I love these emails I got about about the birth of Ted.
Firstly here is Dad’s email:
Sally and I are delighted to let you know that we had a little boy Thursday morning!!
Ted (Edward) James Jasper Robinson was born naturally 2nd October at 12.15am with Sally having no pain relief at all, breathing through surges and getting soft touch massages from me and the two wonderful midwives Brooke and Hatisha who fully embraced all our birth preferences.
Sally birthed Ted while squatting on the floor held up by me on one side and a fit ball on the other! the midwife caught him just in time!!
Ted weighed in at 3.555kilo and 52cm (Sally says “big baby bull” indeed!!)
We wanted to say a massive thanks for all the advice tips and techniques you gave us.
We didn’t use everything, (in fact the affirmations cd made her throw up so we switched to classic FM which worked a treat!!) but as you said we had them there if needed.
We both went in with confidence that we could stand up to any resistance from the midwives etc but in the end they were fantastic and I didn’t have to police anything… Loads of akin to skin and delayed cord clamping etc.
Thanks again, a couple of pics attached and we hope to catch up soon!
Dan, Sally and Ted xxx
Now here is Mum’s:
Ted’s birth was amazing beyond anything I possibly could have imagined!
I’ve got no doubt that our positive experience was down to all the prep work we’d done as a result of your Hypnobirthing course. Not just the positive affirmations, but also all the little practical tips along the way. The single most helpful thing for me on the day was understanding that being on my back would be hugely uncomfortable – and you bet it was!! If I hadn’t have had the confidence to resist the bed, as well as ideas of other positions to use, I’m not sure I could have avoided additional pain relief. I also used the reflexology points on myself the whole time, which was a great way to take my mind off the discomfort.
I also can’t emphasise enough what a difference it made to the whole experience for Dan to know how he could help. I had complete trust in him to liaise with all the medical people, which enabled me to stay focused throughout the whole thing.
If I could change two things for next time, it would be firstly to not worry so much about how the midwives and doctors would support my preferences – sometimes it felt like I was preparing for a battle with them! However in the end they were AMAZING and totally respectful of what I wanted.
Secondly I had asked Dan to find out about how I was progressing from the midwives, but not tell me. This was a great plan for most of the labour, but at the end I felt like I would have liked to know that Ted was so close. I truly felt like we were getting nowhere at all, until all of a sudden, out he popped!
Thanks so much again Pip for all your support during the course as well as fielding my questions in the weeks after!