I have been meaning to e mail you for a few weeks to announce the safe arrival of Ella Zinnia Rose on the 10th January. How time flies. And also mainly to say thank you for your brilliant tuition. I ended up having Ella at home because I didn’t think I was in fully established labour as my contractions didn’t feel strong enough or last for very long. All thanks to the techniques you taught! I envisaged each contraction as a ball shrinking, and of course did the steady breathing.
I also repeated the words calm and in control to myself. (I had tried to do positive thinking and say positive attributions in my mind all the way through my pregnancy). Anyway the above obviously worked well, although I felt quite anxious and didn’t think I was coping!
It wasn’t until I started to want to push that I thought maybe things were happening. Indeed they were as I was 9 and a half cm dilated when my midwife came to examine me. She advised a home birth as my waters were close to breaking and would bring baby with them. Being relaxed and completely trusting my midwife I felt fine with this. Phil was great and rushed around getting sheets and tarpaulin. My Mum came to take Jake (my 4 yr old). He was brilliant and even popped in to say bye, unaware of any drama. Ella was born about an hour after the midwife arrived weighing in at 8ILbs and 7oz.
So thanks to all your coaching,brilliant approach to labour and taking the anxiety out of it I had a really wonderful, special and relaxed experience. So relaxed in fact, that Phil and the 2 midwives sat having tea and toast as we waited for the placenta, while talking about traffic in Salisbury.(I had switched off and was busy marvelling at Ella!
I should point out that my labour lasted about 5 and half hours but it was my lack of awareness about the strength of the contractions that meant I left it to the last minute to inform the midwife! When I attended the course, in one birth story you told the mother had mentioned she had only felt discomfort and strong sensations. I didn’t think I would be able to achieve that but I have to say I felt nothing more than discomfort. Strong at times and I felt a bit agitated but when I started to want to push I relaxed again as I knew baby was coming and it wouldn’t be long.
Although things intensified in the last stages, I would describe contractions as very strong sensations but no real pain. Amazing! My hope was not to give in like I did lst time and have pethidine and do it on just the gas and air. In fact I had more gas and air for the stitches than I did during the labour. So thank you again for enabling me to have this wonderful experience. I feel very lucky.