I would do the whole thing again in a heartbeat. It was amazing!!

Hello Deb. 

I want to thank you for your class and support.

We had the most amazing and incredible birth experience, even though my ideal labour went out the window. It turned into a 4 day ordeal when bub flip herself into the posterior position! 

Here is my long story:

Sunday 12th ;

I started having niggly feelings that were rather uncomfortable at around 8pm. They soon turned into surges that lasted 60 seconds each and around 5 mins apart. This went on for an hour before they eased off and then entirely vanished. 

Monday 13th;

I had no contractions at all during the day, then 6pm it all started again. I had contractions that were lasting up to 2 mins each but no closer than 5 mins apart. These surges kept going all night. They never got stronger or closer. From what we learned in your class, I knew this was not active labour yet. I remember you saying that the surges needed to get *closer, *stronger and *last longer, to be active labour and opening my cervix. So, I breathed through each contraction and spent my night sleeping while sitting on my birthing ball, with my head on the bed, standing for each contraction.

Tuesday 14th;

I had an appointment with my Obstetrician scheduled, so I attended, contractions and all. When she did an internal examination to check the dilation of my cervix, it turned out I was already 4cm dilated, but not yet in active labour.  I went up to SJOG at around 3pm on Tuesday afternoon. My contractions got a little stronger and closer and at around 5pm. When my Obstetrician came back that evening and checked my cervix again, she discovered I was still only 4cm and baby was now completely posterior, not the most ideal position for an efficient labour. At this point she gave me two options;

*Induction of labour or

*Caesarean.

My husband was amazing and calmly asked her if we could have 5 minute to chat about it. We discussed the pro’s and con’s of each option and decided to try a few techniques we learned in class to try and flip baby naturally. My Obstetrician said she'd come back in the morning. We laboured through the night and thought we'd done pretty well, but when my Obstetrician checked again at 5am I was still only 4cm.

Wednesday 15th;

As I was still not in active labour, despite 2 days of irregular contractions and bub was still where she was the day before. At this point my Obstetrician explained that being induced would help increase the surge strength and regularity in hope it would turn the baby. My Midwife was amazing and only started the syntocinon at midday on half strength. This was absolutely enough as the contractions ramped up quickly. After a couple of hours, my cervix was 8cm and still no pain relief, just breathing and swaying through each contraction. However, my Obstetrician came back at around 2pm and took one look at me and the monitor and saw that the contractions just weren't strong enough or regular enough and baby wasn't moving into position for birth. So she suggested I'd do well to have an epidural. I was rather exhausted by this point. I'd been having back-to-back contractions at 8cm for 2 and a bit hours and hadn't had much sleep since Saturday night. We discussed the idea and decided it was really the safest option for both mum and bub. I had the epidural and slept for an hour. When my Obstetrician came and checked again, I was still 8cm!! I was glad I had had the epidural. At this point, with my consent, my Obstetrician put her fingers inside and manually turned our baby. In only an hour she came back to find her head was coming down and I was finally fully dilated!! 

At around 4.30pm my Obstetrician asked if I could push my baby baby out. I said I was struggling to feel my muscles, so she mentioned something about forceps.

I said absolutely no way. So, I imagined my abdominal muscles, and imagined I was breathing out a poo, (just like we learned in class, and I had been practicing for weeks)  and the next time my Obstetrician looked, her head of hair was right there!! About 5 contractions later, Baby Belle was born at 5.25pm on Wednesday night. She weighed a healthy 3.414kg. I had a tiny tear which had a small stitch. My epidural wore off completely before we left the birthing suite, and the catheter was removed. I felt absolutely fine. I never felt like I "birthed a child" as I often hear others described in a negative tone. Over the following days I felt great, I had regular bowel movements and no pain weeing. I could just enjoy my baby and being a new mum.

I would do the whole thing again in a heartbeat. It was amazing!! 

I wouldn't have been able to do it without the techniques we both learned in our “Empowered to Birth” class. Every contraction he held me up while I swayed, and he counted my breathing. "In 2, 3, 4, out, 2, 3, 4" and this was all I focused on. I can honestly say there was no pain at all during my labour. The only time I had pain was when my Obstetrician was turning the baby inside me. 

Thanks so much again for giving us this amazing experience. I've been recommending the course everywhere I can. 

Ivy, James and Belle