This story has a big shout out to Spinning Babies and Gail Tully for all she has taught us about working with women's bodies. Congratulations to Sarah and welcome to baby Rueben. After two days of labour with my first child, during which time contractions would increase in intensity & frequency (getting as close as 2 mins apart) for extended periods then intermittently slow down, I was exhausted and facing induction due to ruptured membranes. I was sent home from ED twice which was disheartening, prompting my first call to Lael. Due to this and the back pain I was experiencing she felt the baby was likely poorly positioned in the pelvis. Come the afternoon of the second day, the frequency and intensity of my contractions had once again slowed right down. I started to concede that I was likely going to be induced the following morning. After another phone consult with Lael, she suggested we try some of the repositioning exercises from the spinning babies website, emailing me pages from the website and links of YouTube clips to follow. It was suggested we try three exercises for 2-3 contractions each before repeating them following a break. Within 5 minutes of completing the first sequence with only 1-2 contractions per exercise, labour finally rapidly sped up! Contractions come on fast and intensely and within 40 minutes we were on our way back to hospital. My cervix was 6.5cm dilated at assessment upon arrival so we were finally moved into a birthing suite. During the birth, my husband and I drew on the calm birth strategies taught which I am certain were pivotal in managing contractions over such an extended period of time, coping with the many changes that were occurring, and offering an alternate view of birth to the many stories I'd been told by people while I was pregnant. Both during and just after stage 2, I reflected that I wasn't in a great amount of pain rather that I felt "pressure" and afterwards I felt elated with what my body could achieve. I cannot speak highly enough of the support I relieved from Lael before, during and after the birth and I am thrilled she was able to draw on her knowledge of the spinning babies exercises to help us achieve a good birth with minimal intervention.