Positive birth story 💛

💜💜 I wanted to share my experience in the hope it helps other mums to be. I had a wonderful pain medication free water birth and prepared using this hypnobirthing book. The main thing that helped me was the breathing exercises and knowing that once I’d done x4 of them, the contraction was over and I’d get a little break to compose myself before the next. I also found it really useful knowing what happens to the body during labour and being aware that if I was calm, that would help things progress helped. I stayed at home for as long as possible and in a ‘UFO’ position (knelt on the floor mostly) and when I arrived at the hospital I was 5cm dilated. I then got in to the pool which also provided some relief and we had a playlist of our favourite music to put on. Very quickly I felt ready to ‘push’ and started to use my down breathing. My daughter was born after around 15 minutes of this stage. Overall it was a lovely experience and although there was pain and discomfort to manage, I felt in control and the experience was calm for me, my husband and our baby. I hope this story helps other ladies know it is possible to have a relaxed birth experience and I’d also recommend having a birth preferences sheet prepared so that you can feel settled in knowing that should things change or not develop as you’d hoped, you’ve got things written down as to how you would like to manage these changes. People will say you can’t plan labour because so much can change along the way, but I believe you can have preferences ready and can try to stick with these and that having this plan for varying eventualities can help you feel calmer in what can feel a scary prospect in to the unknown (especially the first time)! Best of luck and apologies for this being a long post! I hope it helps someone though 💜💜 x