Kate's positive birth, with a twist in the tale   

I just wanted to let you know that our baby boy Jack was born on Saturday 10th March!

I woke up on Saturday morning with some cramps (and this was unusual as all my cramps happened at night), and took a shower and the cramps started coming thick and fast with a surge every 2 minutes! I went upstairs to the birthing room, started playing my favourite hypnobirthing track immediately and called the midwife!

We had our doula there as well that was incredibly supportive, and Anthony was with me the whole time too, pressing on my hips every time I had a surge (at the time I called him a natural form of epidural!).

The birth progressed really rapidly but the cord was caught under his arm so in the last stages of pushing, everytime I tried to push him out the cord pulled him back like a bungee jump so I was rushed to hospital last minute in the ambulance and literally gave birth within 15 minutes of being in hospital! 

how kate felt about being rushed to hospital

I actually feel really fine about the hospital birth, the contractions were so intense and painful that I just wanted the baby out! It happened so quickly and it was such an out of body experience being on the gas and air!

Compared to my first birth - Sophia was over 48 hours, and Jack was 6 1/2 hours, I was just overjoyed it was so quick!

Also, the Juniper midwives team were so fantastic and stayed with us the whole time, we had a great consistency in care and the midwife communicated and organised the hospital in advance so it was an incredibly smooth process.

We had the top senior consultant deliver Jack, so we really felt in safe hands. This time was so different, as they asked us every time before they examined us or did anything, which was great. 

hypnobirthing in action

All the elements we discussed were with me throughout the birth - positive encouragement on the walls which my doula kept reading out to me, aromatherapy, raspberry leaf tea, hypnobirthing calming me down in the background. Being a big wimp when it comes to pain, I only had paracetamol, codeine and gas and air - which considering my last birth where I had every pain relief going was a massive sense of achievement! 

I feel so great now, and feel like I have so much energy than I have had for the last 9 months. My doula recommended placenta capsules which I have been taking and I think these have really helped with the energy levels and lack of sleep. I still feel abit tender as I had an episiotomy, but compared to how I felt with Sophia, it is quite minor!

I wanted to say thank you so much as your course really kick started me positive thinking for the birth and also helped me through the majority of the pregnancy which I found pretty exhausting, especially towards the end! We kept your post-its from the course up on our fireplace for the duration of the pregnancy, and it was a constant reminder for us to think positively. I still remember the day of the course and the things we discussed - some of which Anthony and I hadn’t mentioned in over 4 years! It really opened our eyes and made us approach the pregnancy and birth in a completely different way.