An Empowering and Enriching Calmbirth for both Kayleigh and Grant

Story by Kayleigh and Grant

Our baby Jamie arrived on 3 Aug – exactly on her due date. She came into the world fairly quickly after an 8 hour labour.

The Calmbirth tools we learnt worked really well – particularly water immersion (the bath was a godsend), acupressure and looow moans.  The gas the hospital provided also helped regulate and slow down my breathing during contractions. I elected to have an epidural and was fully dilated at about 10 mins after it was administered and could start pushing.

Grant managed to stay and keep me calm throughout… despite finding a nail in our tyre as we left home for the hospital!  

What the birth (and these past few weeks) has taught me is the true meaning of the word surrender. There is no controlling the process, you just have to let go and flow with it as much as you can.

Grant says that before the Calmbirth course he didn’t fully realise what an important role he could play as a birth support partner and that he felt empowered to support me in key moments during the experience – this made all the difference, as I felt that I could trust Grant completely to support me during the birth – and this made the whole experience more powerful and enriching for the both of us.