Hi Kat and everyone,

Hope you are all well. We have found our oxytocin hit-we are completely and totally loved up.

I birthed Leo yesterday at 12.28 in a pool with gas and air, he weighed 7lbs 7oz. We went for long evening walk along the beach in the pull of the full moon which seemed to bring on the surges and he was born a day later.

We didn’t have time to register for a home birth and they don’t have a birth centre here so we knew we would have to be in the hospital which we were slightly disappointed about. However, after going in for the second time we were offered a pool and when we saw the beautiful birthing pool room on the 13th floor with an incredible view we knew we’d arrived in a great place. We took music, essential oils and lights as you suggested – definitely worth doing. We were so pleasantly surprised by how well we were looked after and how the midwife was on the same page as us as far as most of our preferences went, she was even reticent about giving me gas and air so I didn’t have it until the last 3hours which was definitely a good thing.

It was a very very intense experience – 6 hours in the pool in total. The midwife commented on how calm we were and the attending medical student cried and thanked us for the experience!

We can’t thank you enough for the course and how empowering it was. I think it was one of the best things we could have done to prepare.

Good luck to everyone!

Thanks again,
Charlotte and Josh