By Danielle Galvin
As Boroondara mum Nancy prepared for the birth of her first child, she thought about learning how to breastfeed and getting through labour.
It was difficult to imagine, like it is for many first time mums, how it is that you can manage the pain of birth and how breastfeeding will go.
It can be an anxious lead-up to the birth, and it’s often the fear of the unknown that runs at the heart of it.
“For me it was the birth and breastfeeding was what I was most worried about, things you couldn’t control or didn’t know how it was going to go,” she explained.
Nancy did a hypnobirthing course with Lisa Simpson, who runs Breathe and Birth, to help prepare for the birth.
She said it helps give you the tools to stay calm.
“The way they talk about it kind of gets into your head,” she said.”
“Contractions are surges that bring you closer to your baby.”’
Overall, Nancy is happy to share her birth story as a largely positive experience.
A few weeks after the birth of her son, she couldn’t recall the pain, and moreover, couldn’t even describe it.
“Someone actually said to me, a family friend, a couple of weeks before I was due, she said don’t worry so much about the birth most people go back for more than one,” she said.
Nancy actually went into labour on her due date, and went on to labour for just over 24 hours, with the first stage stretching on for quite some time.
“We did all of that at home kind of using the hypnobirthing techniques, and using the TENS machine as well,” she said.
“I think it was just a nice distraction to have.
“I was kind of texting the midwife throughout, giving her updates.
“And it got to a point where I thought I am in too much pain, but my waters hadn’t broken.”
When she’d decided she had enough and it was time to go to hospital, it was the change of scenery, from the car to the hospital, that helped give her the energy for the next stage.
A few hours after arriving, a midwife performed an exam and Nancy’s waters broke.
“From there it went really quickly,” she explained.
“That was kind of the turning point, he was kind of ready.”
In the end, after pushing for what seemed like a long time, her baby boy was born.
Nancy had in her birth preference that she had wanted to try for a natural birth.
“I was a bit surprised, I went to hospital thinking I needed something, and by the time I got to transition and got to pushing it didn’t even occur to me.”
She’s grateful she was able to stay at home for so long safely with her partner and she’s happy that mostly it went to plan.
She’s also happy she found hypnobirthing which helped give her some tools too.
