Unlike most teachers that decide to teach due to their own positive birth experiences I actually decided to teach because of what happened after I gave birth.
This is my daughter, the one who started it all. There is a little bit of an age gap between my first two children and my third so I felt a little rusty during this pregnancy and to be honest it was like starting all over again. Including buying all new baby supplies as we had thrown out all our old stuff due to a house move. I remember feeling determined that this time I wanted to do things differently, taking better care of myself, really enjoy my pregnancy, do the things I wanted that in my previous pregnancies I never got around to doing, continue doing everything I wanted and not just stop because I was pregnant but my gosh did I feel nervous this time round. So much more than with my first two. I was worried about the baby movements, worried about complications, worried after reading and watching anything about birth and baby’s and most of all worried about giving birth again. I felt silly to think this after all I had done this TWICE before.
I’d heard about hypnobirthing but also assumed it wasn’t for me or it wouldn’t work and thought I‘m not a Mother Earth goddess type of women. I wasn’t sure about home births and even though I didn’t want any pain relief I also didn’t want to rule it out either and again assumed this would be a requirement for hypnobirthing. But I also knew that this would be the last time I could try something different and anything that would help to make my birth more enjoyable and more comfortable was worth a try and I am so glad I took that plunge. My teacher instantly made me feel at ease and clearly everything I had assumed was total nonsense. The whole experience was fun, informative, like having my own personal midwife through my pregnancy and after I really got a sense of I CAN DO THIS. I also very quickly realised how much I DID NOT KNOW I literally had been giving birth completely unaware of anything, just doing what I was told not knowing why. It really helped me feel prepared and excited, it just made sense. It was great spending that time each week discussing exactly what we wanted and why, which we would never had done normally and never did previously (where most of my midwife appointments were done alone as you were in and out in a second) we were doing something that felt really productive for our birth and baby.
I had a fantastic short labour and even though it felt more intense this time around I was in total control to the point that even the midwives were shocked about how well I was coping and to be honest so was I. Not long after I gave birth I was up, getting ready and waiting to go home with so many commenting that it didn’t even seem like I had just had a baby - have to say I felt like a Mother Earth goddess at that point! I was then put onto the maternity ward and was happily talking to the other mums about our experiences, baby names, weight all the usual stuff.
Then we were joined by another mother who had just come out of surgery after an emergency caesarean. She was shaking, emotional and very disorientated, distressed about how itchy her skin felt with many caregivers explaining how these were normal side affects to surgery. The biggest thing for me was when she became upset because she couldn’t hold her baby straight away and this was a first time mum. Listening to how she felt like she had failed because she had been having surges for so long and gotten so far in her labour but then had to have a caesarean as her baby was distressed. I felt so sorry for her and what she had experienced and was still going through and realised how lucky I was with my own birthing experience and how different it could of been. Moments like this really make you think!
So this is actually why I decided to teach so I could support families who feel like their birth experience was not as good as they had hoped for and maybe are scared of doing it all again. Giving you the choice to do things differently and have a better experience this time around, being able to spend those precious moments after you give birth doing what you are meant to do, bond with your baby, feeling empowered as what you have just done is bloody incredible!
Everyone should feel like a Mother Earth goddess giving birth 😎.