Despite Ange’s birth not going entirely as planned she LOVED her birth!

We welcomed our little Henry James Stuart on the 8th of Feb. I had such a positive birth experience and can 100% say it due to all the techniques we learnt at Calmbirth.

I was 39+1, when at 2am my waters broke. I went back to bed but the minute I laid down I started feeling pain, so I went into the living room and then really started to feel the contractions coming on quick. I had the lights off and in the quiet of the early morning I started doing the breathing techniques and visualisation I learnt in Calmbirth. I found the only comfortable position to labour in was standing up, so I spent most of my time leaning up against the wall rocking my hips trying to keep moving. I really felt in the zone and wanted to labour at home as long as possible.

At 5am I woke my partner up and got in the shower. It felt so nice having the water running on my back. We started to time my contractions and they were already lasting 1 minute every 4 minutes, so we decided it was time to call my midwife. I put the tens machine on at this point, but unfortunately, I think I left it too late as I found it made my contractions worse. Once I got to the hospital at 8am I was already 6cm dilated so went straight to the birth suit and got back in the shower. I started using the gas and found it really helped to regulate my breathing and gave me something to focus on.

However, after hours of standing up I started to feel exhausted and over it, I felt self-doubt creeping in and asked for an epidural, but my midwife suggested we try other options first as I had specified in my birth plan, I’d like to labour naturally for as long as possible. I got in the bath, however sitting was unbearable so my midwife suggested sterile water injections to ease my back pain and they worked wonders!

It was this point that was my favourite part of my labour. Sitting in the bath I was able to get in a Zen state. The lights were dim, I had my birth playlist on, and I was working through each contraction by riding the wave, breath control and using visualization I had practiced from Calmbirth.

Whilst in the bath my body started feeling like it was ready to push. I let my body do its thing, hoping that I was going to get the water birth I had hoped. However, after 2 hours of pushing nothing was happening. Unfortunately, after getting out of the bath and getting checked, I was 9cm, but bub had turned posterior so part of my cervix was stuck and couldn’t dilate.

At this point my midwife said it was best for me to get an epidural so I could relax and try to get him to turn naturally. I got the epidural around 3:30pm, but once it was administered his heart rate dropped. Things went from 0-100 very quickly and the room was filled with people. Luckily, I was still in a good headspace and rather than panicking, I knew that everyone was there to help deliver my baby safely. The OB was able to turn him halfway but then I needed to start pushing to get him out quickly. The OB suggested an episiotomy, but I advocated for myself and said no as this was one thing, I was passionate about if the situation allowed. I pushed for about 15 minutes and was assisted with the vacuum. He was out by 4:30pm, I got a 2nd degree tear, but bub was out safely and happy and placed straight on my chest with lots of happy tears from both me and a very relieved husband.

Even though everything didn’t go perfectly, I absolutely loved my birth. I was so proud of myself for staying in such a strong mental state for majority of my labour, utilizing all the skills I learnt from the Calmbirth course. I honestly couldn’t recommend this course enough. It really equipped me mentally and changed my thoughts to be excited for birth rather than fear it. It also helped my partner to understand how he could support me through labour.