I've said it before, and I'll say it again.... I am NEVER EVER bored of hearing stories of powerful women birthing the way they desire. Whether it be using Hypnobirthing or not, a woman's strength when she truly gives in to her body's innate ability to birth and really go in to herself, trusting every fibre of her being to birth her baby, is truly breathtaking. Chelsea's story is absolutely no different and I feel so blessed to have been able to meet her in the critical weeks leading up to Isabelle's birth and being able to encourage her in a way that, at the time, seemed so insignificant. I thank Chelsea from the bottom of my heart for sharing her beautiful, healing birth experience.
These are her words:
'It was the 8th of May 2018, I had an obstetrics appointment in the morning to make plans for when and if my pregnancy went over 40 weeks. I had been having cramping all through the night and sporadically throughout the morning. Little did I realise at the time I think I was in “early labour”.
I went home and tried to make labour happen because I really wanted to have my baby that day. I tried yoga poses, fit ball exercises, spinning baby poses, a bath, all the things. So about lunch time I got out of the bath to have lunch and let the maintenance man come around to install our wardrobe cupboard door and so I could do life outside the bath. However, while eating lunch the cramping became more frequent, a bit more intense and started hurting my back, so I got back in the bath. I asked my husband to time these pains so I could let my Mamta midwife know. My husband was convinced it wasn’t labour nor was it worth letting her know.
At 2pm I was in the bath having surges every 2 minutes lasting 30-45seconds. At this point I let my midwife know and she advised me to keep doing what I’m doing stay at home as long as possible and let her know if things change ie my water breaks. I remained in the bath breathing through my surges, listening to music imaging my cervix is a lotus flower opening. An hour later (3:15) I let my midwife know I could feel pressure in my bottom with every surge so she said for us to head to the hospital for assessment before we felt it was too late.
My husband starting packing everything into the car while shouting loving encouragement from afar every time he heard me breathing through the next surge. All of a sudden I was involuntarily pushing and I remember saying “uh oh” I knew it was too late. At this point I was thinking of all the dilemmas confronting us when we got to the hospital like parking, having to get out of the car and up to the ward etc. So when ready, my husband came in to encourage me out of the bath to which I said it was too late and I wouldn’t make it, he’d have to call an ambulance. He insisted I would be alright, I would have my next surge and get out and quickly get dressed and we would go.
In my attempt to get out of the bath the next surge came very quickly and my water gushed out of me, I think then my husband realised it’s to late; I tried anyway to get out, to which I failed, and insisted on getting back in the bath. To this my husband said “well then I’ll have to call an ambulance” and he ran off to do just that. In the 7 minute conversation to the 000 operator I tried to get half out of the bath half got a top on when I let out one mighty cry with a push I looked down to see that babies head was out and then all of a sudden the rest of her was out. It was amazing!! I grabbed her put her on my chest and could hear the ambulance sirens just up the road. This was the single most amazing experience of my life.
I feel as if in our western culture women are brainwashed into thinking they don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to childbirth and so are shamed into having their baby in the hospital with every intervention known to man at your finger tips. My body knew exactly what it was doing, I just needed to listen and go with it. Leading up to my birth I was very anxious and apprehensive about the whole thing, which is why I so desperately wanted my Mamta midwife to be alongside me because she knew me, knew what i wanted and knew my pregnancy.
In preparing for labour this time I did my research, I did some hypno, I was very clear with my desires and I made sure I knew my rights, but it wasn’t enough I was still so anxious. I knew what I needed, I needed God. I needed some prayer warriors to get around me and declare this labour to be a good experience. Through some amazing women of God, God showed me and affirmed that all of my anxiety was not of Him, that He had it covered, I was made for this. During labour I felt so much peace, I felt confident, I knew my God had us taken care of and i knew my body knew what it was doing. It was such an intimate experience between me and my God.
Chelsea'