. Such an exciting thought. The baby’s head became visible and there was a lot of hair. We had fireworks going off in the background and in the room everything was very calm. My energy levels began to dip so the midwife made me some jam butties and they were the best that I have ever tasted! Some glucose tablets and the butties gave me some energy but even though I was pushing well the baby’s head wasn’t coming out far enough.

I had been pushing for 2 hours so Sally the midwife asked what I thought about an episiotomy as there didn’t seem to be enough room for baby’s head. It would mean getting out of the birthing pool but by this point I knew my body was getting tired. I waddled over to the bed with the support of the midwives and Dan, once on the bed I had another surge and Sally did the episiotomy – within seconds Dan caught the baby as she came out…A GIRL, and we were filled with the most overwhelming love for her! It turns out that she was in the posterior position facing forward which is why her head kept getting stuck.

Evie Thea Nash born at 7.20pm on 5th November 2023.

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