Alexandra’s Story

We are happy to announce the birth of our baby girl Evangelina Gabriella. I am so happy to share our birth story with other families. It’s important to let women know that it’s possible to have a natural childbirth with the help of hypnobirthing and a supportive spouse. My whole birthing process took 33 hours. I was lucky to have my husband, Angelo and my 2 midwives, Fang Yu and Laurie Hintzen. They all made me feel safe and secure. They never offered to speed the process along or to ease the pain with medication. They encouraged me during each surge and praised me for my strength and dedication to have a natural birth. I was at home for 24 hours and then went to the hospital for the remainder of my birth. I also have to mention, the midwives honoured my birth plan and reviewed it while in my home and when we arrived at the hospital.

I religiously practiced my breathing each morning and night along with the affirmations and yoga. This allowed me to work through each phase. I always wondered why people trained for marathons but women never prepared themselves for birth. I have to admit there were times when I wanted give in and then I thought of my unborn child and all the women before me who went natural. I obviously then continued with my breathing and focused on what was happening in the here and now. I ended up pushing during active labour and also breathing. My husband and I started to lose focus at this point because we were unsure how to apply this breathing. The midwife was not trained in hypnobirthing so we allowed her to assist in this phase. For our next birth we will have a hypnobirthing practitioner join us.

I was fortunate to have caring midwives that helped keep my perineum intact as much as possible. I actually would not have torn if my daughter did not arrive with her hands by her head. Since I had 1st degree tear (very tiny), no stitches were required and the tissue healed on its own. I believe with their skills, perineum massage and keigel exercises I was able to birth my child with more ease.

I believe my journey with hypnobirthing and Yoga allowed me to have the most magical birthing experience that will always remain a sweet memory. I will always remember the physical, emotional and spiritual transformation I experienced as a new mom. I am grateful to all the wonderful and supportive people I surrounded myself with from the beginning. I thank my husband especially for his strength, sensitivity and open-mindedness to join me on this journey by exploring hypnobirthing as an alternative. And to all the women who told me I would give in to an epidural…