When I became pregnant for the first time, I signed up to Holles Street’s midwife-led unit which specialises in natural, active birthing.
I attended natural birthing workshops, read Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin and listened to hypnobirthing tapes. Then I went into labour and found myself flat on my back in one of the hospital’s delivery rooms, strapped to a monitor.
My son was in distress, and after my waters were broken, he was delivered by vanteuse. He was not in my arms for long – his sugar levels crashed and he was sent to special care. I left the hospital three days later, delirious from lack of sleep, with no milk supply to speak of and a bowel and womb prolapse.
When I became pregnant for the second time I was determined the birth would be different. I hired the doula, Amber Leipner, who is also training to be a homeopath. She listened with great insight and compassion to my fears around the birth. Wisely she suggested we keep the birth preparations simple, teaching me one highly effective breathing technique known as surge breathing. She also helped me enormously with the pregnancy, which as a 40-year-old mother of an active toddler was arduous. There were homeopathic remedies for morning sickness, a cooling witchhazel and aloe vera gel for varicose veins; and herbs which I scattered into the bath to aid post-labour healing. When it looked like the pregnancy might become more complicated – the baby was transverse for weeks – she suggested a homeopathic pill well known for turning baby.
“24 hours after I took the pill the baby moved into the correct position.”
The week before the labour Amber came to my house to talk my husband through a number of massage techniques. Her warmth and positivity had a huge effect on us and we began to look forward to the birth.
The labour began at 2.30 on a Sunday morning when I woke with mild contractions. Amber was by my side in a flash. Her aura of calm was reassuring and I laboured into the early morning with my husband in one of the most loving and supportive atmospheres I have ever known. Moving between the various positions Amber suggested, using the breathing and massage techniques, I was amazed at how manageable the pain was and when my son woke up I was able to make him breakfast in between contractions. When he left the house with our childminder, I began to progress more steadily, feeling myself dilate. With it came a wave of exhaustion, and if Amber had not been present I think I might have gone to the hospital. But she suggested a bath, and sat patiently with me, scooping soothing hot water over the base of my spine. When I got out of the water the final dilation happened very quickly in as series of back-to-back contractions. We took a taxi to the hospital, where I was whisked straight up to a delivery ward. The pain was intense, and for the first time in the whole experience I began to panic, but Amber and my husband were at my side, reminding me to breathe, while the midwives urged me to push. I could not have asked for a better support team and I gave birth to my daughter in my husband’s arms, leaning back into him for the final push so it seemed as if our daughter came through both of us. She was born in her sac of waters and I was discharged that evening in time to put my son to bed.
A few days later I was chasing my son around the park, our beautiful baby girl in a sling.
Amber can be reached at maternalwaves.com
