A beautiful birth experience to share with you today from Kate:
“So our daughter Rowan Alida Larsen-Daw arrived on 5th May! It’s taken me a while, but I’m so pleased to be finally introducing her to you. Her arrival was far from straightforward, so I don’t feel it is helpful for me to share a full, detailed birth story here (I worked pretty hard to avoid such tales while pregnant myself). Instead I wanted to think about the ways in which Calm Birth School helped us all (definitely including Rowan and her dad) before, during and after birth.
*Before…
*I was at 40+11 by the time Rowan arrived. From a couple of weeks before my guess date I was listening to the audios religiously, and looking back I know how valuable this was, particularly as I reached and passed the guess date. I was patient, and I needed that!
*Early labour was looooong: 5 days from the start of surges until her arrival. Unsurprisingly I’ve been asked a few times how I lasted that long, and CBS was how. That patience again, and knowing that Rowan would arrive when she was ready.
*I didn’t have stop-start surges either, from when they started I never had a gap longer than 20 minutes, day or night, and my wonderful local midwives (big up NHS, they were amazing) confirmed that they were full, strong surges. All that time I was experiencing my surges as intense and powerful, but not as pain.
*My husband: all through the early labour, Matt believed in my ability to ride through this – he was calm and patient, held our calm space at home. He knew what he needed to do, and was there with me, rubbing my back, rearranging pillows… Everything. Day and night.
*During…
*On the night when I was 40+10 surges were only a minute apart, but I hadn’t progressed to active labour. It became clear that we would need to deviate considerably from our birth plan for a number of reasons. I am so glad that we were able to accept this, acknowledge it at the time and just adapt to circumstances without holding on to plans that were no longer possible. Again, all this applies to Matt as well as me.
*After…
*I’ve had some postpartum complications that are well on the way to being sorted now, but again, patience and acceptance of the way things are have been really valuable.
*Rowan: honestly she seems to be the most positive, chilled baby ever! She is smiley, peaceful and patient. She is full of joy, humour and love. Matt keeps telling people ‘calm mother, calm baby!’
Thank you so much, Suzy Ashworth for helping us along this amazing journey.”
To see how you can create your own calm birth please sign up here: www.thecalmbirthschool.com/freehypnobirthing-2016
