freya, born at buderim hospital on 12 July 2014
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Hi Carrie
Freya is four weeks old this week, we're all relatively settled now and I've finally got a chance to write this email! Thank you for helping to prepare us for her birth. It was a beautiful experience, much better than last time. Not a typical hypnobirth though, it all happened too quickly. But I think key parts of what I'd been practising came into play at the right times. I felt really calm during the early stages without much effort at all. It helped that I thought it was still practice labour, I'd had a few tightenings earlier in the morning but they subsided and then nothing until 5.30 pm. We didn't start timing them till about 8.30, and they were seven mins apart and 20 - 30 secs long. No show or rupture of membranes this time, so I still thought practice labour. I called the hospital to see what they thought and they advised to stay home if I was comfortable, just take some panadol, get some sleep, call back if anything changes. I didn't worry about the panadol but I did start getting ready to go, just in case. I closed the bar on John, felt a bit bad about because it was his birthday. We'd had Indian take away for dinner as his special treat, I realise now that might actually have helped things along! We decided to go to hospital at 11.00 pm, I needed hip circling and focused birth breathing by then (surge breathing wasn't working for me). We were hooked up to the monitor in the room for an hour. There was some technical issue with the read of bubs' heartbeat, I think because I preferred to stand. But I was amazed how relaxed I became while standing. Pretty soon, I felt that crazy transition feeling and it was a big rush to get to the birth suite. I struggled a bit then, John half carried, half dragged me. Luckily some part of my brain caught hold of those affirmations, it was "my body knows what to do, baby knows what to do", over and over. It was very quick after that and Freya was born at 1.22 am on the 12th, she just waited to get her own birthday we think. I am a convert to affirmations now, thank-you. I'd been using one about stretching gently around baby's head while doing perineal massage and I used that as well when she was birthing. Worked a treat, no tears this time. Just wanted to say thanks for all your encouraging words and everything you taught us along the way. Looking forward to getting into some mums and bubs yoga. Cheers Bronwyn |
