With the right breathing, I wouldn’t even call it pain to be honest. Just strong sensations.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to share my beautiful birth story with you and express my gratitude to Melissa for such a wonderful life-changing course!

My water broke on my 38th+3 week, but I had no surges at all, which was concerning. My doctor and midwifes had to insist on inducing me due to a higher risk of infection.

I was quite upset as I know that these kind of inductions can be harsh/intense, and me asking for epidural would most likely be the next step in this cascade of interventions.
I asked them to give me a chance and let me induce it naturally at home within 12 hours. I tried clary sage oil, partner’s light touch and long kerb walking and finally started experiencing tightening sensations. They were quite inconsistent but the intensity was getting higher and higher with each surge. And, oh my God, the surge breathing made a HUGE difference! I unintentionally went through a couple of intense surges with no proper breathing and I thought to myself, I simply cannot do this. As soon as I got back on track and put on Surge of the Sea + Affirmations on repeat, breathing deeply through my nose, all pain started magically disappearing or was manageable enough for me to function and talk through them. With the right breathing, I wouldn’t even call it pain to be honest. Just strong sensations.

We had to go to the hospital as my surges weren’t getting closer than 10mins apart for hours. And I was surprised to find out that only after a couple of hours of unstable surges, I was already 6cm dilated as a FTM. My midwives got so excited! They also kept commenting on how extremely calm I was - gently humming during my peak surges, swaying my hips and breathing all the way down to my pelvis. Mid surges (even during the second stage of labour) I was calm enough to snap back to reality and chat with my husband and midwifes.

Unfortunately, the surges were still “all over the place” so I agreed to accept a little bit of a push with small amounts of Syntocinon. This increased the amount of surges within each hour significantly. Epidural did not work on me, so all I was left with as pain relief was my rented Tens machine, Hypnobubs meditations and breathing.
And all this preparation and knowledge made a huge difference! Surges were manageable with proper breathing even during the transition stage, the bearing down breath was much more successful than simple pushing. (I tried both, just because I am a stubborn experimenter 😂).

My baby boy (3.87kg; 53cm) came out easily within 40mins of bearing down. All I asked for was warm packs to the perineum. I had a 2nd degree tear (but it was nothing to be honest). I only realised that after my midwifes told me.

He came out so calmly and crawled to my chest for his first feed straight away.
It was an incredible experience and I am so grateful for this course (and all your wonderful birth stories)!!! Thank you Melissa for helping me realise that I can totally do it and enjoy this natural wonderful process!

Thank you,

Victoria