Before the Birth:
We took part in a Birth & Beyond Workshop with Lucy at 33 weeks of pregnancy, with our first baby. We really found the day to be beneficial and it eased a lot of anxiety for us and has made us feel better prepared.
We loved that it focussed on trusting your body.
Trying to replace fear and anxiety with excitement, love and ‘good feelings’ i.e Oxytocin was amazing.
We loved that it empowered both of us to feel prepared and excited for the birth.
We loved that it gave us practical tools that we will be able to draw on during any type of birth scenario. Particularly liked that there wasn’t a focus on a specific type of birth that was considered ‘best’ i.e. natural, caesarean etc. which was very aligned to our point of view.
It was also really great to have our educator be able to give real life scenarios about what we could expect – i.e. having someone with a wealth of experience in that field that they could draw upon was crucial as it allowed us to ask questions and get a better understanding of what to potentially expect.
It’s such a shame that we formed such a bond with the educator that we are not able to have her as our Midwife during labour (as we are at different hospitals!).
After the Birth:
As a first time mum and dad, we found our anxiety about our birth experience increased steadily toward our impending due date which was not helped by growing coronavirus uncertainties. However, we couldn’t have asked for a better labour experience for the birth of our first child. It was even more calm and relaxed than we had ever imagined and we are confident a large part of this was due to the information learned with Lucy.
When the labour was over, I was genuinely ready to go and do it all again because I enjoyed it so much!!
