Vaginismus & natal hypnotherapy

[DearDinah]

Hello,
I'm currently 21 weeks pregnant, before I was pregnant I had just managed to overcome vaginismus after 10 years.
It was not caused by anything traumatic, this is my first child, just by being a fearful person & not letting go.
I've bought the 4 cd natal hypnotherapy set & will be starting lazy daisy birthing classes next week.
The hypnotherapy book makes a lot of sense in the respect of letting my body take over during birth & not allowing my tricky thoughts get in the way, but obviously this is something I struggled with for 10 years!
I just wondered if there were any other women who had vaginismus either when they were pregnant or before but still went on to have a straightforward birth, this is my first so I am totally in the blind about what it's actually like.

I was in a similar position and had DD1 in July 2012, I ended up being induced and did have some problems with the internals but they gave me gas and air and it was fine then, I also ended up on the synto drip so had an epidural so didn't feel much after that, and the vaginismus didn't affect pushing at all.

Since then everything is about the same as it was - childbirth wasn't a miracle cure but neither has it made anything worse.

I am now overdue with second baby so about to do it all over again!

I think once labour gets underway, the vaginismus disappears as all the other instincts take over, so I reckon you'll be fine.

Thank you for your reply! I'm so pleased you didn't find it too traumatic & that it hasn't made problems worse afterwards, that was something I was thinking about also.
Good luck with your second xxx

Hi again, just thought I'd update you on the second birth. Was induced again, had loads of trouble with the pessary insertion same as before, birth was super quick so no time for epidural so I was terrified, had very painful contractions in my tummy but I didn't have any issues with the vaginismus, and once I was 4cm dilated had no problems with the internals, and in fact I didn't feel the baby come out (too busy yelling and mooing at the contractions). It was a big baby and since then, sex has actually been easier! (Once the episiotomy wound healed.) Anyway good luck with your birth DearDinah.