Sarahs Birth Story from the MLU
Just to let you know our baby boy Dara arrived last Monday morning 14th Oct at 5am weighing 3kg (6lbs 9oz). He is doing really well and we are just so happy with our little man

Labour was v fast. After going to bed I had period type pain as I had done on other nights on and off. I did some breathing but really it was mild compared to period pain I have had and I didn’t think much of it. I noted it was coming in regular waves at one point and I was smiling wondering if something would happen soon!
At 3am I woke to small gush of waters and straight away a show and surges. In hindsight we may have spent a little long trying to time surges before ringing MLU. We were calm which was great but unaware delivery was imminent. The midwife listened to 2 surges and advised to come in (10 minute journey). As soon as we hung up the phone the surges ramped up and pressure was in the back. I found it difficult to get off the loo and said a few times – we’ll go after the next one, trying to gather ourselves and get shoes on etc.
We arrived in MLU at 4.45am. I requested to go on the toilet but was pulled off it by the midwife when she saw the surge. I wanted to go on all fours immediately but was examined on the bed – I was 10 cm dilated. I moved to the birthing stool and after another few surges baby was delivered at 5am. It was very intense but I didn’t feel the need to push on the peak of the surge as my body was already strongly pushing baby out. The midwife remarked afterwards that I just breathed him out and that I was very laid back. David was also calm and absolutely fantastic in giving me support and they remarked on this too. We got skin to skin straight away and David cut the cord after DCC. The 2 midwives were fantastic in talking me through the birth, always preempting the next moment ahead which I loved. They told me afterwards that Dara was born with his fist up at his cheek.
I used some of the breathing exercises from 3am when I woke up. The rectangle one came to me straight away. I was only getting around 2 sides of the rectangle a lot of the time but it was still a great distraction! Breathing exercises also served me during the stitches.
We are mastering the breastfeeding at the moment. I’m using the haakaa pump and I’m finding it brilliant. It has helped the milk come in. I’m sorry I didn’t have it in the MLU to help the initial few drops of milk. Unfortunately we had a bad experience with the lactation consultant who hurt my breast with no warning and was very negative in my ability to breastfeed and berated me a few times! My sister who is a PHN has supported me all this week so we are making loads of progress now thankfully. Dara is regaining the weight he lost (back at 2.89kg yesterday) and his jaundice is now is at safe levels.
Hypnobirthing was hugely beneficial to us during the pregnancy, in labour and also during the last week when we experienced lack of sleep & anxieties. I have no doubt it will continue to serve us in the coming months. I just want to say a massive thank you to you Nadia. Your course was fantastic and I will definitely recommend it to anyone considering hypnobirthing or experiencing fear.
Apologies for the very long message.. just wanted to let you know our good news and that hypnobirthing made a huge difference to us. We are very grateful.
Sarah & David & baby Dara

Ciaras Birth Story- from planned home birth to hospital
Our little Prince Charming arrived! 12 days overdue born in Holles Street @ 9.04pm, weighing 7.10lb with big alert eyes 
We were induced in the end due to ‘reduced waters showing on scan @ 12 days over. So they broke waters to get the ball rolling. Game changer was the confidence we had to question doctors preferences in the height of the moment in order to slow things down, BRAINS focussed us & we managed to convince the doctors to allow us time to try to deliver naturally using the tens & Hypno birthing tools. The outcome was an intense, swift 6.5 hours natural labour!! delighted with outcome, midwives were AMAZING so supportive, happy at home already

Thank you so much Nadia, it really does work!!!
One of the doctors who had been insistent on prepping for a c-section came over to see us the next morning & humbly acknowledged she had got it wrong. Although not our original birth plan, we wouldn’t change a thing??

?
Alannahs Birth Story
When it came time to choose our antenatal classes, I wanted to learn more about hypnobirthing as I had heard such good things about it from my sister. We booked our hypnobirthing antenatal classes with Nadia because she is a practicing midwife. That gave me great confidence as I knew she was very practical and could give us great concrete knowledge about childbirth.
My partner and I learned so much from Nadia in the space of only a few hours that we felt so glad we booked with her. Nadia really helped prepare us in so many ways, we are first time parents so there was a lot for us to learn!!! Looking back now, I don’t know how we would have survived the birth without the knowledge she gave us!
We learned about the crucial role the birth partner plays in childbirth and honestly, with the help of all we learned in the hypnobirthing classes my partner was amazing, he knew what was happening every step of the way and knew how to help me through it all. I felt so supported and definitely fell more in love with him!

As a couple we had a lot of big changes happening around the time of the birth, moving house and changing jobs to name only 2. I managed the stress of it all using the hypnobirthing tools that Nadia taught us and we were able to handle it all! I felt so calm and empowered right up to the day before I gave birth.
I wanted to go into labour naturally so when I started having contractions at home on the Tuesday I stayed calm, monitored the time between them and breathed through them as we had learned in the classes. After 48 hours of contracting around the clock, I was sore and tired and we went into the hospital to have a VA, just to see if I had progressed at all. I was admitted and I continued to contract for another 48 hours, I had talked through my birth preferences with the midwifes and they understood that I wanted to try and go into labour on my own. I found the midwifes in Galway University hospital to be so kind and respectful of our birth preferences, in fact, they were excited to hear we were a hypnobirthing couple as lots of midwives in their department had just returned from a course in hypnobirthing so they wanted to support us in any way they could!
After 4 days of contracting I was exhausted and felt it was time to ask for pain relief and some assistance. I asked for pethadine, it was amazing. I felt so much better, however, after a VA that I had asked for, I still hadn’t progressed further than 1 cm so I was upset, but my partner comforted me and we rallied. I continued to monitor the contractions and by 3:30pm on the Saturday I was being walked into the labour ward. At the time I felt I was being brought in because I was 3 cm dilated, however, in hindsight the midwifery team must have assessed the situation, seen how tired I was and felt the baby needed to come out. We found out during labour, the reason why I hadn’t progressed naturally.
In the labour ward they began to hook me up to syntocinon which upset me as I did not want to be induced. I told the midwifes that I did not want to be induced. I was scared because I had heard the contractions with syntocinon were very painful and I really did not want an epidural. However, again, looking back, the team around must have felt it was time for baby to come out, I was 40 +10 and absolutely exhausted. The contractions were so overwhelmingly painful from the syntocinon that by 10pm I asked for an epidural. By 11pm the epidural was administered, from then on my cervix began to dilate really quickly, I went from 4 cm to 7 cm in the space of an hour. At that point the consultant was brought in to use the kiwi as baby was not progressing through the birth canal. Baby was not engaged fully and he was coming down at an awkward angle. Although this was all very distressing for us, at least we knew what was happening as Nadia had explained all the different types of interventions that could potentially occur. From then on my partner took over my decision making as I found it hard to cope. This is another tool we had learned in the classes and we had discussed the chance of this happening at length. He really stepped up and looked after me, he didn’t leave my side, and advocated for me.
After 3 attempts using the kiwi the consultant asked for the forceps, this really upset me and my partner. However, my partner stayed calm and strong and when the consultant looked to him and said she would need to give me an episiotomy, he could see babys head and felt it was necessary for the baby to come out. 10 pushes later, following the episiotomy, I had my baby on my chest, in my arms, I was so relieved, tired, overwhelmed, it was crazy.
The midwife clamped the cord before it turned white which we were annoyed about but we were just glad that baby was ok that we didn’t say anything. My partner cut the cord.
After some skin to skin with baby, I asked my partner to do skin to skin with our little boy as the consultant was still stitching my episiotomy and I was absolutely exhausted. My birth partner had a wonderful 40 minutes of skin to skin with our baby boy while I received stitches and had a rest.
Our baby is 6 months old now and we are back on our feet and enjoying our beautiful little boy so much. He brings us so much joy every day and the pain of the birth seems so small compared to how much we love him and how he was worth it all. It wasn’t an easy birth, but the trauma all fades away and the human body recovers amazingly! We have healed beautifully and have already spoken about growing our little family in a year or 2!
So thank you Nadia for preparing us as much as anyone can be prepared for the rollarcoaster that is childbirth!

Birth Story of Max Nicholas Byrne – 8th April 2019
Two days before Max’s due date, at about 1am, I woke up to what I would describe as symptoms of mild indigestion. These symptoms started to come in waves, effectively surges. As I was very close to my due date, I was expecting this. Having gone through the stages of labour in Nadia’s classes, I knew there was no cause to panic. I was in early labour, pre-labour. Quietly, I opened a contraction timer on my phone and started to time the surges, leaving my husband Peter to sleep! As it approached about 6am, the timer was showing more regular surges. Though they weren’t exactly five minutes apart, I decided to wake Peter.
Pretty certain I’d just had the show – I decided to call the Rotunda; my husband called work. I went in for an examination and they confirmed I was in early labour. I was sent home at this stage – and after getting into a taxi for the second time that morning, we decided just to bring the car the next time. Our first taxi driver gave us each packs of fizzy Haribo though – sound!
We sat home and chatted. Peter made me a delicious sandwich while I bounced up and down on my Swiss ball, and practised my breathing exercises. I had a favourite breathing exercise that Nadia had taught us, which was the Golden Thread. The surges were still mild at this stage, and as I stood up to get something, my waters broke. Peter ferried me into the hospital for the second time and everything seemed to kick into fifth gear. Everything, however, was going exactly how Nadia had described so far and I felt very much in control.
I was brought in for another examination and Max’s heart rate was monitored. His heart rate appeared to be dropping and I was told that he had also released meconium in utero. It wasn’t extremely serious but we needed to progress things faster. I was moved up to the delivery suite then and given time to see if I could progress on my own. I didn’t progress on my own!
My doctor arrived in the room. As I hadn’t progressed fast enough, oxytocin (the drip) needed to be administered. My heart sank when I heard this, but Peter and I didn’t even need to discuss it, we needed to get Max out as fast as possible. I thought back to my classes with Nadia, she had prepared us for every eventuality, being a midwife herself. This was one of these situations, so I relaxed and trusted my team, my partner and myself. I got into a personal zone then of deep breathing and focus and reached 10 cm dilation on the drip. I made it but now I needed the epidural! I discussed this with my midwife and with Peter, and decided this was as far as I would go naturally. I still don’t regret that decision.
The epidural worked and with the help of surgical forceps, an hour or two later Max was delivered. He was born at 9:30 pm that night.
I remember those quiet moments with Peter, how we both remained calm, how flexible we were when it came to changes to our birth plan and how proud I am of us. It gave me a real sense of empowerment – to know that whatever happened, we would manage. We owe that largely to Nadia, her own hands-on experience as a midwife and hypnobirthing. Thank you!!


Birth story of Leon Fionn Carraro
Leon Fionn arrived 6 days early on Wednesday 14 November 2018 at 10.08 pm. I had a reiki healing session on the Monday afternoon and I definitely think that moved things along (unintentionally on my part but very useful if overdue!) On the Tuesday morning I lost my mucous plug, had increased pelvic pressure and felt that things were starting to move. I spoke to one of the community midwives and she said it sounded like a good idea to stay home and see how things went. By Wednesday morning light surges had started. I sent my partner Giacomo to work as I figured it could be another day or two until things really kicked off. I called the community midwives as I had increased fluid discharge and was a little worried in case it was my waters. They advised I was the only one who would know that but I decided to wait as I had an appointment with them later that afternoon.
All the time I felt very calm, peaceful and grounded. I had a long hot shower, used a hot water bottle on my back and tummy, tried to rest and listen to my meditations. I also used my birthing ball, watched funny shows and did lots of cat and cow on my yoga mat. While I waited for my midwife appointment I listened to the meditation track and focused on my breathing. The midwife suggested I go to the hospital as my blood pressure was slightly raised and to check if I was in early labour. I realised it was because I was having a contraction while she took it so was happy to head in at that point. My partner had met me at the clinic with the hospital bags so we drove in and arrived before 7pm and I asked the midwife to check me as I was pretty sure I was already dilated. She said she didn’t think I was as “I didn’t have the demeanour of someone in labour” but I was nearly 2 cms dilated when she checked. Once I told her that I had done hypnobirthing, she was happy to try to minimise the time I needed to spend in hospital and said I should be able to go home for a few hours at least. After tracking my blood pressure for an hour, she suggested we get something to eat and to pop back at 9pm to do one final check. After a very slow walk down the street and an interesting time trying to order and not let on I was in labour, we returned to the hospital. At this stage the surges were very intense and concentrated around my sacrum but I focused on my breathing as my anchor and my mantras to stay focused. When they checked I was 4cms dilated but my waters hadn’t broken so they were happy for me to go home for a little while. Luckily I didn’t as my waters partially broke a few minutes later when I went to the bathroom. The midwife went to find a room but all the suites were in use. She left us on our own in the ER room just popping in to check the baby’s heartbeat. We didn’t have the hospital bags as we had left them in the car until we knew what we were doing, so I played the meditation track on my phone and that was playing while I gave birth. I was still fully clothed when I felt the urge to push so I had my partner press the emergency call button and the midwife came in. They were rather shocked at how fast my labour was and how calm I was for a first time mom. Leon was born a few minutes later at 10.08pm, weighing 7lbs 8oz, with a caul and in perfect health. I became known around the hospital as the hypnobirthing first time mom! I stayed upright for most of my labour, swaying gently, doing pelvic circles and I found that really helped especially when it came to the actual delivery as I had a very short few minutes of pushing. I also walked quite a bit and felt this really helped move things along so well. It was intense but a really positive, empowering and magical experience. I trusted my body and instincts and had a calm and quiet labour without pain relief as I had hoped I would be able to. While I hadn’t envisaged giving birth in the ER or quite so quickly, hypnobirthing equipped me with the tools to stay calm and cope with things whatever way they happened. I can’t recommend Nadia and her course highly enough – without it I doubt I would have had such a positive and empowering birth.
Recent Comments