At 40+5 we decided to be induced for medical reasons. Induction was never on my plan and Id only heard horror stories of cascading interventions. Thankfully Sally our CalmBirth Educator sent me a reminder that there are lots of letters in the alphbet with plan A-Z. I decided to take control of what I could and set about to fill my oxytocin cup by practising the Calm birth techniques before heading to hospital that night. Once I got to the hospital, I settled into my ward room and my husband went home for a good nights sleep before the 'big day' tomorrow.
At 11pm, I was given the prostoglagin gel. I did a CalmBirth Meditation in the hope I would get a decent night's sleep. Half way through my CalmBirth meditation, my waters broke. Looks like Dr Homar (our other Calmbirth educator) wasn't going to be breaking my waters in the morning. 
I was told I had to move to birth suite. I hurried and threw together my things for labour/birth. When I arrived to birth suite, the room felt cold and clinical and I could feel my anxiety building. The midwife reassured me that it could still be a long night and that hubby should stay home and I should try to sleep (yeah right!). Thankfully hubby decided he wasn't going to be able to sleep so came to the hospital. From there things ramped up pretty quickly, I used breathing techniques and, listened to meditations while I laboured in the shower. After 3.5hrs of active labour, I used gas to birth our healthy dude, Sidney (8pound 6 oz) at 4.52AM.  

As a girl known for her low pain threshold, I can honestly say I didn't experience pain throughout my labour/birth. Better still is watching our windy or overtired newborn settle to our meditations... Calmbirth isn't just for birth!

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- Written by Jess