I truly loved my birth; it was the most wonderful experience and I’m proud that this will forever be my story to share.

Story by Ainslie & Aiden

Hi Karen! Introducing our beautiful boy, Parker James Paul, born at 39 + 5 on the 11th of March at 1:58pm, weighing 3.59kg. We are so grateful for Calmbirth as we truly believe it was what gave us the knowledge and tools to achieve our dream birth with no interventions or pain relief.

Early labour started spontaneously on Sunday evening at 9:00pm, with some mild lower back pain and abdominal cramping. Aiden and I weren’t convinced it was the start of labour but thought we’d try and get some sleep incase it was and decided that I’d wake Aiden up when I needed him. Shortly after falling asleep, I was woken with slightly more intense abdominal cramping with increased frequency, around 10 minutes apart. I decided to call the hospital at 12:00am to let them know that I was in early labour, but I continued to rest at home, sleeping when I could and moving around the bedroom in different positions during contractions. I woke Aiden at 4:00am as I had lost my mucous plug and contractions seemed to be around 5 minutes apart and continuing to increase in intensity.

We decided to have a shower and realised things were progressing relatively quickly as I was unable to stand by myself in the shower during contractions. Although the contractions were intense, they were still manageable at home, using calm breathing and the shower. Aiden and I decided it was time to call the hospital at around 6:00am due to the intensity of contractions and an onset of vaginal bleeding. The hospital advised to come in so that they could check baby.

I started to use the TENS machine and continued to labour in the bedroom while Aiden packed the car. As hospital is around a 40 minute trip for us, I was mindful of trying to remain calm and in the zone as I didn’t want labour to slow down once, we had arrived at hospital.

I remembered what we had learnt at Calmbirth and the importance of oxytocin during this time so continued using the TENS machine and kept my eyes closed during the car trip using visualisation and focussing on my breathing.

We arrived at hospital at 9:00am and due to the bleeding, it was recommended that we remain on CTG monitoring as we weren’t sure where the bleeding was coming from. Although this concerned us initially, I found comfort in the CTG monitoring as I knew baby was happy and felt I could focus on labouring. After a quick check by the midwife, she advised that I was 7cm dilated. I remember this being such a surprise to us as on the way to hospital we spoke about the chance that we would be sent home, but this was definitely not the case!

Aiden was amazing as I laboured in the hospital, setting up the room with music, holding my hand and calm breathing with me. I continued to use the TENS machine and as contractions progressed, I would remind myself of how far I had come on my own at home and that I was strong, capable and confident in birthing my baby.

Due to the CTG monitoring, I unfortunately couldn’t labour in the shower for long as the midwife wanted to keep a check on baby due to the bleeding. While in the shower, I felt the urge to push and realised it was my waters breaking. From then, contractions were around 1 to 2 minutes apart. I found leaning over the hospital bed in a standing position was most comfortable during this time.

I remember a few moments where I felt myself thinking ahead and feeling overwhelmed by the unknown but in hindsight this was likely the transition phase. I found by continuing to focus on my breathing I was able to ground myself and quickly come back to a positive mindset. I could also hear Aiden and our midwife talking about how well I was doing, which made me feel reassured that I could do this.

Our midwife suggested I lay left lateral on the hospital bed to see if baby would continue to move further down into my pelvis. At this point contractions were very intense, but I continued to close my eyes and slow my breathing down, which allowed me to fall asleep during the rest period of contractions. Although at this point the rest period was short between contractions, I remember thinking that if I could ‘switch off’ and go to sleep then time would go faster, and I would meet my baby sooner. Aiden and I laugh about this now, he actually had to put the side of hospital the bed up, so I didn’t fall out of the bed as I was fast asleep.

Aiden continued to hold my hand during contractions, give me water and breathe with me. I found when I started breathing faster, I would focus on him breathing and it was enough to remind me to slow down.

I began having the urge to push around 1:00pm and remember continuing to remind myself that my body and baby knew what to do. After pushing for around 30 minutes the midwife suggested an in/out catheter to drain any urine as I hadn’t gone to the toilet for some time, and she hoped it might give baby more room when pushing as things seemed to be progressing slowly. Baby continued to remain happy during this time so although slow, our midwife was happy to let me continue to push during contractions. Following this, baby progressed and was born at 1:58pm.

I truly loved my birth; it was the most wonderful experience and I’m proud that this will forever be my story to share. I feel like I’ve always had a positive attitude towards childbirth, but Calmbirth reaffirmed for me that I was capable to birth my baby the way that I wanted. Aiden said he felt really empowered and supportive during the process because of what he learnt in Calmbirth. Thank you again Karen, we honestly couldn’t have done it without your help.