My background My credentials as an experienced adult educator Leo's birth story Katy's birth story
Marie -
Your Course Facilitator
My name is Marie Vijendran. I am a Chemical Engineer and have worked as a Management Consultant for the last nine years in Cambridge.
In 2004 my first child was conceived and I was fortunate that a relative, a trained practitioner, introduced me to the concept of Hypnobirthing. At first I was sceptical. With an analytical background, although I wanted a natural birth, I would readily have handed over control of my baby's birth to doctors and midwives. However, the more I discovered about HypnoBirthing, the more I realised that to maximise my chances of a natural birth I needed to trust my body first and foremost.
I learnt to condition my mind to help my body relax by repeating affirmations, practising breathing techniques and learning self-hypnosis. My husband, a scientist, was also sceptical to begin with but soon understood the importance of his support to the birth.
My son Leo was born in June 2005 in the Midwifery-led Birth Unit at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. I found no need for drugs. In fact the midwife could tell we were in complete control and didn't even examine me until just before the baby was born.
It was my wonderful HypnoBirth that convinced me to train as a practitioner and help others to feel as empowered as I did. My second child Katy was born in March 2007. As soon as I found out I was pregnant I was excited about the impending birth. This time I remained at home and the familiar environment, use of a pool and even greater self confidence meant I not only had a comfortable birth experience but I actually received the baby into my own arms.
My years as a Management Consultant have allowed me many opportunities to facilitate adult learning. I have designed and led numerous management training courses and workshops bespoke to client needs in a number of specialist areas. I have also tutored final year undergraduates as part of their design work.
I speak regularly at events and have presented papers at several conferences speaking to audiences of around 200. I have published articles on varied subject matters and my current interest is in the application of decision-making tools to improve the confidence of parents as decision makers. Parents are not the amateurs that I fear the government finds it convenient to frame us as. We just need to learn to trust our instincts rather than rely on an increasing number of pseudo 'experts'.
I teach with a passion for my specialisms and with an enthusiasm for genuine learning. Now that I am a mother, I have found a perfect way of combining my professional skills with my new personal passion - Hypnobirthing.
About two weeks before the estimated date of Leo's arrival I became incredibly calm. This was helped by having left work several weeks earlier, kept up my regular exercise and having organised the house reasonably well. Also, of course, by listening to the daily relaxation CDs which I was so familiar with, I was able to relax and tune in with the baby almost instantly.
On 1st June 2005 at around 11pm just after settling to sleep for the night, I realised that the practise surges (HypnoBirthing language for contractions) that I had experienced several times a day for the previous few weeks, were happening with greater intensity and every few minutes. It was not uncomfortable but I could sense that this might be the start of my labour. I calmly left the bed and went to the toilet experiencing a small amount of diarrhoea. I wasn't alarmed at all. Instead of returning to bed I found the birth ball and leant over it moving my body around as each surge came and focussing on my breathing.
It wasn't long before Sanjay, my husband, found me and realised himself that this might be the start of labour. Neither of us were certain but since the surges were regular and only three minutes apart he called the midwife and asked her opinion. After listening to me breathe through two surges on the phone, the midwife believed I was indeed experiencing labour and asked us to come into the hospital.
We planned to use the recently opened Midwifery-led Birthing Unit at Addenbrookes hospital and when we arrived at around 1am there was a wonderful, dimly lit room waiting for us. The room had a low bed (with a cut away section if the mother wanted to birth using a squatting position), a sink, a radio and an ensuite shower/toilet room. We were encouraged to make ourselves at home while the midwife familiarised herself with our birth plan.
I had remained calm on the way to the hospital, although the surges were a little uncomfortable when I was restricted in the car seat. Fortunately our midwife was also calm and apart from taking my blood pressure and listening to the baby's heartbeat she left us to settle ourselves.
After what must have been a couple of hours, the midwife suggested she run me a bath since we had requested to use water as a means of relaxation if possible. Unfortuantely no birth pool was available in the MLBU at the time but the deep bath was excellent at helping me feel supported by the water. My midwife popped her head round the door from time to time but otherwise left us alone. In fact I think even Sanjay went for a lie down on the bed since I was so deeply relaxed.
My sense of time was utterly distorted. The surges continued to occur every three minutes apart increasing in intensity but never reaching a point where I felt unable to manage them. I religiously breathed through each surge as I had practised and rocked my body to remain comfortable. At around 6am, my waters broke while I was in the bath. I told Sanjay who told the midwife. Although the baby's heartbeat was fine I had to leave the water at this point because the midwife needed to examine me. She didn't want me to birth in the bath because she wouldn't have had good access!
I lay on my back on the bed for a matter of seconds while the midwife established that I was ready to birth the baby. I moved onto all fours and noticed that the sensations were different now. Each surge was lasting longer and I was much more aware of the baby's body. My body gave me clear signs that the birth was imminent but I was still surprised to hear my midwife say that she could see the head and 'baby has lots of hair'!
I remember being asked if I wanted to touch the baby's head as it crowmed but I declined. I was too focussed on my breathing and relaxation. My uterus did everything itself. Each surge seemed to move the baby effectively and the baby was doing its bit too by kicking. I will never forget the amazing feeling as at 7.30am Leo gave his last strong kicks out of me and into the world.
I remained on all fours as the midwife passed Leo through my legs towards me. He seemed really big to me and heavier than I'd anticipated as I turned around and picked him up.
Leo greeted me in an unusual way by doing an enormous wee in my face and all over the wall! Delightful! But I got over this and started to feed Leo straight away to settle him.
I had requested a natural delivery of the placenta, however the midwives were concerned that I was bleeding and weren't able to ascertain whether this was as a result of some tearing from the birth or whether there was some internal bleeding as the placenta was detatching. I gave my permission therefore for a Syntocin injection to allow a faster delivery of the placenta. I hardly felt a thing and fortunately the placenta was intact.
Overall I can only say that I had the most positive birth experience I could have hoped for. My preparation for the birth using the HypnoBirthing techniques really worked and my midwife co-operated in every way with our wishes - no unnecessary internal examinations, a soft voice throughout, no being told when to push and certainly no suggestion of chemical pain relief.
On my midwife's suggestion and of course my total confidence in my body, we planned for our second baby to arrive at home which she did in March 2007 (see below).
On 9th March 2007 Catherine Juliette was born - my second HypnoBirth. It was a calm birth at home in water and I remained so focused and aware that I was able to deliver her myself. Here's the full story:
In the early evening on 8th March I began to experience slightly stronger practise surges around 20-30 minutes apart. Because this contrasted to my previous experience with Leo's birth when surges were strong and frequent from the start, I wasn't entirely convinced that this was indeed the start of labour. We continued our evening as usual and remained relaxed going to bed at the usual time.
I was able to sleep however woke periodically with the tightening sensations of the surges and from some very vivid dreams. At three in the morning I was now convinced that Katy's birthing was in progress. I lay in bed breathing through each surge and timed these to be five minutes apart. I then woke Sanjay and calmly suggested that he go downstairs and start inflating the pool.
I wanted to be near Sanjay so I also went downstairs and made a comfortable space for myself near the pool. I used different positions in which I could move my hips and pelvis swaying and breathing through the surges as they gradually intensified.
At 4.30am I called my midwife who I knew was on-call at that time (her last day of work before leaving for a holiday). She arrived at the house and was settled to observe me by 5.30am.
After an hour of observation the midwife discussed that in her estimation she felt I wasn't yet in established labour and that in order to minimise the number of vaginal examinations she proposed to wait an hour before examining me to see if I was ready to enter the pool. However, by 7am just half an hour later I requested an examination because I was sure that I was progressing fast enough to get into the pool. Sure enough the examination showed I was more than 5cm dilated which I got the impression was a pleasant surprise for my midwife.
Once in the pool I enjoyed the relaxing effect of the warm water and the increased mobility. I could let the water take the weight of my body and lie against the poolside to relax. During the following two hours I deepened my relaxation breathing through each surge one at a time.
At 9.00am my membranes released and I could feel the pressure of the baby's head more intensely. With three more surges and some effective 'birth breathing' Katy emerged into the water. I squatted in the water and used my hands to sense her head and then body as she very easily swam into the world.
It was a wonderful feeling to know that HypnoBirthing had again allowed me to have a natural and easy birth. This time I also had a natural placental delivery.