Birth Story: The Birth of Celine – By Kylie Bedwell

This week’s beautiful birth story comes from Kylie Bedwell who gave birth to baby Celine last month after completing the She Births® Online Course. We hope that by sharing these positive birth experiences with you, you are inspired to approach birth with a positive mindset – just as Kylie was. Read the full story below.

If you’re open to sharing your story, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you. Each birth is incredibly unique and challenging in its own way and we want to be able to share the variety of experiences.

Love and gratitude,

Nadine xxx

Birth Story: The Birth of Celine – By Kylie Bedwell

“I prepared to expect the unexpected and be open to doing whatever would be needed to ensure my baby was born safely.”

First-time mum Kylie Bedwell head into the world of pregnancy with the most beautiful philosophy which she credits to both the She Births Online Course and Ina May Gaskin’s, Guide to Childbirth.

“Both of these resources were very empowering and changed my perspective of childbirth from a scary and painful experience which is relieved by intervention, to a beautiful and empowering one, and it gave me a sense of trust that my body knew what to do,” says Kylie.

“Having an understanding of how the body orchestrates the labour process really helped me to approach it calmly, knowing that the sensations and pain were all there to enable my baby’s birth.”

Birth preparation

Kylie followed the She Births dietary plan, from around week 38 she drank a litre of raspberry leaf tea and ate dates daily.

“I also hired a TENS machine to use during labour to help with the pain. I swam a lot and maintained a regular yoga practice, and meditated each day, visualising white light drawing into my body and to my baby,” says Kylie.

Birth begins

Kylie’s labour started at 2am with what she describes as “period-like” contractions.

“I got up and had an unusual urge to eat, which looking back I was thankful for as I was not interested in eating for the rest of the day! I also craved raspberry leaf tea and afterwards noticed an increased intensity to the contractions,” says Kylie.

A bloody show followed and Kylie went straight back to sleep until she was woken by stronger contractions around, 6:30am.

“ At 8am we called our midwife to let her know labour had begun,” says Kylie.

“Being at one with labour”

Kylie laboured mostly at home with her partner’s support. She benefited from the TENS machine and his excellent massage skills.

“For each surge … he would press hard down on my sacrum, as we had learnt through She Births®. This was incredibly powerful and without doubt helped me get through it drug- free,” says Kylie.

Kylie says being able to understand the labouring process and “being at one with it” rather than fighting against it were key to the success of her fairly fast labour.

““The midwife held us off coming into the hospital for so long that when we did arrive, I was fully dilated and my baby was born 20 minutes later!”

“It was the best entrance into the world I could hope for”

With each surge, Kylie says she visualised her cervix and pelvis opening and trusted in her body’s ability to do safely:

“Throughout Stage 1 my instinct was to rest rather than move, to my surprise, as I had heard about the importance of staying upright and moving in this stage. It taught me the importance of trusting my body’s intuition above all else. So I lay on my side and slept in between contractions, and I think this gave me the energy in Stage 2 to push her out in – her head came out in three pushes and her body not long after.”

“‘Celine was perfect. She was placed on my chest and we were left in peace for two hours … It was the best entrance to the world I could have hoped for,” says Kylie.

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Gorgeous photo by: Abigail Jones Photography