Welcome to the newest 'About Birth' baby – Benji, born on 29th December 2016.

On December 29th we welcomed our beautiful Benji into the world. Before doing the Birth classes the thought of going through labour terrified me and I really knew very little about it. However, after our sessions, not only were my partner, Hugh, and I much more informed about the whole process, we were excited about it. I started to look at it in a completely new light. It was no longer something to fear, it was something to look forward to.

One of the best things we learned from was how Hugh could support me during the labour. He was understandably a bit anxious about seeing me endure through something so arduous, but we learned really useful techniques he ended up using throughout the 14-hour labour, which made the world of difference to me.

We also learned a lot about the different kinds of pain relief and interventions used during labour. In the end, I decided to aim for a natural birth without any pain relief. I wanted to be able to move around and use gravity to help get the baby out. For 14 hours I used breathing exercises as well as a tens machine to cope with the pain of the contractions and it was extremely effective. I am so grateful to Lael and the other women I encountered during my pregnancy who would always talk about giving birth in such a positive and empowering light. It was an incredible experience and I would recommend these Birth classes to anyone.