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When I became pregnant with Will
I searched for calmbirth®
practitioners in our area and
from the first friendly email
exchange with Sue, I knew she
was the one for us! The classes
reflected the calm, warm
atmosphere of Sue and Kerry’s
home and Sue’s gentle
instruction inspired confidence
from the start. calmbirth®
reassured us that our belief in
my body’s ability to birth
without intervention was well
founded. We were taught methods
for allowing my body to birth
without resistance from me and
how to trust my body’s inherent
knowledge or “inner wisdom” of
how to birth. I was 41
weeks pregnant when my waters
broke at 1.30am on 4 March 2010
and we were quietly excited as
we packed my things and headed
into the hospital, leaving Ruby
with my sister. By 3.30am, my
surges were 5 minutes apart but
not strong. We set up the music
and oil burner and for the next
3 hours I breathed through each
surge and dozed in between.
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George and I owe a lot to your
classes so THANK YOU! In the
weeks leading up to Vincent's
arrival (he was a week over) I
listened to the CD meditations
daily and it was a great help -
it really did keep me relaxed
and happy even though I was
bloody uncomfortable! As it
turned out I laboured for 12hrs
without progressing so ended up
having nitrous, sub-cut water
injections in my back, an
epidural, a drip and fluids, a
catheter, syntocinon and a
caesarean!! To top it off I had
to have 3 units of blood the
next day because of bleeding
after the birth. So much for a
natural birth LOL! But despite
the intervention I had a
wonderful experience, drawing on
my calmbirth®
techniques even as I was on the
operating table – the deep
breathing really helped. I was
most nervous during this time
but George kept me focused on my
breathing and we talked about
our 'happy place'! It was great
- we were so soooo excited to
meet our baby!
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I met Sue for the first time
when my husband, Steve, and I
arrived at Abbotsford for our
calmbirth®
class, I was pregnant with my
third child, Charlie.
Just before we walked through
the front gate my ever patient
and supportive husband asked
'what are we doing here again?'
At this point I wasn't exactly
sure myself, so I just said it
was a calmbirthing class which
would help me stay relaxed
during my labour and if nothing
else it would be a nice time for
the two of us to spend together
as well as doing a little
bonding with bub.
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calmbirth®
was recommended to me by a good
friend. She was an absolute
stand out of people I knew who
talked about having an amazing
and positive birth experience. I
had a number of objectives by
completing the calmbirth®
course. First and foremost, I
wanted to enjoy giving birth and
wanted to walk away from the
event with great memories…not
just a feeling of ‘the pain was
all worth it in the end’. I
didn’t want that story, I knew I
could get more out of it.
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After the wonderful calmbirth®
training from Sue I went into
labour at 5.30pm on my birthday.
At first I wasn't really sure I
was in labour as previously (1st
baby) I had had regular surges
12 to 15min apart for up to 4
hours so I wanted to wait for
regular surges before doing
anything.
Surges were 6 minutes apart as I
blew out my birthday cake
candles with my 3.5yr old. An
hour later we had them at 5
minutes apart. At 7.30pm we
moved to 4.5 minutes apart - I
rocked on my fit ball during the
surges and was really enjoying
the fact that our new baby would
soon be with us.
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Our path to having a child has
not been the smoothest. In July
2007 we had our first baby, a
beautiful boy called Hamish, who
came very unexpectedly at 28
weeks. Very sadly he died 4 days
later from a bleed in his brain.
Hamish was our third pregnancy
the first 2 ending in
miscarriage.
To find ourselves 32 weeks
pregnant after a very nerve
racking few months (terrifying)
was quite overwhelming.
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I
was initially interested in
learning calmbirth® after reading
about it in a magazine and
thinking - I need more
information in order to be
mentally and physically prepared
for this big event. Being
pregnant, people often tell you
about the birth of their
children and often how it was
such a negative experience for
them and that they would only go
back for second child 'once they
forgot about the first'.
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From even before I fell pregnant
I was all set on taking
‘calmbirth®’
classes. I had read some very
positive stories in newspapers
about women who had used
‘calmbirth®’
techniques during birth and were
able to stay calm and avoid
using drugs for pain relief.
It was about 5.30 am on 26 Feb
and I awoke to mild period-type
aches. I dozed for a while then
stood up to go to the bathroom.
I noticed I felt a little sticky
and sure enough upon closer
examination the mucous plug was
coming out. I put in a pad and
went back to sleep. Michael got
up to get ready for work around
7 am and as usual asked if I was
in labour. This time I was able
to say 'I'm not sure'. He looked
excited.
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We
enrolled in calmbirth®
after friends raved about it,
and also because the classes
provided by the hospital didn't
really focus on techniques for
labour, particularly a drug free
labour. At 41wks and 2days we
were induced as my amniotic
fluid had started to drop and
there didn't seem to be any
indications that our baby would
make his own way.
It was nerve racking... Our
visualisation had always been a
calm, spontaneous process at
home, perhaps even time to soak
in a warm bath - not hooked to a
drip and monitor in hospital and
beginning the process with a
scary looking hook (to rupture
the membranes)... Followed by a
lot of scampering to the loo...
Machines and all.
Luckily we had listened to the
'be flexible' advice, and some
calming breaths and thoughts
meant that together, we could
adjust to the change in plans.
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My
husband Jarrad and I attended
your classes last year. We loved
your classes. The technique
definitely helped.
We have a beautiful baby boy
named Max. He arrived 2 weeks
late on the 22nd Aug 2008.
Reluctantly, I had to be
induced. Max didn’t want to come
out and my obstetrician didn’t
want me to go beyond 14 days. He
was very kind and knew my wishes
for a natural birth with no
interference. He let me go as
long as I could. I laboured
naturally for 15 hours using the
calmbirth techniques. I listened
to the CD’s every night pretty
much leading up to the birth.
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I
was due on the 8th June but
there was no sign of our baby
wanting to come out into the
world and eventually two weeks
later we were booked into the
hospital for induction.
Thankfully 2 doses of gel and a
long day at the hospital got
things started enough and my
waters were able to be broken
around 11pm on the 22nd June and
from that point on, there was no
stopping our little baby coming
out and coming quickly. 3hr
44min later at 2.38am on the
23rd June our baby girl, Mia
McArthur Russell was born
naturally and without any pain
relief needed (for either Mal or
myself!).
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