Birth story - Hannah Zac and Willow — This is such a great story about how Calmbirth techniques can help you during labour! I love that I can share and teach this so you can have the best birth for you and go into fully prepared.

Thank you so much Hannah and Zac for sharing your story!

Birth of Willow

From a very young age I knew I was going to be a mother. I had a strong maternal instinct, probably stemming from my own relationship with my mother, which was not always positive. I longed for a baby, or a million babies to fill the void. When we found out we were pregnant I was terrified and didn’t react the way I wanted. My partner Zac and I had only been together a year and a half and I knew there would be judgement. But I was so happy and I was confident in our partnership and that this step was next for us.

I had a pretty textbook pregnancy with very few issues. The first trimester was plagued with nausea but I was fortunate enough to be at home due to Covid restrictions and so I was able to rest and take care of myself in that time.

Going back to work I developed perinatal anxiety, the stress of being in an environment and workplace that required physical closeness and touching was frustrating. Luckily enough Zac is amazingly supportive and recognised this change in mood straight away, urging me to talk to my obstetrician and get the help I needed. And again fortunately for me it was readily available and very quickly executed which helped with the healing process.

As I started to feel more like myself I decided to enrol in our local calm-birthing course. I had decided after doing research that I wanted to birth as naturally as I possibly could. We attended our course with the beautiful Lauretta and to be honest we both didn’t know what to expect. We both assumed it would be a little ‘hippy dippy’ and that we wouldn’t be able to relate to much at all. But my we were wrong, at the end of both days it encouraged us to sit down and talk about what we both wanted and needed from each other during the birth and we found when we compared notes that we’d flagged the same points. It was so refreshing to know we were both on the same page and were able to advocate for one another. Zac would often encourage me to do our calmbirthing exercises together at the end of busy days when I was still working and even after it was something we practiced regularly. It was so nice to be on each other’s team and to know I wasn’t doing it alone, even though I was the one going through the physical pain of birth.

And so we waited, lo and behold labour began on Saturday night (my due date) with contractions slowly increasing in intensity as Sunday morning progressed. We couldn’t sleep, me because I was far too excited and Zac because he was trying too hard especially knowing what the day ahead could bring. I got up at 4:30am, had a shower and got myself ready, timing my contractions as I went. Zac woke up in a start, ran around like a mad man getting bags and double checking the hospital list. I made him sit down while I had something to eat and a cup of tea. I lost my mucus plug at 5am and then decided to relax until contractions intensified.

We rang my obstetrician at 6:30am feeling very guilty as it was a Sunday, but my contractions were consistently 2 mins apart at this point and I thought I was ready to go. He met us at the hospital and after some monitoring my contractions slowed right down. Now about 10 mins apart I was told I was only 2cms dilated. So my OBG did a stretch and sweep just to ensure all membranes were cleared and then off we went back home.

Once we got home we tried to rest, with not much success. My contractions continued to intensify and so out came my TENS machine. Every contraction I would turn it up to distract myself from the pain, it worked a treat. I was in and out between sitting on the toilet and having a warm shower for most of the morning. Things started to move along quite quickly after that, I spent most of my time on all fours shaking from the pain (Zac following closely behind making sure I was okay and soothing me) and not being able to keep anything down, not even water.

It got to 12:30pm in the afternoon when Zac said he was calling the hospital to which I was not happy about. I made him wait half an hour before he called and off we went in the car again. I spent the whole car ride eyes closed and clenched fists, trying to breathe my way through contractions as they were pretty much constant at that point. Getting up to the maternity ward was extremely challenging. I was waddling along stopping every 2 metres to breathe through another contraction. We got to reception and had to check in but as we walked in the ladies recognised me from the morning and saw the obvious pain I was in and sent me straight up. We waited in the maternity reception for about 5 mins before I was ushered to a birthing suite. I immediately ran to the toilet with the urge to push, my water broke whilst I was on the toilet and I screamed at Zac that I needed to push. He ran to grab our OB and midwife and they were quickly in the room. I was examined and was told not to push just yet but to let him know when I felt the urge again.

I was sitting up on the bed on my knees with Zac holding me as I contracted. I was rolled on my back to be examined again and then told it was time to push. I laid on my side with Zac holding up one of my legs and I began to push. The relief was amazing, to know that I was so close to meeting my baby was exhilarating. And so I pushed and pushed, my OB guided me through the process. 23 minutes later and out came our beautiful daughter, Willow. I was able to touch her head and reach down to bring her up to my chest as I birthed her. It was the most empowered feeling I have ever felt. I don’t think anything will ever top the feeling of holding my beautiful daughter in my arms and to know that I had done it all myself.

I opted to have a physiological third stage and the placenta arrived about 10 mins later. Everything I had written in my birth plan had been respected. It was an amazing feeling, going in not knowing what to expect and coming out the other side with the best memory of my beautiful birth was phenomenal. I am so fortunate to have the support I did going in and highly recommend Calmbirth, it definitely helped me to centre and compose myself and fight through any crisis of confidence that I had. I knew I could do it and I just had to keep reminding myself. I am so proud of myself and so happy that I have the beautiful memory of Willows birth to look back on.

Written by Hannah and shared with permission 💕

Much love -

*Information shared is of a general nature only and is not medical advice — please see your own care provider for specific and individualised information and advice. All personal stories & photos shared with permission.

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