At My Kind of Birth we are amazingly lucky to help with, hear about and participate in amazing births all year round. For those who are not so fortunate, we thought it would be great to share some birth stories with you, in the words of those who were there.
We are great supporters of the Positive Birth Movement and encourage the sharing of positive birth experiences wherever possible. If you have your own positive birth story (What is 'Positive Birth'?) and would like to share it, please get in touch.
This story is about the birth of Matilda.
Matilda
I woke up 41 weeks and 2 days pregnant feeling heavy, physically and emotional. Yet another night had passed and I was still pregnant!
Knowing that it was the last possible day to go into labour naturally I called my dearest friend, who is a shiatsu practioner. She managed to squeeze me in for a treatment as a last ditch effort to get this baby moving. So my three year old and I bundled in the car and off we went across town.
There were a few tears as my friend and my ‘helpful’ three year old treated me and I began to accept that I might not get the completely natural birth that I so desired. There was also that bitter sweet thought that this was the last day that I would be spending with my daughter and everything in our world was about to change. Actually there were quite a few tears on this day!
I was due at hospital to be induced at 7am the next morning so I decided to have a shower and an early night. As I hopped out of the shower I felt a giant blob of slime running down my leg. I grabbed it and threw it in the toilet. I didn’t think too much of it because I’d had several sweeps and blobby bits had been falling out for the last two weeks.
At about midnight I got up to go to the toilet. I had dreamt I was in labour and I thought "that would be bloody right, dreaming about it but no action!" Then at 4:00am I woke up again and thought, "no it’s not a dream; these are contractions!"
Grabbing my phone I timed them; 5 minutes apart, but not very painful. Was my body playing tricks or was I in labour? I called the hospital and had a lovely chat to the midwife who said to come in in around an hour if the contractions kept going.
So I jumped in the shower, yes more contraction but nothing really stopping me in my tracks. I decided I should eat so, blueberries and yoghurt, hmmm what to do now? I had watched a video of a woman dancing through labour just a few days before that (at the time I thought it was utterly ridiculous, who wants to do that!) but I felt like it, so I did some figure 8 hip moves and then a bit of grooving in my kitchen.
By this time the contractions were a little stronger so I woke my husband up and told him it was time to go.
My husband and I chatted on the way to the hospital, musing about what a good time it was to be driving! No traffic.
He dropped me off at the door and went to find a park. In the hospital foyer I had the first contraction that took my breath away. I just stopped, waited for it to pass and then went up to the birthing suites.
The midwife who I had talked to on the phone greeted me and ushered me into a room. We talked about how wonderful it was that I had gone into labour naturally. It was a little past 6am by the time we got to the hospital.
She commented on how relaxed I was and asked me what I’d been doing for pain relief, I told her "oh nothing, I haven’t had any pain." She got me to hop up on the bed so that she could monitor bubs.
As soon as I lay on my back I got extremely hot and said that I couldn’t lay down. I’ll never forget what she said in her English accent. "Oh love, I think you're just going to have the baby."
And she was right.
When I stood up my waters broke. Back on the bed on all fours and three pushes later my daughter way born, just 15 minutes after arriving at hospital and wondering if I was going to be sent home to wait for labour to progress!
My darling baby girl was put on my chest and I just couldn’t believe what had happened. I just looked at her with so much love, so, so pleased with myself.
She was 4.2kg. I knew she was going to be big but I trusted in my body and it certainly didn’t let me down!
If you would like some more help in preparing for the birth of your baby check out our Melbourne based birthing classes or sign up to our newsletter to receive free online education materials. Our classes are held by an amazing team and include a midwife, a childbirth educator, a doula, a prenatal yoga teacher and a lactation consultant. There is a mix of gentle birthing techniques like breathing and birth hypnosis and active labour exercises.
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