Empowering Belly Birth – Wangaratta.

My birth was incredible. Amazing. Filled with warmth, respect and love. My birth was healing. I am still riding high!

While my VBAC attempt ended in an unplanned c-section, It was a very positive and healing experience. I felt in control during the entire process. My birth wishes were respected wherever possible, and everyone went above and beyond to make it a very positive experience for me. During my labour I felt so calm and content. There were a few stressful moments (crises of confidence), but Lou and my partner helped me to navigate these and make decisions that reflected my wishes, rather than being fear-based. The c-section was beautiful. Having Lou there to capture the moments was amazing (and something I didn’t think I would be able to have) and being able to have skin-to-skin contact immediately was all I ever wanted.

Physically this birth was very similar to my first birth, but the emotional side of this birth was so different. During my first birth I felt stressed, frightened, out of control, disrespected etc. I cried a lot in the aftermath and ruminated on the events for years afterwards. This time, I was able to turn things around during pregnancy and advocate for an extremely positive birth experience for myself (And get it!). I have been so happy and content following my birth and have had no baby-blues at all so far. Whenever I think about this birth, I think of how incredible it was and how much I want to do it all again!

I had such a positive experience but the highlight for me were…

Coming out of my birth feeling proud of myself (instead of feeling like I’d failed in every way), being able to put a team around me that made me feel so loved and respected, obviously,that first moment of skin-to-skin with our new baby, watching his skin turn from purple to pink and watching the Venix disappear. All the things I never got to see in my first birth.

Photography by Doula Lou.

Congratulations to this incredible Mama and her family! It has been an honour supporting them on their journey. Lou xx

Doula Lou – Albury Wodonga.