Chantal’s birth stories – Two different births with one common theme – Informed & Empowered.

I am finally finding the time to let you know about BOTH of my incredible births.

In the thick of Covid 2021 we sat on our couch and zoomed into our Calmbirth course with Karen. I knew I wanted to do a course to help both myself and my partner navigate birth and hopefully have an arsenal of tools to help achieve the birth we hoped for. The cost of the course is something I would pay for again and again as it definitely helped me understand the birth process from different angles. My science brain loved learning about all the hormones and their roles and how to help myself and our baby enter the world. The course taught my partner what his role was and equipped him with his own set of knowledge and skills. I loved watching him take notes!

My labour with our first daughter started with very tell tail signs throughout the day but with our knowledge from our Calmbirth course we relaxed and rested throughout the day knowing it could be a false start. As the evening hit, my labour ramped up and went from 0-100 quickly. My contractions had no breaks and felt like they were on top of each other. Our Calmbirth course helped us be prepared with a plan of action as we knew we wanted to stay home for as long as possible.

I retreated to a quiet dark room, used a TENS machine and changed positions as my body needed. Our calm birth course also led me to ask lots of question and do my own research which guided me to some great books and podcasts. This research armed me with lots of labour techniques which my husband knew were my birth preferences. For example, he slipped me a copy of my affirmation board to remind me of my plan and what my body was working so hard for. Although I didn’t open my eyes to look at it, my brain drifted to it to help me focus during really intense contractions. He also helped me cook a BIRTHday cake for our baby and took over once I couldn’t help any longer knowing that this was something special to me and helped to release additional oxytocin. 

Once I decided I was ready to go to hospital we arrived at Wollongong hospital and met our MGP midwife. She saw me in labour and took me straight into our birthing room where I  had 1 of only a few cervical examinations (knowing I could decline anything I didn’t want due to being empowered by Calmbirth) and told me I was 7cm dilated. I ripped off my clothes, and TENS machine and made use of the hot water. Again, due to the Calmbirth course my partner knew his role on arrival and ensured the room was dark, turned on a candle and started my play list. Our midwife who was well and truly on board with everything I wanted allowed us space and time which is a very special and rare commodity within the hospital setting for births. 

Once I decided I was ready to go to hospital we arrived at Wollongong hospital and met our MGP midwife. She saw me in labour and took me straight into our birthing room where i had 1 of only a few cervical examinations (knowing I could decline anything I didnt want due to being empowered by Calmbirth) and told me I was 7cm dilated. I ripped off my clothes, and TENS machine and made use of the hot water.

Again, due to the Calmbirth course my partner knew his role on arrival and ensured the room was dark, turned on a candle and started my play list. Our midwife who was well and truly on board with everything I wanted allowed us space and time which is a very special and rare commodity within the hospital setting for births.

My labour progressed well, and my hard work paid off when I delivered our baby naturally into the hands of my husband. At 3:43pm on 5/9/21 our beautiful baby girl, Gracie was born.

My placenta took time to birth and as my midwife changed over (one who was not part of my team) she suggested a managed 3rd stage which I said no to. This mixed with a small haemorrhage meant that she wasn’t comfortable with my choice and called in an obstetrician. The obstetrician was very pushy and kept questioning why I wanted a natural 3rd stage and why I was against a managed 3rd stage. However, I knew from my Calmbirth course that I could ask for other suggestions for ways to overcome this issue and that I could also advocate for myself in anyway and I did this by simply asking for time. Eventually I birthed my placenta naturally, Gracie latched herself and the 3 of us were encompassed in love and ocytosin.

Our Calmbirth course played an enormous role in up skilling us for our birthing journey and leading us to ask questions to help us know how to advocate for the birth we wanted. I recommend it to every single pregant person I know. I wish it was covered by Medicare and truly believe if all future parents had access to this course, birth would look very different in our hospital system.

Fast forward 2 years and we had a planned home birth

I found myself regularly thinking back to our Calmbirth course and giving myself a mental refresher. I even used the Calmbirth course guided meditation again to envision the birth I wanted. Thankfully I had all my knowledge of Calmbirth still embedded in my brain because although my labour story is much shorter with the birth of our second, it was in no way any less amazing and took every tool I had up my sleeve. 

After Braxton hicks all day I went to bed thinking I would wake up still pregnant the next morning as I had Braxton hicks on and off for weeks and kept waking up with no signs of labour at nearly 41 weeks. However, this time I woke at 11:40pm with contractions but thought nothing of it, used the bathroom and returned to bed. Only to experience another intense contraction not long after and in that moment, I knew I wasn’t going to go back to sleep. I began labouring in the bathroom and very quickly had to really focus on my breathing, fumbled around with the TENS machine and got out the birth comb.

My husband suggested we ring my Mum to let her know so she could come to be with our nearly 2 yr old daughters’ support person. Even though she lived over an hour away I told my husband to tell her to take her time. I continued labouring whilst my husband took on the role of setting up our room, the birth pool and holding space for me and our baby to work together.

He rang the midwife to let her know how it was progressing and from somewhere in my mind I heard their conversation and thought to myself that neither of them knew quite how intense, long and continuous my contractions were. Just like my first birth, I had no break between contractions only a milder contraction followed by a huge one. As my husband hung up I had a huge contraction with an absolutely uncontrollable urge to bear down. After this contracton I told my husband to ring back the midwife and tell her it was time to come. 

My labour progressed quickly and so intensely. I used every tool I had!  Everything I had read or seen or heard to manage my contractions. I kept chanting in my head “my baby and body working together”, “down and out”, “healthy pain” which were all things I had learnt through Calmbirth. I was saving the birthing pool until I had nothing left to fall back on. After another uncontrollable contraction causing me to bear down I hopped into the shower as everything had happened so quickly that the birthing pool didn’t even have enough water yet. Once in the shower my husband checked the pool and I quickly called him in telling him he needed to get in the shower, our baby was coming and he needed to catch it.

After an hour and forty minutes from my first contractions my husband caught our baby in the shower and lifted her into my chest. We welcomed another perfect baby girl, Tilly into the world on 26/8/2023 at 1:21am.

Our midwife didn’t make it, my mum didn’t make it and we didn’t have time to wake up our eldest daughter so she could watch her sibling enter the world. Thanks to our knowledge acquired from our midwife, Calmbirth and many many books we were able to very calmly welcome our second child into the world. Our midwife arrived and entered our room absolutely shocked as we had only told her to come 30 minutes prior and there I was sitting in the birthing pool holding our daughter. My mum followed soon after and was in awe.

The next hours were magical and our eldest woke up at 4:30am sensing movement and changes in the house and walked into our bedroom to meet her baby sister.

Calmbirth taught us not to fear birth and labour, it taught us things can go wrong but that we can still control our narrative by making informed choices and that we have every right to advocate for ourselves. It equipped us in ways we wouldn’t have thought were important and caused us to ask questions and take charge of our plans and for what we had hoped for. It truly guided us. Thank YOU!