There is always a worry isn’t there that a subsequent birth following a wonderful first birth will never quite match up. Or that perhaps everything learned will be completely forgotten. Not so for Li Ee and Joe who have shared their second birth with us. It is a real story of knowing your rights, listening to your body and following sensible evidence. I am sure that you will enjoy reading it.

We attended your course back in 2019 when we had our son. We've just had our second baby and had an even better experience than the first time, and I just wanted to say thank you for empowering us and giving us the knowledge to make the right decisions for ourselves and to birth with confidence. I wanted to share our birth story with you.

A week prior to the actual birth, we had a false alarm (had period like cramps and show). I had also went in to check on baby as was worried about reduced movements (she moved as I was travelling in, and I was less worried, but I went in anyway just in case). While I was there, after baby monitoring showed all was fine, the doctor tried quite hard to convince me to accept a form of intervention, be it membrane sweep or induction, to "kick start the process". Her reasoning being because of where I was in the pregnancy (at term - I was 39 weeks) and it's the first time I had been in to check movement... (why was this even a reason!?). I refused both. The doctor then started raising risks for waiting, e.g. less amniotic fluid, placenta will become less efficient after 41 weeks, etc. Again, I very firmly refused all intervention given there was no concern over baby. I will always be so thankful I gained the confidence in my own body to be able to do that, and sure enough our baby girl was born at 40 weeks +5 days.

After a few weeks of period like cramps, surges started 8.45pm and progressed quickly. We left for hospital at 11pm and she arrived at 2.30am! Throughout labour I listened to one of your hypnobirthing tracks (a different one to the first time), used a TENS machine and focussed on breathing.

I had the water birth I was hoping for, and it was absolutely perfect! I breathed my baby girl out, I never thought birth could be like that - I had thought from my first time, that her head would come out in one big push, but she took a few pushes and I was shocked that I could hold her half out and breathe while waiting for the next surge!! My midwife described our birth as a calm birth - and said that's why I had no tears - although inside I was quite shocked by being able to breathe her out so wasn't feeling that calm! My husband was perfect and exactly what I needed, he guided me through my breathing as I birthed her, and helped me focus. I wouldn't have been able to do it without him (and your calming voice in my head).

Thank you again, for giving us the best birth experiences we could have hoped for.