Throughout her pregnancy, Imogen loved the Active Birth Centre – attending Janet’s yoga classes and couples yoga, baby resuscitation with Bernadette and reflexology with Sophia. She also attended Lynn’s couples massage class at the Whittington. We were delighted to receive the news of the arrival of her daughter and are delighted to be able to share her positive story with you all.
I woke at 1.30am and started to feel contractions. I did what you had recommended, Janet, and tried to sleep/rest in between and let my husband sleep so he had his energy for what I was expecting to be a long day/night ahead.
I focused on my breathing and visualisations until about 4.30am, by which point I had to keep getting up and walking around during contractions. At 6am, they started to ramp up to about 7-minutes apart and so I woke my husband up an hour later. We went downstairs and I started to do the yoga positions we had been practising in class that day.
My sister had actually been staying with me that night and my mum was coming to spend the day with me, so they both happened to be there. Despite not planning for them to attend the birth, it meant that they ended up being able to share the experience with us and were an incredible support to my husband and I. This had not been in our birth plan, but I am so happy that it happened this way. It did mean that between them, the midwives and my husband, there were 6 people attending the birth. However, by doing the visualisations and breathing, I was able to stay focused and appreciate the wonderful feeling of support I had around me.
I had a bath and the midwife arrived at about 9.30am. By then I was 7cm dilated and contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart. My husband and the midwives frantically set up the birthing pool (I was in my zone upstairs) and I got in at about 10.30am. Our daughter, Honey Daisy Phoebe Taylor was born at 11.34 am. She was 5 lbs 7 oz. I didn’t need any stitches, she took to breastfeeding instantly and is generally a very calm and gentle baby.
Honey is my first baby and I am convinced that I went into labour that night because of doing the yoga class that day. I felt fully prepared and completely calm, as was my husband who had attended a hypnobirthing course and the couples massage course at the Active Birth Centre; he was a tremendous support to me both on the day and throughout my pregnancy and I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful birth partner. We used the yoga and massage techniques you had shown us to deal with the contractions and throughout my labour, my mind kept going to things which you had said in the class.
Thank you so much for all of your help and inspiration. You made my labour and birth so smooth, and a wonderful experience for my family and I which we will cherish forever.
Find out more about yoga classes at the Centre, here. You may also be interested to find out about reflexology and baby resuscitation.
