Birthing Better

Just had another birth, second timer, they did the internal work. It’s hard to know how much difference the IW made, as most second births are rather quicker and easier than the first. I wasn’t there for the first, but heard that it was a homebirth that had to be transported to the hospital for “failure to progress” and mother had an epidural and managed to push her baby out. She was quite fixated on the thought that since that had been her previous experience, it might happen again. So she was thrilled that her whole labor was about four hours, and as she began feeling the urge to push, she said, “I want to stand up” in the birthing tub, and as she did so, poof! The bulging bag of waters broke and the baby started coming down. She stood there like the statue of liberty, naked with her legs apart, not needing any support, powerful. Two or three contractions later, baby’s head was out, and then baby’s body came sliding out into the midwife’s hands – big and round! This baby weighed nine pounds 11 ounces and came out so much easier than the first one, who weighed seven pounds. What joy!!! And what a gorgeous baby.

The Pink Kit is truly a fantastic resource for pregnant women and their partner who want to take control of their birthing experience ... and this does not mean having a home birth or anything like that. The skills gave me the confidence to have our beautiful baby girl without the anxiety and uncertainty that I had previously felt. For my husband the skills were life changing! The resources helped us to understand my body completely and the internal work we did made absolutely certain I had no ring of fire nor was our baby's birth delayed. I required absolutely no sutures after sustaining a massive 2nd degree tear with lots of remaining scar tissue with my first birth. I took notes of the skills and positions and we took that crib sheet with us. My husband put it on the table in the hospital room and periodically read it out loud to me. This kept me focused and in charge. I had a job to do and I did it beautifully and so did my husband. What a stark difference between this birth and our first. I performed the sacral rock to help with the back pain and the pelvic clock exercises between contractions. My husband assisted me with the sitbone spread when the contractions became more intense and when I had a moment at the beginning of 2nd stage when I felt my baby was sort of stuck. I found doing this really beneficial. Throughout the labour I also found the directed breathing so beneficial in coping with the pain that I relied less on my husband than the hand-gripping stuff I had submitted him to the first time round. He worked with me but could see I was totally in control! The Pink Kit has made my birthing experience a fantastic one and empowered us to take charge of our birth and to progress from 1st stage through 3rd stage in 5 hours total compared to the lingering 14 hours of 'active' labour with my first baby. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am a true believer in birth skills and so is my husband.