Eliana attended Lynn’s pregnancy yoga classes. Here she shares how the breathing and relaxation techniques she learnt, helped during the birth of her beautiful baby boy.
I was so happy to have a positive vaginal birth, naturally, relatively pain-free and in control. I am very grateful to Lynn and her team at the Active Birth Centre for all for their support and advice throughout my pregnancy. Our son Elias was born on 17th August 2017 weighing 4.2kgs. It was the most amazing experience and I feel incredibly emotional and proud of what my body did. Pregnancy Yoga with Lynn helped me to remain present and in control during labour.
I started to have mild contractions in the morning of my due date. On that day, I had planned to attend pregnancy yoga in the evening and I decided to go despite the contractions – they were manageable and exciting. My waters broke at the end of class during the relaxation and the teacher was kind enough to check with me whether they were clear, which they were.
After a visit to the hospital – who had asked I go in for them to also check my waters and come back 24 hours later – my husband and I returned home, where I hoped to try and get some sleep. However, Elias and my body had other ideas! As the contractions became stronger and stronger, I put into practice the deep breathing and relaxation exercises learnt during the pregnancy yoga classes. After about an hour, my husband ran a bath for me and helped keep track of the contractions whilst I was in the water.
At about 1 am, my contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds, and I kept having to go to the toilet. We called the hospital who told us to come in. Once there, the midwives did an internal check and told me that I was less than 4cm dilated. Frustratingly, the contractions started to slow down and became quite irregular. Despite this, they really started to hurt and I kept having to go to the toilet. This situation went on for about 2 hours.
At 3 am, I had the urge to push for the first time which I actually found really tough. There was also a great deal of tension in my lower back so I called my doula in who encouraged me to try and push on the bed at first, and then on a chair. However, both positions were uncomfortable so I asked for a stool which really helped.
At 4 am, still on the stool and with the help of gas and air, I started to seriously push. My doula was very supportive and helpful – putting on relaxing music, massaging my lower back and supporting my back with her body. While I pushed, the midwife listened to Elias’ heartbeat with a Doppler – it never dropped.
After 1 hour and 16 minutes – at 5:16am – and with about 20 pushes, Elias was on my chest and we were able to go straight to skin-on-skin.
