When I get a birth story ending with “I can’t wait to do it all again!!!” I feel very proud 🙂
We really are meant to enjoy giving birth, so much so that we want to do it again.
“Hi Pip
We did it!
We are incredibly delighted to introduce our sweet Elsie Celia Inkpen, born 1.47am last Friday 5 April.
Wayne & I are madly in love & all doing great amidst a wash of tears, tiredness & sleepy newborn cuddles.
Everything went really well & as expected not all to the plan, haha but for the most part her birth was really wonderful.
A stop/start first stage (I laboured from 8 am to 5 pm at home on the birth ball with the fabulous TENS machine working an absolute charm, lots of walking, clary sage, hypno tracks in my ears & my breathing techniques down-pat) through continuous surges every 5mins throughout that time & then it stopped….”
I’d also started contracting 24hrs before but it only lasted 3hrs, so our midwife suggested we head into KEMH to get checked out just in case of any uterine issues or tiredness or baby distress.
I was only 2cm at 9 pm so then it was suggested we head home, get some rest & come back if it ramps up again (suggested I take sleeping pills to get a few hrs) so headed home but things had started building even as we drove home.
Thought I’d give it an hour & keep moving & breathing before even considering taking the tablets & within the hour it was on & my waters broke in the kitchen!
Definitely, time to head in so we got back in the car (30min drive to the birth centre each way – so by this time I’ve already spent 1.5hrs in the car 
) & arrived at midnight at 8cm dilation!
Needless to say, I’d really had a couple of hours of power at home!
And then within 1 hour 45mins, she was born in the birthing pool without intervention or drugs after a super calm, informed & natural labour. Exactly how I’d imagined it.
A couple of things had to be modified but only because of quite plausible potential dangers around delivery of placenta (had managed 3rd stage in case of uterine fatigue to avoid possible haemorrhaging) & as she came out she gasped but didn’t actively start breathing quick enough so the cord had to be cut much earlier than we would have preferred – baby didn’t need resuscitation or aspiration thankfully & started breathing on her own when they took her from the warm pool room into the airconditioned hallway.
The only thing we didn’t see coming (I guess you never do!) is a 2nd-degree tear due to the shape of her head on the descent.
But despite this, all in all, it was a pretty epic adventure.
Our midwife is a superstar & if he’s still around when our next babe joins us, we’d absolutely love her to be our support person again.
We’re learning fast but trying to take the days slow.
Wayne’s got 5 weeks off so we’re spending a good deal of time just staring at our sweet Elsie’s sleeping face & enjoying the bliss of the newborn bubble ?
Huge thanks to you for your wonderful teachings. Your fabulous course really helped cement what we’d wanted right from the start, which in turn is exactly how things played out on the day. Couldn’t have asked for more and really can’t wait to do it all again!!
Megs & Wayne xxx “
