I’ve had THREE hypnobirths!
But, says Kate, don’t imagine that William was standing at her bedside chanting sweet nothings
KATE MIDDLETON has revealed that she used selfhypnosis to programme herself to relax during the births of her three children.
And she said the technique, called hypnobirthing, was so successful that she ‘actually really quite liked labour’.
Increasingly popular among women seeking a drug-free and less painful birth, hypnobirthing is a term applied to a range of self-hypnosis, relaxation and breathing techniques.
Speaking on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, Kate said there was nothing ‘hippy dippy’ about it, and explained: ‘There’s levels of it. I’m not going to say that [Prince] William was standing there, sort of chanting sweet nothings at me. He definitely wasn’t! I didn’t even ask him about it, but it was just something I wanted to do for myself. I saw the power of it really, the meditation and the deep breathing and things like that.’
She also used the technique to counter severe morning sickness, saying: ‘I really realised the power of the mind over the body because I really had to try everything... to try and help me through it.’
Kate said that the technique proved ‘hugely powerful’ and even made labour comparatively enjoyable ‘because actually it was an event that I knew there was going to be an ending to!’
During all of her pregnancies, she had been plagued by a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. ‘I got very bad morning sickness, so I’m not the happiest of pregnant people,’ she said. ‘Lots of people have it far, far worse, but it was definitely a challenge. Not just for me but also for your loved ones around you, and I think that’s the thing – being pregnant and having a newborn baby impacts everybody in the family.
‘You know, William didn’t feel he could do much to help and it’s hard for everyone to see you suffering without actually being able to do anything about it.’
She felt ‘utterly rotten’ and wasn’t able to eat as healthily as she wanted. ‘But yet, the body was still able to take all the goodness from my body and to grow new life, which I think is fascinating.’
Elsewhere in the interview with Giovanna Fletcher, she recalled the first time she held Prince George in her arms. ‘Amazing, amazing,’ she says. ‘It is extraordinary... How can the human body do that? It is utterly extraordinary, actually.
‘And he was very sweet. And also [I was] sort of relieved he was a happy, healthy boy.’
Kate said she didn’t know beforehand that she was having a boy. ‘I didn’t know, no, it was a surprise. But also seeing... you know your husband, William, and things like that. Seeing the pure joy of his face, it was really special.’
What followed, she said, was ‘a bit of a blur’ adding: ‘I think, yeah I did stay in hospital overnight, I remember it was one of the hottest days and nights with huge thunderstorms so I didn’t get a huge amount of sleep, but George did, which was really great.
‘I was keen to get home because, for me, being in hospital, I had all the memories of being in hospital because of being sick, so it wasn’t a place I wanted to hang around in. I was really desperate to get home and get back to normality.’
Unlike most new mothers, she had to introduce George to the world’s media the moment she left St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington,
London – a prospect she admits she found ‘slightly terrifying, I’m not going to lie’.
She added: ‘Everyone had been so supportive, and both William and I were really conscious that this was something that everyone was excited about. We’re hugely grateful for the support that the public had shown us, and actually for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, I felt was really important.
‘But equally it was coupled with a newborn baby, and inexperienced parents, and the uncertainty of what that held, so there were all sorts of mixed emotions.’
Returning home with George meant major adjustments too.
‘I think, particularly with your firstborn baby, you think everything is going to go back to how it was.
‘I totally underestimated the impact and the change it had on our lives from that moment, really, and I think, unless you’ve got children, you don’t realise. No amount of planning and preparation can get you ready for that moment.’
Speaking of how she strove to find the best way to balance her time for the good of her family, Kate said she found inspiration from two very different sources: Holocaust survivors and Octavia Hill, the pioneering 19th Century social reformer who helped create Britain’s National Trust.
She cited a quote from Ms Hill which is being used by the National Trust to promote its 125th anniversary: ‘We want quiet. We all want beauty... We all need space.
‘Unless we have it, we cannot reach that sense of quiet in which
‘I actually quite liked labour... as it was something I knew would end!’
‘I totally underestimated the impact a baby has’
whispers of better things come to us gently.’
Kate said: ‘She was basically saying that our lives are so busy, our lives are so hectic, all we need is quiet. That was in the 19th Century, imagine what she would think now!
‘But it’s so true because actually, you can get so distracted and put so much pressure on yourselves about the things you’re not necessarily achieving, and it distracts you from the things that actually really do matter to the lifelong health and happiness of the children you’re looking after.’
She adds that a recent meeting with Holocaust survivors reminded her that ‘simple things... really do matter’, adding: ‘Considering the trauma they’ve experienced, it’s so reassuring and heart-warming to hear, actually, it’s the things that matter, I think, to all of us, you know: the strength of family, the simple acts of kindness that make the biggest amounts of difference to everybody. And that is so unifying.’
Facing the cameras so soon after giving birth was slightly terrifying, I’m not going to lie