Hi Melissa,

I’m looking forward to sharing my story with you. Please find my story below.

Bub: Norah Jane Martha

Having studied midwifery for a while, I had some knowledge about models of care available. I knew that I was low risk and wanted a normal vaginal birth with as little intervention as possible. We chose the John Hunter Midwifery Group Practice as our care providers, which was amazing! To complement this I started researching hypnobirthing as I was curious. I heard some great feedback about the course and particularly the instructor here in Newcastle so my husband and I decided to book in.

First and foremost RELAX!

I felt at ease about the birth and looked forward to going through the labour with excitement, which was a foreign thought for me at first.

I felt empowered to make the right decisions for us, to ask questions and stand up for what we wanted.

My husband felt useful, included and understood what was happening during the labour and birth.

A beautiful, empowering, incredibly primal and instinctual birth which we were privileged to experience.

On Sunday Nov 29th I woke up at 4am feeling very uncomfortable and knew I couldn’t stay lying down (on my makeshift bed in our living room under the aircon as it was a hot night). After a while, I woke my husband, Sandy, up and said I needed to go for a walk. It was going to be 43 degrees that day so heading out at 5am we could already feel the day warming up. I had joked earlier in the week that being so hot it would be a perfect day to have a baby as the hospitals aircon would be fab………

It’s pretty flat where we live and so we walked slowly around a few blocks. I stopped every few minutes to breathe through the surges, not really believing it was labour yet. We can’t remember what we spoke about but I do remember saying “we’re going to have a baby today” and Sandy laughing and rolling his eyes. When we got home my mum, who had been staying with us as I’d invited her to the birth, was up and asked us what was happening. We said we didn’t really know but in my head I knew this was it.

The rest of the morning is a bit of a blur for me. In hindsight, I now know I was fully inside my head as the hypnobirther I’d become. I remember eating and drinking, bouncing on my exercise ball, pumping the aircon and putting my tens machine on. I got in the shower at one point and sat on the toilet on and off too. I tried squatting, kneeling, rocking and swaying. Eventually we gave our midwife a call. She asked us all the questions, coached me through a surge and said she’d start getting ready to head into the hospital and for us to call when we felt ready. It was only an hour later and I was ready.

The trip into the birth centre wasn’t pleasant, but thankfully only 12 mins. Arriving at the hospital (at about midday) I couldn’t wait to get into the room. They had already started running the bath which made me feel relaxed as I love baths and was hoping for a water birth. Mum, Sandy and I unpacked some things including my birth affirmation cards, speaker, electric candles, oils, sarongs to lay on the bed, my pillow and the all important schnacks!

The midwife arrived not long after us and straight away I felt calm and relaxed with her there. She knew exactly what to say, when and what to offer me, when. She watched, listened and decided I was either only in early labour and maybe should go back home for a while or was a ‘quiet achiever’, as she said, and was progressing quicker then we realised. We agreed to do an internal examination to see. It turned out I was already 5cm, much to everyone’s surprise!

From then, I utilised a birth ball, the shower, the bath and finally ended up on the bed in a kneeling position up over the bed head. Again, it’s a bit of a blur for me, I was totally inside myself, focused and calm. I can’t fault the support of my husband Sandy. He was by my side the entire time and massaged, applied heat packs, whispered words of encouragement and held my hand through it all. In the bath I began involuntarily pushing. It’s an indescribable sensation, this uncontrollable urge to push. Unfortunately, I needed to get out of the bath and didn’t get to have a water birth but things were progressing very quickly.

I remember the midwife saying another midwife was going to come in and help as the baby was coming. Both midwives were amazing as I started doubting myself and not wanting to do it anymore (transition). The pain was taking over and I wasn’t feeling calm anymore. The baby’s head started crowning and Zara coached me through the “ring of fire” sensations whilst applying warm compresses to help with the stretching. Once the head was out it seemed to only take a few more pushes for the body to be born. I was in shock and disbelief. Overwhelming love swept over me looking down at my baby girl! “OMG it’s a girl”, I exclaimed. The entire pregnancy I had totally believed it was a boy. I turned around to lie down and have skin to skin. Sandy got to cut the cord and we stared at each other and the baby in amazement!

Any birthing people looking to have the most amazing experience of their lives!

Thank you for creating a beautiful, empowering course, I’ve had the best experience!

With gratitude,

Amelia, Sandy and Norah