Magdalena’s Hypnobirth Story

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We met Magdalena in January 2025. She joined our hypnobirthing course, started using the Mamamoon app throughout her pregnancy, and continues to use it during postpartum. She is a proud mom of Olivia and generously chose to share her story with our community, as she said herself: “The stories on your blog helped me a lot in my final pregnancy days, so I'm happy to contribute to that with mine.” 

There is incredible power in sharing birth stories as they inspire, educate, and help others feel less alone. At Mamamoon, we believe that every story matters and with each one we come closer to transforming the narrative around childbirth. 

Thank you, Magdalena, for your trust, your words, and for being part of this movement.

Delivery Day: A Quiet Start

I planned for Thursday to be an active day: begin with a workout, shower and meal-prep some corn bread for the postpartum period.

However, I felt my energy was a bit off as soon as I woke up: a bit of nausea and general fatigue. So I stayed in bed longer, had calls & texts with my mom and closest mom-friend and rested all day until we took the dog for a walk at 4:30 PM. 

It was a slow but fairly long walk. About an hour in, I felt a period-cramp-like pain. It repeated two more times during the half hour it took us to make it home. 

This continued for the next hour - it was very mild but felt regular, so I timed it. The pain came every 7-8 minutes and each lasted about a minute, some longer, some shorter - not super consistent. I was quite sure it was braxton hicks because I hadn’t felt any until then, and I didn’t have any other ‘labour signs’ like mucus plug loss or my water breaking. So we ordered dinner and continued to time the pains as they came, just in case. 

They started to get stronger. Ivo went to walk the dog, I stayed home and rushed to take a photo between surges - what if it’s the last one as pregnant?!

Soon, it was 11 PM, every 5-6 minutes a full-minute-long surge was kicking in. I started 4:8 breathing through each. I could stay in control through this. 

I messaged my sister that this might be the night, to leave her phone off sleep mode in case we need her to come and look after the dog.

Contractions and Control

We played a Netflix show to distract me; this worked for an hour but wasn’t ideal since I couldn’t focus on breathing AND distracting myself at the same time. 

So I switched to playing the rainbow relaxation track. It seemed so short now (unlike earlier, when I used to fall asleep halfway through)! I had completely lost track of time at this point. The meditation was on repeat and I was breathing through one minute long contractions coming every 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes. I spent some on the pilates ball, some against the couch, some rebozo practicing. 

We called the verloskundigen at 2:30 AM. They said to wait until it’s a full hour of equal-length contractions with equal space between them, e.g. 1 minute long at 3 minute intervals. Things sped up after this call. Quite quickly, it was 1 min contraction, 1 min break. This went on for 1 hour. It felt quite intense, as I kept breathing through each and repeating ‘let it go’ to myself. 

Ivo kept giving me the freaking light touch massage on my back and it was surprisingly nice. I did not notice that it had been an hour but I kept timing each contraction and the Mamamoon app informed me that it’s time to call again. 

Calling the Midwives

4:15 I called and they rushed over. My water broke as soon as she was about to check me, “good news” she said - “7 cm open”. Then she proceeded to call hospitals and to tell them I am 8 cm and to have everything ready-ready when we walk in (I think she thought I wouldn’t understand as this was in Dutch. I did. Slight panic. But no time to think - contractions are still ongoing, every 50 secs now). OLVG Oost said yes, and they’re already filling the tub for us. She took me there in her car, Ivo drove behind us. 

She drove because she said she was experienced in driving women going through contractions. I knew it was because I might pop this baby out in the car. 

We managed to get there through what seemed like the longest 20-min drive ever. I kept breathing through each contraction. They drove me to the room in a wheelchair. 

A Serene Space for Labor

As soon as we entered room 56, I felt an instant relief. It felt like home but better, like a spa in a hotel. They had the Rituals aroma diffuser going with some hamam scents, starry night lights over the ceiling, candles lit, no overhead lights and a warm bath under the window. Ivo immediately played my mellow 80’s playlist and I rushed into the tub. Instant relief.

It was 5:30. Contractions kept going. Around 6:15, I felt the urge to push. What followed was the toughest hour ever: Midwife said to resist pushing but breathe through the contractions - it was too early. This was hard. It took me a while to find my hypno state again, to breathe properly - but I eventually managed. I was focused on staying out of my body’s way through focusing solely on breathing; I kept rhythmically squeezing my midwife’s hand through each breath. Ivo kept the lower back acupuncture spots going. I kept thinking HOW MUCH LONGER and THIS IS DEFINITELY A “ONE AND DONE” TYPE OF PARENTING SITUATION. I asked for air and gas. They said it’s too far along and that they need me fully aware for the next part. They didn’t offer anything else either and asked me to “JuSt BreAThe ThRouGh iT”. Damn.

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There was a shift swap of midwives at 7 - perfect timing, as my energy shifted as well. In the 10-ish minutes of handover that they had outside of the room, I went from urge-to-push to must-push feeling; my breathing through the surges was loud, deep, I tried to breathe her out. The new midwife gave me a green light - “listen to your body, follow its lead, if it says push - do it”. Say no more: I was so happy to hear this. Finally I could work in sync with each surge, riding the wave. Honestly, it felt like a bit of a high - I kept smiling through each contraction and welcoming the next one. Complete energy shift than the previous hour. With each surge, she was a bit further down - I could feel it. I kept looking forward to the next one. It was amazing! 

Meeting Olivia

This feeling went on for a while, at 8 AM she was almost there - I could feel her head full of hair! 

The next 20-ish minutes felt insane, a rush of emotions, everyone quiet and focused, me breathing down loudly through my nose. The ring of fire came and surprised me - it was quite painful. It kept going as she turned for her shoulders to come out. It felt like everything was burning down there. And then relief - she popped out. I caught her instinctively and placed her on my chest. 

It felt so surreal - I kept thinking of the TMI positive hypnobirthing videos - I was living in my own. I immediately looked for Ivo - we held her together - it was magical! 

They helped me get out of the tub, with her still attached to me through the umbilical cord; dried me off and laid me on a bed. She stayed on my chest for the next two hours, as I birthed the placenta out (super quick and quite painless) and stitched me up (I had one tear of second degree inside the intravaginal wall - this felt awful but passed quite quickly). 

Pure Joy: First Moments and Beyond

All this time, Olivia kept sucking on her little fists. She was hungry, so they helped me put her on my right breast and she latched on almost right away. A few gulps. Forgets to move her lips. A few more gulps. It feels like my whole stomach is turning with each one. There’s nothing visible coming out of my breast but she keeps sucking. Everyone keeps convincing me that there’s some invisible colostrum somewhere inside and she’s finding her way to it. I play along and enjoy the ride. Ivo is melting next to me as Olivia has her little hand wrapped around his finger. He had just cut the umbilical cord. 

He already texted my parents. They are sending us photos of them celebrating with the Macedonian version of “beschuit met muisjes” (a savory dish called “mekici”). The nurse brings in a trey with an assortment of breakfast: orange juice and prosecco included; guess how long it took me to have my first mimosa after 9 months? 

There’s lightness in the air. Good Friday. A good day to be born, I thought. 

They helped me shower and said that we could stay as long as we wanted after. And we did for a while longer. 

We drove home through the most traffic jammed Amsterdam ever and did not get annoyed for one minute; Olivia slept through it all. 

It’s official - a new Amsterdammertje has been born.

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