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The Calmbirth of Cohen James.

Birth Stories

Story by Tara Lillian

Labour and delivery is by no means glamorous but it certainly is magical. You can’t beat the moment you welcome your first child into the world and hold them for the first time. There are no words to explain the feeling. I’ve never been so proud of myself or felt as strong as I did that day. It is by far the hardest thing I have ever done and am so lucky to have had the two best birthing partners to get me through such a roller coaster experience, one I never want to forget.

Birth can go so many different ways and I worked really hard to prepare myself for whatever birth threw at me, reminding myself that whichever direction it would take, as long as I had a healthy baby in my arms at the end.

Every birth story is personal and unique.

This is our story…The birth of Cohen James

Hi, I wanted to pass my on my thank you to Calmbirth for allowing me to have such a wonderful, empowering birth. My husband attended a weekend course with Denise Round in Springwood.

I’ve been around birth a few times so I knew a lot around the logistics of it, but I never realised the impact hormones, the environment and a strong calm mindset can have during labour. We both left the course so informed.

As someone who has struggled with mental health over the years, I felt so empowered to be really proactive in preparing myself for birth. I knew my biggest challenge would be my mind so I did the meditations and practised daily affirmations. I know a lot of people think it’s woo woo but it seriously helped with my mindset in the lead up.

When I went into early labour, I knew what I had to do to set up the environment that allowed oxytocin to flow. When it was time to go to the hospital, I blind folded myself because in the Calmbirth course I learnt how important the environment (I didn’t care that I looked like an idiot ) My birthing team (my husband and sister) set up the birthing suite with candles, a diffuser and my affirmations on the wall and also playing in my ears.

Active labour came on quickly after my OB swept the last of the membranes. The contractions were intense. I was grateful for my TENS machine and for my husband applying counter pressure on my back. My sister supported me through the wave of the contractions by helping me visualise climbing up and down a mountain. Another tool I learnt from Calmbirth. I was well and truly over it as I was transitioning but my team helped me remain positive by reminding me that I needed to trust my body. I asked for the gas. My husband knew I wanted to use all the tools I had before any medical pain relief so he gave me the comb. It was not long after that my body began pushing on its own. I ended up birthing in the darkest place in the room – the bathroom, over the bath I might add after I had my baby in my arms, all I could think was “I bloody did it!”

It truly was the most challenging yet magical experience I’ve ever been through.

Thanks to Calmbirth, I had all the knowledge and tools I needed to make informed decisions during labour and have an unmedicated birth that I didn’t know I was capable of. Cohen James was welcomed into the world on 25.8.23. Here is a little video I made that captures our wonderful birth story. Thank you Calmbirth and Denise.

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