Success Stories - Lara

Lara – Doula

We reminisce about the day Harper arrived like it was yesterday. Being our first child, I had read a lot about Hypno-birthing (natural delivery) and breastfeeding as we wanted to have our baby naturally and give her a great start to life. Our midwife came highly recommended by 3 random midwifery places I phoned in the local area and by the 4th phone call Brenden and I were booking a time to meet. Towards the end of my pregnancy at our antenatal classes Nikki (our Doula – Support Person) was introduced to us and the idea sounded great.  So we had our birth team complete, of course my husband Hayden and step-daughter Chloe (13) were going to be a huge part of the event too. 

My blood pressure had been raised in the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy and I had been introduced to uncomfortable sweeps to bring on the labour. Monday 8.30am we went into hospital to get my bloods checked and thought it would be the standard checks. Brenden had mentioned that I may need to be induced if my blood pressure was of concern for me and the baby and YES it was. By 10.15am I had been induced with the oxytocin hormones and Brenden said if nothing happens in 6 hours, she would give me another dose… well let’s just say I had a few teary moments as my plan had changed. We had been texting Nikki and she arrived around noon when we were at the cafe getting a bite and I felt some niggles. We went up to our room and briefly caught up with Nikki and I was starting to get uncomfortable. I went to the toilet and came out to find that my waters had broken, OMG I got so excited, then the contractions started coming and I was a little caught off guard. Nikki had mentioned she could help with soothing remedies and had massaged aromatherapy birthing oil over my tummy and given me Rescue Remedy which calmed me nicely. The contractions were 2 mins apart from the get-go and Nikki had been putting very hot cloths on my back to ease the contractions – that was great, then we moved to massaging my back upwards when they worsened. We needed to get to the birth room because I felt like I wanted to give birth asap; the realisation of walking to the room which seemed like 100s of metres away was getting all a little real. I was so worried someone would see me, and I would be embarrassed. We walked and stopped a lot and Nikki and Hayden had turns at massaging my back. I was in control of what was happening until one big moan came on and Brenden walked in and said we are going to the birthing room now. From there an amazing labour occurred with the help of a very calm atmosphere from Brenden, because I guess I could have panicked and lost the plot because it was all happening so fast with 20 second rests in between contractions. It was harder than my hardest squash match ever, but I knew I could rely on my body from all the squash I had played over the years. Brenden was controlling everything and changing situations which was more comfortable for me. I felt myself talking our baby down the birth canal and still feeling like I had more to go when Brenden said “Lara hold your baby, it’s here!!!!” 

My husband sums up our birth story to his mates as “5 pushes and it was all over bro”. Bloody amazing!  I think I may have put off my step-daughter as she was a little shaken by it all but WOW I had a great experience and with a great support team we had a beautiful baby girl named Harper. I would definitely do it again!