He is just the most precious little angel.

Paul and I welcomed our new bundle of joy on Wednesday. 

Leo Forrest Godwin was born on Wednesday, 26th February 2020 at 1.06pm. Weighed 3000g and 48cm long. 

I started having mild surges at around 1.20am, about every 7-10 minutes. I was not too sure what it was but since they were recurring, I thought baby must be on his way. Not knowing how long it will take, Paul went to work in the morning, but by 9.30am the surges became more frequent and intense so he came back home and we arrived at the hospital at 11am. Throughout the whole morning, I practiced my surge breathing and imagined being drawn up over a wave each time. This was effective for the first 8 hours, but then it became more difficult to focus on anything. 

Arriving at the hospital, the midwives checked everything, and I was able to get into the bath. That helped a lot with the pain, but it was still very strong, and other than breathing I couldn’t really do any other hypnobirthing techniques. Paul plugged in some fairy lights, and put on the tranquil chamber’s music, and did light touch and lots of positive encouragement. 

I was able to have a completely natural birth with no pain relief whatsoever. I was by no means a quiet birthing mother; I screamed the place down haha. But overall, the “worst” part only took a couple of hours until Leo was out. 

I really couldn’t have imagined my birth going any better. It was exactly what I was hoping for, except for some tearing, which I am still recovering from now. 

Now we are all at home and Leo is a wonderful peaceful baby. He feeds nicely, only fusses a bit when hungry or when being changed, and sleeps like an angel. Paul and I are completely in love and so smitten. 

We are so glad we did your hypnobirthing course. Thank you for everything you taught us, because we learned so much about birthing, that it is a natural process, and we did our homework about how we can achieve an intervention free birth. I had no fear going into it at all and in the lead up to it practiced my breathing, did the affirmations track and the Surge of the Sea track. I felt I was in complete control and had all the support I needed from Paul, and the midwives and my obstetrician at the hospital.

Mandy & Paul

Photo credit to Ashlyn from Focused on Love Photography