Wonder what it might be like to have a baby in The Belford Hospital, Fort William then read on!
Just a wee midwifery led unit on the west coast of Scotland and a wonderful place for Alison to have her second child. Here is her story...
I became interested in hypnobirthing during my second pregnancy after a friend mentioned it to me. It wasn’t something I encountered at all during my first pregnancy and although my first birth was relatively straightforward; there were definitely moments where I felt out of control and panicked. Second time around I was keen to eliminate those feelings as much as possible. I contacted Louise and arranged a two day face to face course with her in my home. The course was really informative and well structured. Louise is a fantastic instructor and we covered all the course material at a pace that suited me.
I started getting some light surges at about 4:30am, had a shower and breakfast, started doing some of the breathing exercises then we left for the Belford at 7am, which worked out really well as my 3 year old, was still asleep when we left. Arrived at the Belford and was assessed as being 5cm dilated on arrival, which was a surprise as I didn’t expect to be that far along at that point! Then we went through to the labour room and I got in the pool, My husband put on the hypnobirthing track and guided me through the breathing. I managed to labour in the pool with just my husband guiding me through the breathing techniques that you taught me until about 9am, then I used a bit of gas and air when things got very intense. In hindsight I think this was around the transition time. I decided to get out the pool shortly after this and stayed upright on the bed, using the breathing to get me through the pushing stage, then Tabitha was born at 9:46am!
I really feel that completing the hypnobirthing course with Louise during pregnancy prepared me so well for labour and was a major factor in the birth being relatively easy! I had such a positive experience and am so grateful to Louise for this. I fully recommend hypnobirthing to anyone and am so pleased I made the decision to take the course.
You can find out more about my courses here
The Belford hospital in Fort William, with a midwifery led unit. With just one labour room, you have to hope its available- most of the time this works out well! There are the usual birthing tools available including a really deep birthing pool. As it is a small place, its generally quiet and the midwives are fantastic at supporting you birth how you want to.
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