Louise is passionate about sharing positive birth stories and is currently in the process of publishing a book of positive, empowering, and inspiring birth stories and plans to have it published in September 2011. If you would like to reserve a copy, contact Louise and she will be happy to send you a copy when it is printed.
CALMBIRTH BIRTH STORIES
Aaran’s birth
Asking the mums the other day, I learned that out of seven of us having coffee I was the only one with no intervention at all. Three had C-sections, two forceps and one vacuum, so I am very grateful for your calm birth course and really everything that went into making Arrans birth the most wonderful and amazingly quick experience. Keep doing what you’re doing! Charlie
Dana Emily’s birth
Our calmbirth experience was great. I found it very relaxing and very quick.
My labor was about 7 hours without complications.
My first and second stage of labour happened at home which was very comfortable for me. The breathing techniques were so helpful that my husband (John) did not notice that I was having my contractions until 8:00am when they became stronger and I was ready to go to hospital by 10:00am. By 15 past 11am when we arrived to hospital I was 9cm dilated and at 11:20am Dana Emily was born.
John was very supportive during the birth.
I found the Calmbirth(R) course very helpful because before I did the course my breathing was not good and now I do apply the techniques for everything, e.g breastfeeding, reading a book. It really relaxes me after a very busy day with Dana.
Louise, thank you for helping us by sharing you knowledge about calmbirth. – Luz and John
Grace Kennedy’s birth
Just wanted to let you know on the 6th March, after two days of pre labour and 5.5hrs of established labour, Grace Kennedy was born.
The breathing and visualising really helped me - especially with the 2 days of pre labour which was exhausting! I also used the breathing and visualising for majority of the established labour - but with Grace turned to the left, each contraction brought with it pain to my back, I was fine up until Transition when I had gas. Pushing took 30 minutes - and I was again visualizing the whole time…….without Calm birth, I don't think I would have managed the labour at all...prelabour wasn't as painful, but being able to breath through it, kept me calm, especially when I was sooo tired (I usually lose it when I'm tired and sleep deprived)...needless to say it's helped with motherhood as well :) Thank you so much for a fantastic course that taught us so much! Jen
Elke’s birth
"Our gorgeous baby girl Elke was born on 22 Feb, 2008 – a very long but very calm labour – I have to say it was the most wonderful experience – despite the 27 hours! All doing well and, of course – she is gorgeous!!! Thank you for all of your advice." Cait
Rebecca’s story
The principles I learnt from my experience with Calm Birth were extraordinary. My husband also willingly joined me on my Calm Birth journey and with his involvement; together we strengthened as a team and became unified in our quest for a safe, happy and memorable arrival of our baby.
For me personally the power of meditation and the relaxation techniques heightened my self awareness and the presence of life. I found the enhanced knowledge, belief and capability of a women’s’ body and her hormones involved to birth instinctively an extremely powerful tool to behold. I became to completely trust my female body and this gave me additional confidence.
My expectations of birth became simplified and focused. If there were any negative preconceptions of birthing trauma they became secondary to my mindset.
Calm Birth also prepared me mentally to cope at best for an unexpected ‘complications’. It allowed me to be flexible in the events of the time and also beyond.
Abi’s story
We had a natural birth! We are very proud and happy with ourselves that we went through with the VBAC (vaginal birth after caesar), especially after numerous doctors at the hospital had tried to convince us to just go the more conservative, caesarian path again.
So, I just wanted to say again - thank you so much for the course and your help and guidance in bringing our little boy into the world naturally, which has helped in setting him on the right path for solid feeding and sleeping etc - a much calmer baby this time around! Thank you. Cheers, Abi (and Mark, Zoe and Ben)
Georgina's story of Bronwyn's birth
I was very VERY lucky to have an amazing pregnancy and stayed very active right the way through (did an aquaerobics class the day before I went into labour and did 2 hours power-walking!). I had obviously also done calmbirth(R) and listened to the CDs . I’d purposely not done any other antenatal classes as I really didn’t want to feel like I was doing anything too much out of the ordinary or as though I was unwell, even though I might be heading into hospital!
I had acupuncture at 37 weeks to help prevent going too far beyond my due date and having to be induced & I had also hired a TENS machine. Mainly though, I was massively fortunate enough to get on the Midwife Group Practice program at my local hospital where I had the same midwife all the way through the pregnancy and birth.
So, at around 3am on Weds 21 Oct (2 days after my due date) I woke up needing to wee, but the sensation was different, very different to my usual 8+ night-time pees and I soon realized that the pain wasn’t just a full bladder and was coming in waves. I made a bit of a camp in the living room so as not to wake up my partner and started to time the waves. They were about 3-5 minutes apart (not sure how long as I didn’t have a watch with a second hand on me) This went on for about 4 hours.
Come 7am David got up & ran me a bath and in the light of day things seemed more normal and much less intense. I called my midwife, around 8am. She could tell I wasn’t in full-on labour so said to try the bath and keep her posted.
I was starting to think that the baby might not even be that close which concerned me as I really hoped I wouldn’t have another full night of contractions. As it happened, I needn’t have worried - come around 5pm things heated up and the contractions became much more frequent again and longer. By 8:30pm, they were a minute apart and over a minute long. While not totally unbearable, I was beginning to become somewhat overwhelmed & overpowered by the fact that I now didn’t feel as though I had time to recover enough to prepare myself for the next one to hit in the time in between. I was using the breathing techniques during the contractions & occasionally using the TENS machine (though it was probably more of a distraction - as I later found out it goes up to a setting of 60 and I only had it at about 14!)
Earlier on I had been able to visualize the waves as a “pulling up”; like a sock, getting my cervix ready -but by this time it was hard to think of it in that way. I found that having David time the contractions & the distance apart and jot them down was a good way to spend the time!
I was shown to my delivery suite. One with a huge bath. But I wasn’t interested in the bath as I was doing an “all fours” kind of thing on the mat that I found! Our midwife arrived soon after us and managed to get me to lie on my back long enough to check that the baby was OK (I hadn’t been able to lie down at all since getting out of bed at 3am that morning - it just felt horrendously uncomfortable – I have no idea why films show people giving birth on their backs; why would you?!?!) and she also checked me out -moment of truth time! I think I would have had to rethink the “no drugs” if I’d been only 1 or 2cm dilated …. But I was 9cm or more!!!! Thank goodness! Thank goodness for staying at home; having baths, calling her every few hours and for NOT having gone into hospital that morning (where for sure things would have slowed down even more than they did at home during the day!)
Our room had a huge bath and kept saying why didn’t I get in as I’d be more comfortable there. I was reluctant as I was coping with being on all fours and didn’t want to change anything (including getting gas – I felt if it wasn’t broken, why try to fix it!) she pointed out I could be on all fours in the bath. So I did hop in and I was still on all fours!
In the bath David and our midwife both helped remind me about my breathing - not to do shallow panting, which really helped. She popped out to get some paperwork or something at one stage, and I sensed something had changed. Though I’d pretty much zoned out all the conversation David & Karen were having; in the back of my mind I did remember her saying that I should be on my back once the head came out to avoid tearing…. Suddenly I did (apparently!) an animal roar and flipped over onto my back … at that point David saw the head crowning. I will NEVER forget the look on his face as we looked at each other. Were we going to be delivering this baby on our own??!?!
Luckily Karen came back soon after and the final part began - I admit to the thought “cut it out NOW!” crossing my mind, but I knew I didn’t really mean it - though the pain was intense...It was brilliant that I had none of the “Don’t push now” “Push now!” instructions that so many of the women I spoke to afterwards had - she just kept saying “You’re doing brilliantly; listen to your body - push if you want” And finally the head was through and she put David’s & my hands on it. Funny soft spongy feeling - lots of hair they said!
The next part felt a bit tense; but maybe less intense pain-wise. I remember hearing Karen & another midwife who’d come to be there for the final stage discussing whether the baby would be born on the 21st or the 22nd - so I knew it must be almost midnight, though I’d totally lost track of time. I think at one stage she suggested little, small pushes rather than deep, strong ones - and then I felt myself just totally emptying! My full, full belly just went - and a tiny little blue person shot out into the water and was helped out onto my tummy my David with the mdwifes guiding hands! Bronny was born at 12:03am on Thursday 22 Oct.
I don’t think either myself or David will ever really find the words to describe it – but we won’t need to as it will forever be in our minds as certainly the most incredible moment in my life. The cord was very short & digging into us both so after a bit, the midwife showed David how to cut the cord and we chilled in the bath for a while. The placenta followed very soon after (tiny, apparently) and within half an hour or so I moved to the bed.
The next few hours were a bit of a blur, but very relaxed really..... I was on such a high - I couldn’t believe how amazingly lucky I’d been to pull it all off with no gas, no drugs, no stitches (just a bit of grazing) and less that 90 mins after arriving at the hospital! Well; maybe I even gave myself a bit of credit for my good preparation too!
I do firmly believe that I set myself up for the best possible birth experience. I went in with the right mindset; and calmbirth(R) course was a huge contributor to this. I knew how beneficial it would be to avoid the intervention & drugs if I could; and I managed!
Now, nearly 9 weeks on, I realize that the birth experience really was just a tiny drop in the ocean compared with the whole motherhood experience.....So; in summary; I wouldn’t have done anything differently, and calmbirth was one of the brilliant tools that set me up for it, so thank you Louise (and Peter Jackson!) and if anything in my story helps other new parents-to-be, then I’d be very chuffed! Georgina, David & Bronwyn December 2009
Maya's Birth Story by Belinda
I was overdue, 41 weeks and 3 days. It was time to go to the hospital to be induced. It was not a start to labour that I had visualised but the only choice I had was to surrender to the process that all that was happening was ok, as my husband Julian said this was about outcomes, healthy baby healthy mum.
A short time after I started to feel waves approach and regress, starting to pick up intensity after about 1 hour. I found two comfortable positions, one over a ball where I rocked with each wave, acknowledging our little Maya for doing such a good job, the other in the bath. As part of our birth preferences I wanted to experience a water birth and enjoyed being in the water as much as possible. Julian was holding my hand with each contraction, and it was like I had begun to enter my own zone. With each contraction I breathed deeply, practicing my calmbirth(R) techniques. They really made a difference once the waves increased in intensity. Some time later I felt like I had reached my limit with regards to the intensity, at that point I asked for an epidural and the midwife examined me, she said she could not give me an epidural, I asked why? She said because you are in transition and are going to have a baby very soon!
At that point I became really empowered and gathered a second wind, I was going to have a baby. I got into the bath and continued to breath through each powerful wave. The sensation changed and like everyone said I had this urge to push. This sensation was very primal, and there was a strong urge to groan to deal with the pain.
Each contraction was strong and forceful, and I worked with the contraction as a force to gain momentum with, to push her down. I remember telling her that she was doing really well and we would be able to meet really soon.
It was just three and a half hours later that Maya’s head crowned and with a few simple pushes she immersed in water where I gave birth to a 3.98kg baby absolutely drug free. Thanks calmbirth(R), a beautiful baby girl, a birth experience I am so proud of. Belinda.
From a fathers perspective: What an amazing experience for a father. To see my wife have such courage and work through this beautiful process drug free is a credit to calmbirth(R).
Belle really wanted to have a baby totally naturally, but being overdue looked to take that dream away. Then when we had to go to hospital and have an inducement Belle was not happy about the process ahead. Apprehension gave way to determination with every wave and soon Belle was in the zone breathing through contractions. Her story says it all and I had the joy of supporting every wave and making sure she new I believed in her 100%. The midwife was fantastic and had obviously read Belinda’s birth plan, making sure the thought of drugs were a distant idea rather than a reality and assured her the baby would come soon. A before we could have ever imagined she did. I am so proud of Belle and her commitment to a natural process. Julian.