Baby Marley - an undiagnosed breech birth

Marley Adelaide was born 19th July, at 11.07pm. She weighed 7lb11.

I will start by saying the best advice was not to have too definite a plan as in a way the opposite happened. However she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and had a lovely calm entry into the world.

On Wednesday lunchtime I felt my waters break. When I looked it turned out she had been to the toilet inside me so after calling the hospital I drove myself to the maternity unit as they wanted me in as quickly as possible. This is where I used the breathing techniques to keep me calm. Pete arrived and we moved around the room, laughing, massaging, generally feeling excited rather than apprehensive. He kept reminding me of the affirmations and we felt ready.

The doctor asked for a final ultrasound and she turned out to be breech. They explained my options but due to the risk of her swallowing the meconium they advised that a caesarean was needed. Again I took this calmly and we continued with the relaxation techniques.

Maternity was very busy that day so I experienced about 8 hours of surges before we went to the theatre. Despite the fact she was back to back I managed to breathe through until the very end when I had some gas and air.

Again in the theatre I stayed calm, Pete using the massage techniques. And then she was here. She immediately seemed relaxed and happy and was given straight to Pete whilst they closed me up.

In the room afterwards she latched straight on for a feed and I truly believe she had a calm birth. She had not swallowed any meconium which was a relief.

She is struggling a bit to latch on now and is always hungry so breastfeeding is proving a bit of a challenge but again I am using breathing techniques and the midwives are helping with positions. She has a small tongue tie so we are keeping an eye on it.

Thank you so much for helping us with all of the techniques and giving us knowledge. It made the birthing experience perfect, even though unexpected.

I hope to try some of your mother and baby classes when everything is healed.

Thanks again, Vicky and Pete and baby Marley xx

Cheeky Huxley's arrival!

I just love this story from first time parents Fallon and Chris, and cheeky monkey Huxley who had his own plans!! 
 

"We hope that you are well and sorry we couldn't make your coffee morning on Saturday. We have some very exciting news as our little one decided to join us early and arrived on 19th May. He was born at 4:54pm and weighed 6lb 10oz.

With the help and support from your group we felt confident enough to try for a home birth. Had you said that to us before the course I would have probably laughed. The thought of giving birth simply terrified me and I definitely viewed it as a medical procedure.

After your course I felt so much more comfortable and confident about giving birth and for the first time I was genuinely excited about meeting our little one.

Everything started really well and developed really quickly, I was 8cm with in 3 hours which even shocked the midwife as well as myself. We had hired a birthing pool which was wonderful and I managed without pain relief right until the end.

Unfortunately it got a bit complicated at the end as Huxley was in an awkward position and wouldn't come out so we were taken into hospital. It wasn't until we had the scan at the hospital that we realised he was undiagnosed breech (cheeky monkey). We then discussed our options and decided that a c-section would be the best way forward.

Even though this isn't what we had hoped would happen it was still the best experience and we felt prepared for any direction that our birth would take.

Huxley is perfect and we still can't believe he is here!

I will certainly be recommending your course to anyone I know who is expecting. In fact I have given the book and CD to my sister who is due in 6 weeks with baby no.2. I'm hoping it will help her as much as it helped us. Although she might be cutting it a bit close!

Thank you again and I hope we can make the next coffee morning so that you can meet Huxley 😊

Best Wishes 

Chris, Fallon & Huxley