HypnoBirthing Case Study – The Birth of Lisa

“Shortly after falling pregnant, I started researching my birthing options.

I soon knew I wanted to birth at home, it was an inner desire/thought that just felt right for me.  The next step was to find the people to support me in my wish. I found Karen van der Merwe as our midwife. She was excellent and very professional.

I also read about HypnoBirthing and that appealed to me. I knew I wanted a peaceful beautiful birth for my baby. I argued that she will only be born once and I wanted this to be perfect and the best possible experience for all of us. I hoped that HypnoBirthing would assist me with this vision.

We started classes with Linda in the winter of 2010. I attended the first 2 classes on my own and even gave up the opening of the soccer world cup for this. I was so enthusiastic about the course as it made sense to me and felt right in my guts. The classes were great and gave Marco also more peace of mind and confidence. We enjoyed Linda for her dry humor and down to earth practical approach.

I am very grateful to my husband, Marco, for going along with my wishes, choices and this path we started on. It must have been a little daunting for him – this concept of birthing at home.

In the beginning of this journey (preparing for birthing), I wanted other people to approve of our choice for a home birth, especially those close to us. It upset me a lot if they didn’t approve or had negative responses to it. However, the HypnoBirthing Relaxation and affirmations practices brought me inner peace and calm, and one day I realised that I couldn’t care less what anybody thought about us going to birth at home. I didn’t need their approval any longer. What HypnoBirthing did for me was to align my mind, body and soul to my inner wish for a beautiful calm birth. I had total inner peace and confidence about our plan.

When labour started on Monday night around 10pm, my whole being was ready and aligned. It was quite a journey and hard work, but worth it!

During surges the affirmations would come up and helped me to stay relaxed.
I also recalled the image of the blue ribbons during the most intense ones by repeating ‘blou lintjies’ (blue ribbons) for myself. It is true, I didn’t have any concept of time during the process.

Our baby girl was born at 10:23am on Tuesday, in the pool in our bedroom and both of us received her. It was so amazing to go through it all while being there fully, not drugged or sedated in any way. During the birthing, I had twice sensations like an orgasm.  When she came out, while under water still, her eyes were wide open and she was looking around. Magic! It was an amazing experience and it is difficult to convey this wonderful experience in words.

My advice to all expecting mothers is: own your birth fully. Plan it, dream it, visualise it as the beautiful experience it ought to be. Take responsibility for it, prepare mentally, physically and spiritually for it.
It is a miracle, expect it to be.”

Lasea and Marco