Throughout my pregnancy, I wanted to feel educated and empowered heading into labour. Being a planner and someone who loves exercise and sport, my aim was to approach birth, in the same way, I would say training for a marathon or a big sporting grand final.  

Anything in this category requires strong mental and physical capacity and lots of preparation. For what I was seeing as potentially my biggest challenge in life to date - I wanted to feel ready!

I had heard about calm birthing and hypnobirthing, and stumbled across the About Birth website online after a bit of a googling one night. Initially, we tried to book in for one of the group workshops but the dates didn’t work for us so we went with the individual sessions at our home. 

Both my husband Tom and I absolutely loved this format, and really benefited from doing the more intimate 1 on 1 session. This meant lots of time for questions and discussion with the wonderful Lael - who was just the perfect fit for us.

We really liked the scene setting which focused on what we saw our ideal birth experience to look like, and what we needed from the other person. This was something obviously we had thought about individually but it was great to discuss in detail as a couple.

The sessions were so informative and took such a positive look at birth - that it was natural, that there were a range of techniques you could use to get you through labour, and that it was about empowering yourself to be in a good mind frame heading in - and to be really connected with your partner. 

The techniques for breathing and light massage were so simple to understand and really stuck with us. We also learnt about visualisation (which I had successfully used for sport previously) and how to work with your body, rather than against. Simple tips like having open palms during contractions, rather than clenched fists to encourage relaxation rather than tension to flow through your body.

Lael also stressed the importance of practicing the techniques before the birth so we were well rehearsed - again for me like a big sporting event, you need to train and put in the time to get the result you want!

The calm birthing tracks, along with the birth plan resource provided were also extremely useful and again, really got us to get in the zone and think about what we saw the birth to look like.

My labour and birth experience was truly amazing and I seriously believe it was these techniques and frame of mind that allowed us to have a completely natural birth with no medical intervention. I complimented the calm birthing sessions with acupuncture from 8 weeks onwards along with regular pre natal pilates, pregnancy massage and gym sessions - which I did consistently from when I found out I was pregnant at 4 weeks.

It was an unbelievable experience to get to the end of the birth and think wow we did it! Tom and I were such a good team and I could not have done it without him. Doing the calm birth sessions enabled us to really get on the same page before the big day, and meant Tom was 100% intune with the support I needed to get me through. There were some key points throughout where I thought this is bloody tough, but Tom would always bring me back to my breathing and positive encouragement to get me through.

One of the main ethos I loved in the calm birthing sessions was around the importance of bringing the baby into the world with love. I remember towards the end of the labour when the midwives told us our baby would be arriving within the hour. At this point it was like Tom and I moved to an even more connected level and upped our ‘love’ towards each other and the baby - I will never forget it.

Our beautiful son Percy arrived 9:34pm Saturday 3 November 2018 at the Royal Women’s Hospital. It was most euphoric moment of our lives. I just felt so proud of what we had achieved together to bring our perfect little baby safely and naturally into the world.

I highly recommend the About Birth calm birthing sessions to anyone wanting to head into labour feeling empowered, positive and informed. I believe this can go a long way to set the tone for your birth experience and really help you prepare you what lays ahead!