M's helpful 'Taxi Persona'

M’s most helpful “strange taxi persona,” and her positive birth, despite a twisted cord.

Hi Zoe, 

Lovely to hear from you. Soooo sorry for the delayed reply. I’ve been meaning to message for months. But we’ve been super busy. Turns out babies take over your life! Who knew! 

We are doing really well thanks. M arrived on the early hours of Saturday after a 46hr labor. 36hrs of which were spent at home. 

We wanted to say thank you so much as we used so much of what we learnt in your classes during the birth.

It was brilliantly helpful. 

During the early labour stages, we went for walks, tried to stay a chilled and clam, cooked and watched (funny) tv. 

Getting to the hospital was probably where your the hypnobirthing techniques started to come in most. As we were going to UCLH which was a good 30-40mins away from us I was really worried about regressing during the transition.

So I put the tracks you sent us on my iPhone, plugged my headphones in, turned up the volume, wore sunglasses and put a white scarf covered in lavender and clary sage over my head. I also closed my eyes the entire way. I must’ve looked hilarious! 

When we got to the hospital M did all the talking and I just stayed in the zone, surging regularly and trying to breathe through them. Then when they checked me I was 6cm, so was admitted straight into the birthing centre. Which I was so happy about.

That strange taxi persona had paid off! 

We entered the birthing room, put your positive birthing track on repeat on loud speaker and I got into the pool. It remained on all the way through the 12 hr birth, as it was the only thing that kept me calm.

The midwifes even commented on how good it was and M said I was so calm and focused.

The birth was all going really well and then the pushing stage started. Which I was super excited about as I thought phew we’re near the end! However, after 3 hrs of pushing as hard as I could it became apparent there was something not quite right.

She just wouldn’t come out! So they got me out the pool and gave me an episiotomy! Which was obviously not ideal but a relief after pushing for so long. When she was out we realised the cord had been wrapped round her neck (twice) and that must’ve been pulling her in, hence being so hard to get her out!

Anyway in the end all was well and since recovering, we have been enjoying our beautiful little girl every moment of every day, even at 2:00am.

The love is so so strong and every hard moment was so worth it! 

Thanks again for helping and preparing us to get through the birth.

Having you tell me that ‘my body is designed to do this’ over and over in the background really got me through, especially with the tricky ending. ☺️

Love 

M, M and M xxx