The Birth of Avery - Positive Home Birth Experience
Katie & Mark’s birth story of Avery:
Katie’s words -
When we discovered we were expecting I found that, like most 1st time mums I imagine, the idea of birth was not something to necessarily look forward to but more something that just had to be endured (as there was no turning back now!) and that a hospital birth was the only option we felt comfortable with.
So, imagine our surprise when, at 37 weeks pregnant and following the Body to Baby’s hypnobirthing course, we arranged to have a home birth and started to feel butterflies of excitement at the thought of experiencing the upcoming labour!
We had decided quite early on in my pregnancy that we wanted to learn as much as we possibly could and hypnobirthing answered all of the ‘science’ questions we had as well as resolving a lot of the pre-conceived ideas we held about child birth. It especially helped my partner to understand how important his role as
my birthing partner was and that no matter what situation we may have found ourselves in, he was confident he could support me and be an active participant through the birth of our daughter.
We spent the weeks following the course and prior to my labour practising the relaxations that hypnobirthing promotes and both felt that these tools helped us feel better, not only in relation to the birth but in our everyday lives as well (and we continue to use them now) so when I woke my partner to let him
know I was having contractions we were so relaxed we lay chatting for a good hour before we thought to ring the homebirth team and let them know I was in labour!
The homebirth midwives were attending another birth when we rang so my partner went and collected the birthing pool from the hospital which left me alone for a while and it was in this time that I was really able to connect with my body in a way that I hadn’t known was possible. The hypnobirthing breathing techniques
along with my visulations (as well as some love and cuddles from my temporary birthing partner: our dog Pigeon!) made me so calm and relaxed that I was actually able to snooze between contractions...this rest really was invaluable to both my physical and my mental energy levels in the latter stages of labour.
We wanted our birth environment to be as relaxed as possible and so, when our midwives arrived and had checked baby and me were doing well, my partner made them at home in the back room and then came back to me in the lounge so that we could continue through my labour on our own.
We got into the rhythm of my contractions and found that I was most comfortable standing up whilst gripping onto my partners forearms. The things he had taken from the hypnobirthing course meant he was able to become very in tune with me, to the point that he was able to leave the room and arrive back at exactly the moment I would have called out to him.
I was able to use the birthing pool and although I had wanted to birth our baby in the water unfortunately after 4hrs of ‘pushing’ we made the decision that I needed to try something different and following a few more strong contractions our beautiful daughter arrived on the sofa! (The midwives later admitted that they believed I was simply TOO relaxed in the water and that what I needed was a bit of gravity to help matters along!)
I can honestly say that the time me and my partner had alone together in that room was amazing, we were both able to discover new sides to each other that we hadn’t seen before. The love, support and strength my partner gave me in those hours mean the world to me and, along with holding my daughter for the 1st time,
will live with me forever.
Woaw, what a positive birth experience!
Our goal at Body to Baby is to work with you and your birth partner to have a safe and positive birth for you, your birth partner and your baby, an experience you will treasure forever….just like Katy and Mark!
To find out more information about Body to Baby’s wonderful Hypnobirthing courses, please click the link below;