For most people, falling pregnant is a very exciting time. You wonder about this new little baby, will it be a boy or a girl, what will you name them? Maybe in the early days, it’s just a matter of surviving the morning sickness and tiredness. As the months pass by, you begin to think about what this new little person will need. A cot, a pram, a car seat, clothes. You start to think about the cost of these items. It’s all starting to add up! And then you think about going to one wage for a while and it all starts to hit home. Having kids is expensive!
Somewhere along the way you hear about this childbirth education course, called HypnoBirthing. Maybe your midwife or OBGYN mentions it to you, or a friend. You read that it can help reduce inductions, interventions and c-sections. You read that pain can be reduced and labour can be shorter. But……it costs around $600! You have a think about it and decide that you just can’t make the budget stretch that far. Surely if it were that important, all hospitals would be teaching it! (BTW, four NSW hospitals are!)
Nobody understands this more than me. When I fell pregnant unexpectedly, my then boyfriend of 18 months (now husband) and I were living in inner city Melbourne. I had just taken out a car loan for $26,000 before suddenly deciding to quit my job and start my own business. Then surprise! You’re having a baby. I decided to up-end us from our fun-filled life and move us out to the suburbs to be closer to family support.
We relied on family for everything. They helped us purchase all the essentials for our baby and we couldn’t have done it without them.
When I went into labour, it was not was I expected at all. I had done some preparation but not enough and it was long, it was tough and it was really painful. Our son needed assistance when he was born and spent 5 nights in the Special Care Nursery. We didn’t get that immediate skin-to-skin contact after he was born which I had been waiting 9 months for and absolutely devastated about.
It may seem hard for some to understand as I still had a vaginal delivery, which I’d wanted, and in the end I had a healthy baby but I was really surprised at how his birth had affected me. Looking back now I realize it was trauma, close to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I relived that birth every night for 12 months before seeking help, clearing the trauma and healing.
For my second birth, I utilized all my HypnoBirthing skills and whilst I wouldn’t say active labour was comfortable, early labour definitely was and I loved the experience. It healed my husband and me, empowered me as a mother and as a woman and it really hit home the affect birth can have on you.
It has an affect on you, your baby and your partner. This affect may be positive, it may be negative.
Think about how much money you spent on your wedding, on your 18th, your 21st, your 30th. You spent that money because it was a momentous occasion, something to be celebrated and remembered forever. You knew you would cherish that day and look back on it fondly so you planned and organised, you researched and shopped around.
Why do we feel that the birth of a child doesn’t deserve that same thought, time and effort?
The birth of your baby will stay with you forever. The finer details may be hazy but how you felt on that day or night will be etched into your soul. How your partner acts and reacts on the day or night will stay with not only them but you too.
We are learning more and more about how babies start learning before they are born. What will they remember about their birth, maybe not consciously but in their subconscious, how will it shape the person they become?
30% of women are left traumatised by their birth. We have 15% of our mums with postnatal depression (PND), almost 1 in 10 with post traumatic stress disorder and the number one cause of perinatal mortality is SUICIDE.
HypnoBirthing stacks the odds in your favour so that you won’t be part of that 30%. Instead you will realize that you are an incredibly powerful women, that you just achieved an absolute miracle and absolutely rocked it.
So for those who say it’s too expensive, I say, it’s so worth it, you are worth it and your baby is worth it. Dig deep, ask for help if you can and maybe you don’t need all the pram accessories!
