We loved hearing Lauren’s beautiful home birth story with Juniper.
“At 4.33am on Sunday the 10th of Jan, our baby girl Juniper was born at home at 7lb4oz, 13days past her guess date.
This is her birth story – sorry its long – I …hope it at least makes sense!
After spending pretty much the entirety of Saturday ignoring gentle surges (admittedly I was borderline in a state of denial that labour could have possibly started) and getting some serious nesting urges that evening (actually on my hands and knees dusting floorboards at midnight) I suggested we set the pool up – you know ‘incase’ I went into labour the next day!
By 2.30 am my parents had been called to pick up our daughter and labour ward rang to say I was having surges. Half an hour later the midwife (who happened to live across the street!) had come round, checked through our birth preferences with my partner, checked me as 3cm dilated and had gone back home whilst I did my CBS breathing in the half filled pool.
After about 45mins of breathing through surges and having the mp3s on repeat (I always listened to these at night going sleep so they made me feel almost as if I could doze between surges) I felt an intense change and was struggling to focus on my breathing, I decided I’d cope better with gas and air which I used to help me keep control and breathe baby down, so the midwife returned and then it really got going!
It was an intense 45mins, powerful but empowering (I’d never got to pushing stage previously and had a forceps birth with our first)
Unfortunately when our baby’s head was born under water my contractions slowed and after a minute or 2 waiting, her mouth started to open. The midwife immediately got me to stand up and push the rest of her out where she discovered the cord had been compressed between her chest and the inside of my body whilst we’d waited.
Those few moments were horrendous but we are now completely at peace with our entire birth, the moment she made a noise, the calm returned and I got out the pool for our skin to skin hour and everything continued as normal.
And I really count the entire atmosphere of the birth to our CBS practice and the fact we were at home feeling calm and safe – I only truly had the confidence to go ahead with a home birth and then the confidence to refuse induction to continue our plan, thanks to the calm birth school and the community that comes with it –
Things are rarely ‘perfect’ or go completely to plan in birth, but I feel that feeling supported, informed and at peace with the experience is what makes the difference. And I’ve been left with no fear of birthing and specifically home birthing again thanks to this hypnobirth experience.”
To see how you can create your own calm birth please sign up here: www.thecalmbirthschool.com/freehypnobirthing-2016
