This is the beautiful Charlotte just after delivering her first baby boy. Her expression of happy wonder says it all!
Charlotte and her husband were the first couple I taught and they put their trust in me to help them prepare for the birth of their first baby.
They were such a joy to teach and I could tell right away that they would make a dream team on the day.
Charlotte had a quick labour so found the breathing techniques I had taught her helped her remain calm and she breathed baby out. She also loved the relaxation sessions which allowed her to bond with her baby and prepare mentally for birth. Below is an extract of her birth story published in full on her Blog The First Time Mum.
"Latent labour started quite gently overnight on the Thursday evening to Friday morning. Waking up properly on the Friday I then had period cramping like sensations basically every 10 minutes throughout the day. Late in the evening on Friday they got a bit stronger and started to come closer together so started using my TENS machine which helped.
At 11:45 my waters broke, my mucus plug went and the surges stepped it up a gear. I had to wake my husband up after only 15 minutes of sleep! We called the hospital and they advised to stay at home a while before coming in. Half an hour later, with the surges intensifying, and with a 35 minute drive to the hospital ahead of us, my husband and I used our BRAINs and called the hospital again to say we’d be heading over. I made it through the car journey using breathing and a TENs machine and we arrived at the hospital at about 1am on the Saturday and were taken straight to a lovely room with a pool on the Midwife Led section of the Royal Surrey maternity ward. My husband set up the room with battery powered tea lights, room spray, positive affirmation cards and our Bluetooth speaker.
I consented to an initial internal examination but had stated on my preferences that I wanted as few as possible and ideally to not be on my back - unfortunately I still had to lie down, when all I wanted to do was stand up or sit on the toilet - but I was able to go onto my side for the examination. I had asked not to be told how far along I was unless it was very good news so my husband was then told that I was only 1cm at this point. The midwife took him outside to speak to him and said we could stay as the unit was quiet or we could go home. As the room was all set up we decided to stay and I’m so glad we did! An hour and a half later at about 3:30am everything had become a lot more intense so I took two paracetamol as we presumed I wasn’t much further along. However I then started to feel an urge to push so I used my BRAIN and consented to another internal examination - given on the basis of seeing whether I had progressed enough to use the pool as this was my hope...instead it showed that I was fully dilated and there was no time for the pool! If we had gone home my husband would have been delivering in our very rural home or a country lane so he was very glad we had stayed too!
At this point I got on my knees on and kept leaning on my husband who was keeping me on track with my breathing and 1 hour later our little man made his appearance! He was born with his arm up by his head so I needed coaching towards the end of when to push and when not too to minimise any damage. The midwives were amazing coaching me and massaging my back while I lent my full body weight on my husband (he was standing the entire labour with me leaning on him!) and I breathed my gorgeous boy out. I had skin to skin and got that first feed in before we moved to another lovely room. The care I received at Royal Surrey was truly incredible throughout."
"Rose was amazing and I’m sure her courses helped me have my pain-relief free, under 5 hour birth with my son!
My husband and I did the fantastic couples course which covered so much (from all the stages of labour, what to expect at each stage, pain relief and induction, breathing techniques, newborn care and more) and it was a great experience to do together to prepare us both for birth (it covers a lot more than NCT courses from what I’ve been told by friends when comparing what we learnt!!).
I also did the mum-only class which was a wonderful relaxing course incorporating breathing, yoga, relaxation and more. Truly can’t recommend Rose’s classes more."
Charlotte has recently started a fantastic new blog called The First Time Mum - The Sh*t No One Tells You. I definitely recommend it! www.thefirsttimemum.co.uk
You too can feel confident about your upcoming birth. Contact me today to start your positive birth journey.
Rose x
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