WOW! This birth story from Alice is just so beautiful:
“I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you both for giving me the tools to make my son’s birth happen the way it did. Your school is amazing! I can’t thank the Calm Birth School enough for giving me the opportunity to achieve such a blissful birth. I would recommend a midwife, hypnobirth, home birth to everyone.
I’m not going to lie, yes it hurt but by using the breathing techniques taught by the Calm Birth School & the visualization methods it becomes manageable. You can see through the discomfort to realize that in the scale of life it is but for a moment in time & by visualizing the sheer reward of the outcome it makes it worth the hours or minutes of discomfort. We were made for this. This is my story….
Having had my first son at 37.5 weeks (in hospital, on my back, & with an OB) I was expecting this baby to come early too. Every night I would go to bed wondering if this would be it; I was growing increasingly anxious as the days passed by. 40 weeks came & went & all I could focus on was the ever approaching ’42 weeks’ & that the drug-free, home-water birth that I had spent months working towards wouldn’t be able to happen. I had three stretch & sweeps the week after 40 weeks, my last being the morning of the 14 November (41+1 weeks), in a bid to kick start things. I was hesitant at first to get them done as I very much wanted my baby to come on his own accord, the way the midwife explained it though was that if the baby wasn’t ready then they wouldn’t work so I went ahead with them.
My husband & I were taking our two year old son to see his very first NHL ice hockey game on that Saturday 14th. On the way to the game I was feeling increasingly crampy, but I put it down to the stretch & sweep. Once we got to the game I left my husband & son watching the warm-up while I went to the bathroom. It was there that I started to practice the relaxation breathing technique as I argued with myself for half an hour over whether the increasing crampiness were surges or if I was being silly. (I’d forgotten from my first birth that my surges manifest themselves as period like cramps). I finally got back to my seat only to feel my water tear. I knew it hadn’t fully broken as it was a similar feeling to when it tore with my first son. Leaving my son with friends at the game, my husband & I left before the game even started.
The midwife arrived at 1:30pm to confirm that it was indeed amniotic fluid. As I wasn’t having regular or strong surges, the midwife left saying she would call at 4:30. Determined that the surges wouldn’t go away I spent the next 3 hours walking around the house & bouncing on the exercise ball, practicing my breathing techniques & visualizing my baby starting to move down. When the midwife called at 4:30 my surges, while getting stronger, weren’t getting more regular so she said to call when they were. I didn’t want to call until they were really strong as I didn’t want the pressure of people waiting on me, I wanted it to be just my husband & I for as long as possible.
At 5:30 I was no longer moving around but was on my knees leaning my head on the bed, breathing through each surge as it came, repeating each time that I was a step closer to meeting my baby & that I & my body could do this! These were the two affirmations that I held on to the whole time. I had just finished listening to the Calm Birth School MP3 when I felt my water break with a ‘pop’ & knew that it was time to call the midwife. I then got into the birthing pool while my husband lit my candle, lowered the lights & put on my relaxing music. The relief of getting into the pool was amazing. The calmness of the room & being able to internalize my mind from all external distractions through using the relaxation techniques coupled with the calm music & the warmth of the water helped me through each surge.
The midwives arrived at 6pm & when they arrived I wouldn’t let them check me- I knew from the stretch & sweep that morning I had already been 4cm & I knew that the baby would be coming soon. Being so internalized I could feel the changes happening in my body, I could almost see the baby moving down. I didn’t want to know exactly how far I was as again I didn’t want any pressure of ‘oh you are only this far along…’ & nor did I want anyone disturbing the peace I had achieved.
At about 7pm I told them the baby would be coming soon & my husband told me later that the midwife started to say, ‘yes, well it may be a…’ But then stopped herself. I knew I was in transition; I recognized the increased discomfort from when I had had my first. It was at this point with my first I had asked for an epidural (but never got as he came shortly after). If the nurses had told me then that I was transitioning I would never have asked for one. This time I welcomed the increased discomfort as it meant my baby was about to arrive.
At 7:15 I sat up in the water to say goodnight to my son & then as soon as he left the room I started to feel the need to bear down (I was squatting in the pool) but I didn’t tell anyone as again I wanted to do this in my own time & in my own way. I had read about fetal expulsion reflex & how you can give birth without pushing. With my first I had nurses yelling at me to push & I burst all the blood vessels in my face from the effort. This time as I felt him come I relaxed & breathed instead of pushed; I followed the cues of my body as it naturally tightened & bore down. I felt him crown & then a surge later my baby was passed through my legs to me. I think it may be the biggest & most rewarding achievement of my life. I have never felt so in control of or in touch with my body nor so relaxed. Tobias ‘Toby’ was born at 7:30pm weighing 7lb 10oz. My husband cut the cord once it had fully stopped pulsating.
Once I had delivered the placenta we lay in our bed, Toby sucking happily, not disturbed for two hours. Such a blissful way to start his little life & as a family of four.”
To see how you can create your own calm birth please sign up here: www.thecalmbirthschool.com/freehypnobirthing-2016
