Becca shares how she has always been terrified of giving birth…. until she learnt about birth physiology and something shifted.

Next involuntary push and my baby was out! How amazing nature is! I didn't push actively at all, I just didn't hold back. I let my body to take over! I couldn't be happier! I made it!

By this point I was very much in my ‘monkey brain’, I don’t think I was consciously doing ‘hypno-breathing’, I was just breathing as I needed to: very slow rhythmic breathing in through the mouth and out through the mouth with a low ‘Oooh’.

I have never felt more alive and in ore of these lovely people around me that made this awesome birthing experience something I will never forgot. When someone tells me to visualise the happiest moment in my life I will go back to this place and pulling Stanley out of the water.

When I eventually got into the water, the warmth was soothing and I felt weightless which helped naturally with the pain, but it wasn’t long until I needed the gas and air again.

We had a plan for a cosy home birth with pool, and the support of our Doula. We had done a run through’ hot tub in the kitchen’ night and I loved the space we created and was looking forward to it. At 39 weeks I needed a growth scan and we found out baby was breech.

On Tuesday 19th of July at 36 weeks and 3 days I woke up at about 6am with an upset stomach, slight cramps and lots of pressure making me feel like I kept needing a wee. (Writing that back now I obviously was in early labour but at 36 weeks I was in absolute denial)

Reuben was breathing audibly in for 4 and out for 6 and I was following his lead and breathing with him. I was safe here, I found my rhythm and relaxed into the intensity of it all.

I began to roar and sing and growl and make other primal sounds that I have neither heard another human make nor knew I was capable of making, as my body opened completely up and began to push my baby down.