I just wanted to share with ABC the arrival of our second baby girl Cielo (pronounced Si-eh-lo).
She was born on the 18th of April at 1am in the Birth Centre at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital. 4 days after her expected due date.
I started feeling small surges on Saturday morning but through the day they stopped, which apparently can happen – it all re-started on Sunday. By 6pm I was having surges 5 minutes apart and was leaking some amniotic fluid so I went straight to the birth centre.There was discussion by one of the doctors at about 32 weeks about an induction due to having low PAPP (a protein in the placenta and a new marker that is being introduced) however, thanks to the Active Birth course I knew a lot more about how my body works and also had the confidence to very politely decline an induction as there was no apparent medical/urgent reason for it.
My 8-year-old daughter had kindly written all the active birth affirmations on pieces of paper which I proudly displayed in my room. They were very helpful!!
The breathing techniques did wonders in the first portion of the labouring process, especially counting cycles of 4 breaths – it felt surprisingly manageable! and yes, exhales became my best friends!!I was in the birth pool for the last portion, but things did slow down as soon as I went in, maybe in retrospect, I went in a bit too soon, so after almost 3 hours and many changes of positions I came out of the pool and gravity did the rest.
In a matter of 5 minutes the party was reaching its peak – I felt her head ‘slide’ through the last bit of my pelvis and had to get on all fours as soon as possible as she was almost out!!
I followed the ‘panting’ technique when she was crowning (which Janet and I spoke about at the course) and thankfully managed this last bit without a tear. Phew!! Also, worth mentioning, my husband was amazing and not too annoying, which I’m sure was in part thanks to the Active Birth course 🙂I birthed the placenta about 10 minutes later and we kept the placenta attached to Cielo for about an hour. It has now been turned into capsules and a face cream – which I’ve been told makes my skin glow.
It was actually quite an amazing experience and I have to thank Janet, ABC and the Active Birth Weekend Course and yourself for it.
