We were so delighted to hear about the birth of infant nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed’s baby girl, Ada. The baby and child nutritionist shared her adorable home birth story over on her Instagram account and we just had to share it!
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Read more: The pros and cons of having a home birth
With an increasing number of mums to a home birth because of COVID fears, Charlotte decided to make a home birth one of her choices for the day she gave birth. Sharing her personal story on her Instagram page, Charlotte said:
‘Lots of you wrote to me after I said I had had a home birth asking for info & asking me to share my experience - so here goes. I didn’t expect to have a homebirth at all, especially due to covid, but I was told that they had started offering them again in my area when I was around 36 weeks pregnant, so booked an appointment with the team “just incase” - which simply meant I would have a choice on the day - to go to hospital or stay at home.
'It took me a while to work out if the contractions were legit, so I timed them using an app & once they started to get more consistent & more painful, I retreated to my room & called my husband to come home.
'I was pretty chilled & wanted to attempt to use the hypnobirthing skills I’d learnt, so I set up my bedroom to make it as relaxing as I could, by:
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Plugging in a lavender diffuser candle
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Shutting the curtains & blinds to make it dark
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Playing my relaxing bath time music playlist
'Getting copious amounts of snacks & water to top up my energy before the hard core contractions started. I was genuinely super relaxed & used hypnobirthing breathing techniques & visualisations to really control the contraction pains.
'Focusing on the breathing was harder as the really BIG contractions kicked in though, but when I did focus, it helped massively!
I desperately didn’t want to leave my “safe environment” at this stage, so we called the midwife to come to our home & check me out when contractions were 5mins apart.
'It all happened pretty quickly from there - it wasn’t pain free in the slightest - but it was more of a comfortable, calm experience than my birth with Raffy!
Massive shout out to the AMAZING midwives I had that day & to @birth_ed for her course & the visualisations of what EXACTLY is happening in the body at each stage. I used that a lot!
'Also @the.birthcollective who talked about “triggers” to help you relax & @theyesmummum whose book talks in detail about breathing techniques for each stage of labour - all made a HUGE difference & helped me have a more comfortable birth in my own home!'
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Read more: Homebirth: What will actually happen?
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Read more: What is hypnobirthing?
The beautiful little Ada was born July 14 in Charlotte’s bed at her home at 8:30pm weighing 7lb 6oz. And it looks like Charlotte's son Raffy is already taking his big brother duties very seriously!
Have you ever thought about having a home birth? Or did you have you have one when you gave birth? Let us know on Mother&Baby's Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!
Joe Wicks and Charlotte Stirling-Reed on Wean in 15
Did you know that Joe Wicks joined forces with Charlotte to write his brilliant Wean in 15 book?