Water Birth of Kingsley James at Toowoomba Birth Centre- 26 May 2015
Alecia Staines shares her birth story of her little boy in water at the Birth Centre in Toowoomba. Alecia is a HypnoBirthing® – The Mongan Method Practitioner in Toowoomba.
This little man arrived very quickly on Tuesday evening. After a few days of surges- nothing too significant, I was starting to well and truly get ‘over’ pregnancy. This was still my shortest gestation length, at 40 weeks + 5 days (by ‘guess dates’).
I woke Tuesday, hoping it would be birthing day. Surges were infrequent and would stop when I rested. I visited the chiropractor to make sure bub was in a good position, went for some walks and did some yoga throughout the day.
The end of the day was near and I was a little disappointed that this baby didn’t seem to be any nearer. I went to bed a little after 8pm with my HypnoBirthing birth rehearsal playing on my bedside table. I woke at 9pm, after having a few surges 5 minutes apart. They were quite intense, so I text my midwife and asked whether she thought I should head in. It was a definite ‘yes’. I got my other children up and headed for the car.
Surges were getting stronger and closer together. We arrived at the birth centre at 9.30pm. I hopped on the birth ball under the shower and let the water run over my stomach. I kept visualizing my birthing muscles as satin ribbons in my birth colour of teal. Whenever a surge would come, I’d visualize myself at the beach and use the HypnoBirthing control valve- switching it to the off position. Surges were still a few minutes apart. As soon as the birth tub was full enough, I hopped in. Surges still a few minutes apart, but I felt the need to almost completely submerge myself in the water. Continuing my calm breaths and surge breathing, whilst I was listening to my birth affirmations.
Labour progressed quite quickly. During transition, I became a little noisy and felt the urge to breath down. Shortly after, I regained my composure and focus and began to work with my surges to bring the baby down. The first surge I felt my baby’s head on my perineum, but then it slipped back, the following surge was strong and I worked with it to breath his head all the way out.
My children were very excited, but kept so quiet, knowing I still had work to do. There was a restful period before the next surge, I felt my baby’s head and looked around. My midwife was very respectful of my space and just told me to go with my body. The next surge I could feel the shoulders and the rest of the body slip out. The cord was around baby’s neck twice, but didn’t cause any distress. I grabbed the baby from the water and brought it to my chest, asking what sex it was. She didn’t know- I checked and it was a BOY.
My son couldn’t contain himself any longer and was cheering ‘it’s a boy!’. Kingsley James arrived at 11pm, 26th May. Born gently into water. 8lb 5oz. He was so calm and didn’t make a sound, sleeping on my chest until I left the birth pool to birth the placenta.
Alecia Maree Staines is one of our wonderful HypnoBirthing® Mongan Method Gold Seal Practitioners from Toowoomba, QLD.
Alecia has been involved with hypnotherapy for over 6 years, having HypnoBirthed all three of her children. She has qualifications in education, science, hypnotherapy and energy healing, and has studied these techniques from the US and UK.
Alecia has been published in magazines such as Practical Parenting and Birth Matters, and the Courier Mail, Toowoomba Chronicle and regional papers.
Her knowledge and passion for pregnancy and birth also has her regularly contributing to Queensland Health Clinical Guidelines, where she holds a position on the Statewide Clinical Guideline Steering Committee.
After having such beautiful births, just as nature intended, she has since helped many couples achieve their dreams of having calm, gentle birth.
Her mind-body approach to therapy, now ranges from helping couples achieve an optimally fertile state with The Fertile Body Method of hypnosis treatment and also treats a range of conditions to restore clients to a naturally harmonious state in mind and body.
“Everybody can achieve optimum health- mentally and emotionally with complimentary means of therapy.”
Visit her website: http://www.shivayatherapies.com
