Birth Story of both baby’s Isla and Fyfe

Our Online Course is becoming more and more popular, reaching more and more couples around the world, which is super exciting. When preparing for birth it’s important to understand that we never really know where our journey will take us. But every now and then, things unfold exactly as we had imagined. For second-time mum Aimee the birth of daughter Fyfe was more empowering than she could have expected…

” 18 months later I feel I have to share my story. I have always wanted to write about my She Births® experience, and now with my two births a distant memory I feel compelled to share my story more so than before.

Why? I see women all around me who miss out on the most empowering experience of their lives.
So here are my words…

My two girls are 18 months and 3 years old. And here I am more compelled than ever before to share my story. Why? I have had so much time to reflect I see the clarity of how She Births® gave me two very empowered births, and I feel the effects in my daily life.

Nick and I were living rural and therefore the options were limited to us in what we could have for the birth of our child. A trip while pregnant to Sydney gave me the chance to interact with some Shebirthing Mummas and I was sold. I signed up for the online course, and a few months beforehand we both got really involved in our visualizations and communicating our desires. I would nod off to sleep each night doing visualizations. I was actively doing yoga on and past my due date. I had a great midwife, who wasn’t interested in She Births® but was very hands-off so suited us well.

My labour started in reflection a few days before birth. I was 6 days past my due date. I couldn’t keep up with my friend walking down the farm tracks and kept stopping to get my breath. In the afternoon, I chose the spare room for a nap (never slept there). My contractions started, we called the midwife and she said she could tell in my voice I was not to far along but maybe head to the city (a 2-hour drive) and book a hotel for the night. By the time we had left the house my contractions were 10 minutes apart. We decided to stop timing them at 5 minutes apart as we still had a long drive. It was an eventful trip with me stopping in a few small towns to pace the streets. I decided I had to get out on the side of the motorway also to do a wee and just hang over the seat for a bit.

So at this point we were all heading to the hotel. The contractions were ok, I could breathe through them, I could relax in between. My husband took my stuff up three flights of stairs, unpacked the swiss ball, towels, music and diffuser. I walked up upstairs sat on the toilet and said let’s go to the hospital. On way to the hospital, the contractions were coming quite fast. We discussed what cm dilation we could cope with and what would throw us. We both agreed 2cm was good and we had a lot left in us to get to 9cm.

I threw open the doors of the maternity ward and went down on my knees contracting. We proceeded to go to a room where they wanted to observe me and check the baby’s heart rate. My husband set up and all the nurses were in awe at him. Calling him my doula, and that he was. I didn’t talk to any of the midwives there. I communicated my wishes through him. I said touch me and he would touch the right spots of my back. I said, tell me what breath I am meant to be doing, and he would do it with me. I was in my own bubble I could see only my husband and focused on our baby. They checked and I was nearly 9cm. Right, call my midwife to get here. I was not too aware of what was going on around me, but they were setting up to deliver me and asked me to get back on the bed. I walked and walked till my midwife came in. She said you can’t be that far along. We talked and she said I was ready to get ready for the next stage.

I had decided I wanted to move right up until this stage but then I wanted to be on my back for the ‘pushing part’ I had my husband at my head talking me through my focus my Mantra, telling me I was strong. And Isla was born very soon a few moments after that. Having a strong sense of I am ‘made to do this’ got me through, but the strongest thing to get me through was my husband. I believe through She Births® it sets your birthing partner up so strongly to support you that in those moments they have full control when you cant make decisions. I believe with She Births® teaching for my husband and myself we need nothing else to bring our daughter into the world and felt confident that we could do this alone, and with our second daughter, we very nearly did.

Fyfe our second-born birth was similar in lots of ways to our first but more exciting and more empowering after having experience. We did a quick refresh of our notes, and I managed to fit in visualizations every other night before her birth. It was about 10.30 and I started contracting I thought we have a bit of time as we did with our first. We both tried to sleep (he could of course) I lay awake listening to visualisations. I woke him and said I think we need to get in touch with the midwife. We couldn’t get a hold of her.

We drove down the road. We could turn right to birth centre 1 hr drive, even though we hadn’t made contact or turn left and drive 2 hours to the hospital. We decided to turn right. My husband called on route and finally made contact the birthing unit that was in use but we didn’t sound that far along. We walked into Birth Centre, I was having a conversation with the receptionist, contracted, she showed us to the recovery room. As my husband was getting my bag out of the car, I instructed him to come back in as I wanted to push. It was me and him I said I’m hopping up on the bed, the receptionist came in said our midwife would be there soon, put some cover on the bed and next minute I know I was bearing down on all fours, I could hear my midwife talking and I thought to myself this is truly the most empowering experience, and our second daughter Fyfe was born.”

Once again thank you for giving us the tools and techniques for us to achieve a memorable and magic birth.

Warm regards

Aimee