When plan 'A' does not work out, remember go with the flow, stay calm, there are 25 other letters in the alphabet...

04/09/2019 Dawn Worgan

Thought I would share the birthing story of our new little one – Aroha Shirley Coupar

At 36+6 my waters broke around 5am on Thursday, 18 April, but I actually wasn’t sure if perhaps I had just wet myself!! The surges began shortly after and I began timing them, they we irregular, but increasing in intensity as time went on. I relaxed on the recliner, closed the curtains, put on the meditation tracks and breathed through them well. By 9am I called Jordan and told him he should probably come home from work! I called the birth suite and was asked to put a pad on for an hour and was then asked to come in. We left the house in a bit of a whirlwind (forgot all our bags as well!) and once arrived was hooked up for monitoring – little lady was on her way and I was 5cm dialated. We were in such shock that it was really happening!

As soon as we got settled in a delivery room, Jordan was about to rush home and get the bags but her heart rate dropped low twice for too long and the birthing team went into action prepping me for an emergency c-section – lucky he didn’t leave! Throughout all the prep and rushing around I focused on Jordans face and touch and tried my hardest throughout the process to maintain calm breathing (with the amazing support of Jordan reminding me when I got overwhelmed). From the Calmbirth workshop he could tell whenever I wasn’t breathing calmly or holding tension and was truly what kept me calm during quite a stressful and scary time. He even remembered to tell me to relax my jaw! Aroha was born at 1.46pm and that first cry was the best thing to ever hear!!

After everything Jordan and I had kind of a de-brief I suppose, and I said it was great how he was so calm and that it helped me so much and he said on the inside he was really freaking out but remembered the techniques for himself and repeated them to me, which not only helped keep me calm, but him too. Seeing me go through it all was a lot for him to process, but he was amazing and got so much out of the workshop.

During our stay, we were also looked after by midwife Claudia (who was the student at the Saturday classes) so that was a really lovely full circle kind of experience. She was also a great help!

While we didn’t get the natural birth we had hoped for, I can honestly say Calmbirth helped make the caesarean experience so much better for us and we look back and still have a really positive birth story to tell and reminisce on.
Thank you again for your time and support! It was truly so amazing to put the workshop into practice!!