Calmbirth-preparing you for all birth scenarios

Dave and Kayla Griffiths

An hour into the first day of doing the Calmbirth program, I knew I had found something that would really bless not only myself through labour, but my baby and my husband also. 

I have been meaning to email for a while, but just a little preoccupied with my 18-week old little lady.

I am from Moss Vale and my husband and I attended Calmbirth in Mittagong in February this year. 

An hour into the first day, I knew I had found something that would really bless not only myself through labour, but my baby and my husband also. 

I absolutely loved the idea of prophesying how I wanted my labour and birth to go and speaking out our vision, as my husband and I live every aspect of our lives the same way. So we definitely felt like we were on the right track! 

The biggest conviction I had from the day I found out I was pregnant until my due date when my daughter was born, was that my body knew exactly what to do, and to just peacefully go along with it. 

It not only knew how to carry and feed my baby, but it also knew exactly how it needed to grow and change in order to keep my baby safe and healthy, DURING pregnancy, and after as well.

So from day 1, I partnered with my body and what it knew to do, and I stuck to that standard and truth no matter what. 
At times, people made me question my decision to do so and even made me feel a silly.

Calmbirth not only encouraged me regarding labour and birth, but it felt like Peter jumped along side my husband and I, backed up our decision to partner with my body and what it knew to do with science and the design of the female body, and cheered us on towards the finish line. 

From 5pm – 8am the next morning, I laboured at home, breathing through each contraction. Even though I didn’t get any sleep at all that night, I still found it easy and very peaceful. My husband and I were both super excited and we actually really enjoyed the fact that, after so much practice breathing, we had made it to the real thing! 

After a few hours of labouring in the birthing suite in hospital, I tried the gas but didn’t like it at all because I was breathing through my mouth. I ditched it after one contraction and went straight back to the Calmbirth breathing. 

The only pain relief I had was a shot of morphine at 1pm. Due to lack of sleep, my energy levels really dropped and the morphine just helped me nap between contractions. 
After napping for an hour I was ready to go again, being meticulous with my breathing! 

I remembered everything Peter had explained in the course and by the time I got to the point of wanting to push, his voice popped straight into my head, I ticked off a few signs and I let the midwife know what I was feeling. 

Towards the end of my pregnancy, I started speaking over my body that it would just open up like a tulip during birth.

During the pushing stage, the midwife told me my daughters head was stuck and kept going back in, so she would give me one more push and if her head didn’t come through, she would have to make an incision. 

With one push, her head came straight out!