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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.
There was also a history of assisted
births in our family. My own birth was a
forceps delivery which resulted in me
having a broken collarbone. I was
concerned that I should be expecting the
same and was experiencing some anxiety
at the thought.
The other main reason for doing the
course was to enjoy the process with my
husband Ben. I had heard a lot of men
talk about not really being involved and
not knowing what to do and other women
who complained their partners were
useless when it came to crunch time.
Speaking to Sue prior to starting the
course gave me the assurance that this
was a way of opening up that opportunity
to us.
Working with Sue I felt my mind set
change as early as our first session. No
longer did I experience any sense of
anxiety or fear of labour and giving
birth. My excitement started building
instantly. My only worry was that my
husband would fall asleep during labour
given he always nodded off during the
guided relaxations!
Given this was my first pregnancy I had
every expectation that I would go at
least a week over. When I began feeling
a few pangs and twinges two days after
my due date I actually thought it was
the lentil soup I’d had for lunch! I
really didn’t take it all seriously
thinking that it would pass…literally.
At 10pm that night, we’d received a call
from some very close friends announcing
the arrival of their little girl. With
our due dates a week apart my only
thought was excitement at knowing we
were next.
An hour later I went to bed and couldn’t
sleep. At first I thought I just
couldn’t relax but gradually realized
that the reason I wasn’t sleeping was
because I was feeling some cramping.
Crazily, I was still thinking it was the
lentils. After countless trips to the
bathroom and ‘cramps’ every 4-5 minutes,
I woke Ben to let him know that I
thought it was game on. We were both
very excited.
I’d noticed a bit of bleeding so we rang
the hospital. They asked us to come in
for some monitoring. While Ben was
running around the house packing – I was
completely relaxed. I was taking off eye
make up, checking that my favourite
snack foods were packed. All the REALLY
important points covered. Ben couldn’t
believe it. I think in my mind I just
wasn’t taking it seriously – I was
convinced (based on my enormous
experience with childbirth!!) it would
all pass and we’d have to come home
again in an hour.
When arriving at the hospital, I told
Ben to leave the bag in the car, again
certain we’d only be going home again
soon. We headed into the Delivery Suite
and by this stage the surges were 3
minutes apart. Up came dinner (serves me
right for succumbing to my shocking
fried chicken vice). I was hooked up to
monitors and got myself settled on the
bed. In planning our birth experience, I
had visions of relaxing baths, taking
walks, lots of chats with Ben, calming
music etc etc, however once we arrived
all I could think about was sleep! I
breathed through the surges,
occasionally spoke to Ben and in between
time I dozed, sometimes even having
really vivid dreams. It was amazing. Ben
became a midwife assistant and was
watching the monitor and talking
constantly to our midwife. I was
constantly aware of his presence which I
loved. He was stroking my head or
chatting. His voice was relaxed and this
seemed to so completely match my frame
of mind.
Occasionally I’d ask when we’d be going
home however as time progressed and the
phone calls to my obstetrician
increased, we were advised we were there
to stay. I wasn’t disappointed at all,
again, just excited. I couldn’t believe
we were that close to bringing our
little man into the world.
By about 3am, the contractions were
still as frequent. Shani the midwife
kept asking how intense the contractions
were. I could barely say, they all
seemed manageable and I was only able to
comment on how different they were to
each other.
An hour or so later, I was aware of
another midwife in the room and a bit
more poking and prodding. After a
internal examination much to all our
surprise I was already 8cm dilated. My
waters then broke and then I felt the
unquestionable need to push.
Knowing that I was now pushing
absolutely blew my mind, it meant that
our baby was so close to being born. It
felt completely surreal. And again, so
exciting.
I had some great advice from Shani about
how much I had to push (ie a lot!) and
in just under 20 minutes she asked Ben
if he wanted to see Bruno’s head.
Already crowning? Yes!!! Ben’s reaction
was pure wonder – I wanted some of that.
This just renewed my energy and
enthusiasm of getting on with the job at
hand. Then what seemed like a minute
later his head was out and the euphoria
of welcoming this beautiful creature
into the world hit me like a bullet. We
were laughing and crying at the same
time. I couldn’t believe that this
beautiful little perfect creature was
the baby that Benny and I had made. It
was extraordinary. This was the baby
that had been breakdancing in my belly
for 9 months. We finally had this little
man in our lives. Bliss.
I was blessed with a quick labour. I
think that the entire process was so
easy to deal with due to my relaxed
state of mind, something that calmbirth®
assisted with enormously. Sue’s guidance
– and that magical voice – set us both
up for a wonderful birth experience. I
have the story that I wanted.
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