Lauren and Baby Abel

We welcomed our boy, Abel Forrest Bailey, on 25th November at midnight!

I managed to have a water birth which was so much better than I expected, my active birth was only about 2 hours!

Started feeling contractions Wednesday late evening and didn't end up having him until Friday so I was very, very tired and it meant my staying active/"rotate to dilate" went out the window so I could sleep (with my buddy, gas & air) but it felt much quicker this time around.

I wanted to say that the hypnobirthing really came through and the breathing/ affirmations really did help. I managed to breathe myself to 4cm by visualising boogie boarding each wave at our summer holiday in Norfolk.

I used my BRAIN (which meant I said NO a lot) but I felt more in control and Phil backed me up the entire time.

My idea of trying to “breathe baby out” failed massively, and so did my attempts at “down breathing” which I think sounded more like screaming!

Anyway, I couldn’t have done it without you nor the CBM(Calm Birth Method). All your tips were a brilliant help throughout my pregnancy and birth xxx