I'd like to share this really positive birth story with you from one of the women who has been going to Paula Sims pregnancy yoga classes on Zoom since we've been in lockdown. I met this lady two years ago when she was pregnant with her first child when I was taking stock photos during Paula's live yoga class. Both of her pregnancies have been so different in so many ways, and its a pleasure to share her story with you all.
"I started with signs of early labour on Thursday night. Short contractions around every 6-9 minutes were enough to keep me awake between 3 and 7am but tailed off and I spent Friday feeling generally a bit uncomfortable with sporadic, quite sharp contraction-type pains and needing the loo a lot. I stood up after dinner and felt really quite a strong contraction. They then started coming thick and fast (but each one quite short). I phoned the midwife and during the course of the 10 minute call she decided she better come straight over. She arrived 10 minutes after this and confirmed this was definitely established labour. I walked around for contractions initially, then hip circled then knelt beside the bed as things progressed and I wanted to push. The contractions were intense but I managed them with breathing. I thought and said some of the mantras I had read and liked and was reassured by the midwife's positive encouragement. I was pain-free in between contractions which was a real relief and chance to recover after each one. I had thought my husband would be with me in the room but as the kids were still awake I asked him to stay downstairs with them. It was reassuring to hear them all playing together, safe (and in the kids case oblivious!) downstairs. Our beautiful daughter was born at 8.49pm. I had called the midwife at 7.20pm so it was a pretty short established labour once it got going! I was so happy to hear her cry straight away and we had skin to skin. She was really alert quite quickly and had a little feed maybe after half an hour. I'd thought I'd see if I could have a physiological third stage this time but after an hour of waiting I got fed up so asked for the injection for delivery the placenta and that worked fine. Like in an old movie, my husband came up when he heard a baby crying; and the boys came and met their new sister before going to bed. For us a home birth worked out really well. I am sure the yoga and birth preparation were invaluable in helping us have this really positive birth experience."
I've heard so many birthing stories over the years, but think its positive during these difficult times to hear others stories. I hope to share some more stories with you all over the next few weeks.
