
Story by Sarah Hens
Despite Sarah’s challenging birth, she was able to use the Calmbirth breathing to help her stay focused and grounded during her C- Section birth. Whilst her husband used all the skills, he learnt in the course to be able to support and advocate as best he could for them as a team.
We did Calmbirth with Denise, hoping and preparing for an unmedicated natural birth. Unfortunately, after developing severe preeclampsia, that wasn’t an option. Our plans went out the window and my bub arrived through an emergency C-section at 35 weeks.
The breathing exercises we learnt and practiced at Calmbirth were the only thing that helped me stay grounded during the whole process. My husband also made sure to ask about delayed cord clamping and was able to negotiate one minute with our surgical team, because it was important to us even in an emergency.
I had to spend some time in the ICU, leaving my husband to be with our son for the first few days on his own in Special Care. Calmbirth helped equip my husband with advocacy skills and confidence in looking after me during the admission and delivery, and then our son afterwards.
I’ve recommended Denise to family and friends and have met a lot of other people in our area who have done Calmbirth with Denise and loved it as much as we did. Even though a lot of what we learnt wasn’t able to apply to our birth, my husband and I were still so glad we did the course!