Mama A – “Thank you Claire, for your amazing Yoga classes. Coming to Yoga every week, meeting all the other lovely ladies and getting all the valuable advice on pregnancy and birth and practising breathing helped me tremendously. Breathing techniques and confidence in my body helped me to undergo birth unmedicated and stay calm throughout.”

As promised, here is my little unusual birth story. I hope it can give the other ladies some confidence in their bodies. Even an unassisted, unplanned home birth can be quite a good experience.

It all started at 1:30 am in the morning of the due date with my waters breaking in a big gush on my way to the toilet. I immediately got exited but there was no signs of contractions yet. The MLU advised me to come in for a check at 10am unless I had contractions every 5 min for 1 min each. I thus went back to bed but after a little while, contractions started coming in. They were only 3 min apart but less than a minute each leaving me confused about what to do. Breathing through them I stayed at home till about 9am, then deciding it was time to go in. At this point, I felt confident about giving birth and was excited about what was about to come.

At 10am a midwife assessed my progress and advised us that I was only 2 cm dilated and was coping ‘“too well”. She also doubted that my waters were actually gone and since the baby was back to back. She told us that labor would take ages and become way more painful before anything would happen. We were told we should go back home and come back if I wasn’t able to smile anymore! This assessment somehow knocked my confidence so when we arrived back home and things got a little harder I put that down to me being less sure of myself. At home I laboured in the bathroom in and out of the shower with the amazing support of my partne. He kept me hydrated and helped me breath though the contractions so that I gained back my confidence and managed to cope well.

At about 12:30 we decided to go back in to hospital, but on the way to the car I realised I wouldn’t make it there as I felt the need to push and a felt a head between my legs. We just made it back into the house and within 5 min our little girl was born on the living room floor. My partner was on the phone with the emergency services who guided him through what to do. Just when he placed her on my chest, the paramedics came into help cut the cord. A little later the midwife turned up to helped with the delivery of the placenta.

Overall, the birth was quite scary for my partner but since I focused on breathing etc it wasn’t that bad for me. My body just knew what needed doing so everything else didn’t matter. I didn’t need stitches or anything so we stayed home straight away.

I wouldn’t have planned it like that but actually I am quite happy how it all worked out and it was great to enjoy our new family at home. This unusual birth was quite empowering for me and my partner alike, we are very confident that we can now also master parenthood together.

I also wanted to thank you Claire, for your amazing Yoga classes. Coming to Yoga every week, meeting all the other lovely ladies and getting all the valuable advice on pregnancy and birth and practising breathing helped me tremendously. Breathing techniques and confidence in my body helped me to undergo birth unmedicated and stay calm throughout.

I am looking forward to meeting you in baby massage and yoga.

All the best to all the other lovely ladies