Hello!

I hope your weekend was full of both figurative and literal warmth.  Nice people, good food, happy times, Uggs, and extra blankets!

I taught hypnobirthing all weekend…no matter how many times I teach the course, it always feels like such a privilege to meet excited women and their partners and help them prepare for a positive birth.
And we had friends over on Saturday night for a backyard camping style cook out…sausages, potatoes, and of course s’mores.  It is something we have been doing a lot of lately and it was SO nice to be able to share the experience with friends!

I hope you all have a really good week!

For me a good week will be a productive week!  
The kids are back at school and I am excited to tackle my very neglected to do list.

Speaking of my to do list, as I mentioned in my last newsletter, I am collaborating on a project where we are attempting to prove the worth of a positive birth. 
And I would love your help!
Really any feedback would be appreciated…and you don’t have to have taken hypnobirthing with me to be involved.
Your birth story and what was positive about it.
Your partner’s version of your birth story and what was positive about it for them.
And how you think your positive birth went on to impact things like becoming a parent, advocating for your child, your relationship with your partner.
Thank you!

Here is what’s coming up on Zoom:

Weekly Mother’s Group – Tuesdays at 12:00pm
Conversation and connection. 
Access to wonderful women’s health practitioners.
And mothers to be are welcome too!

Pregnancy Choices Webinar – Wednesday 3 June at 7:00pm
This is another one for those who aren’t pregnant yet or who are newly pregnant.  We will chat about models of care and how the decisions you make early in pregnancy can have major impacts on your birth.

Here are five things that might help to boost your oxytocin this week.

It’s funny how putting this newsletter together has become something that boosts MY oxytocin!
Hooray for connection!

1 – Noor is a recipe developer in the Ottolenghi test kitchen (hello dream job…actually my dream job would be TASTER in the test kitchen). Anyway, her IG feed is full of delicious inspiration. First up for me, the smooshed carrots, the hawaij onion and chickpea soup, and the salted pecan, marshmallow, and lime bars! How about you?

2 – Over the past few weeks, we would celebrate finishing home learning for the day by watching Lego Masters together. But now that it is finished, we need something to fill the void. I think Taika Waititi and friends reading James and the Giant Peach is going to be perfect.

3 – I love this question. What are life’s true luxuries and pleasures? And I love reading all the replies. For me, a very long, very hot shower, eating perfectly ripe fruit straight from the vine or tree, and the feel of little warm bodies snuggled next to me.

4 – Fudgy Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pretzel Cake. I am bookmarking this to make for my birthday (which is not until November…but it never hurts to plan ahead).

5 – Colin Hay and Delta Goodrem singing Down Under…so good.

If you would like to get oxytocin boosters and other updates delivered directly to your inbox, you can sign up to my weekly-ish newsletter here. 
I will only ever send you information about upcoming free Zoom events and links to things that I think will make you happy.
And to be honest, before this pandemic the last time I sent an email was probably 2018, so don’t worry about me clogging up your inbox!

Sammy is a NICU nurse while knowledge is power, sometimes too much knowledge can work against us. Throughout her pregnancy she worked on compartmentalising her experiences at work and focusing instead on a positive birth.

As her pregnancy went past 40 weeks and then beyond 41 weeks, she found herself getting anxious and made a fully informed decision that an induction was the best way forward for her.

And she was able to work with her caregivers, her partner, and her self to have a positive induction!

This story is a beautiful testament to what a positive birth actually entails…and that is feeling informed, feeling supported, and feeling safe.

Congratulations Sammy and Reuben and welcome beautiful Lottie!

Here is her birth story, in her own words.

My birth definitely did not go to plan but I used all my hypnobirthing tools to keep calm and focused throughout.

I had a dream of waking in the middle of the night in labour and labouring at home for hours before breathing my baby out while kneeling in a calm, dimly lit birth suite with my favourite music in the back ground…what I actually got was a 32 hour labour, epidural, and narrowly avoided a c-section.

But I still feel so positive about my whole experience. 

I found myself being induced at 41+2 weeks. While I really didn’t want to be induced I had to balance my fear around the induction with my fear around being overdue. 

The plan for induction was to have a balloon catheter placed in the evening, membranes ruptured the next morning.
I desperately wanted to avoid the syntocinon drip. I was told I could have 2 hours after breaking my waters to see if labour began before needing to start the IV. They basically told me as a first time mum it was highly unlikely to happen without the synthetic hormones but did support me to try. 

I got the balloon on Thursday at 5:00pm, it was not as uncomfortable as I thought. The midwives told me to sleep and I’d be taken to Birth Suite at 6:00am to have my waters broken.
I started having regular surges every 5 minutes within about an hour of the balloon being placed. They progressed to every 3 minutes through the night. I was breathing through them and managed to get about 45 minutes sleep. 

Birth suite was busy the next morning so I wasn’t taken down until midday. By now, the balloon catheter was uncomfortable. I couldn’t bend down and was having trouble peeing from the pressure of it. However it did its job as I was 4cm when they took it out and broke my waters.
I was told I had to go back upstairs until I started the syntocinon but thankfully my surges immediately became very intense, every 2 to 3 minutes.

I spent the next 5 hours in the shower and then the bath. I felt amazing, I was breathing through the surges. I had music in the background and birth affirmations running through my head. The surges were so strong but I was so calm, my husband and midwives didn’t know when I was having them and I was falling asleep in between.

However I began to get severe back and pelvic pain between surges, it was almost more painful than the surges and I could not get relief. I had been vomiting for hours, doubts were creeping into my mind about how much longer I could do this for.
I thought I was in transition.

I had to get out of the bath to pee and get checked at 5.30pm. The pain became unmanageable and I began to panic. My baby had flipped posterior during my labour, I was still only 4cm.
I begged for an epidural.

My obstetrician came in at this point and explained to me that my baby wasn’t moving through my pelvis. My options were for a c-section or an epidural with high dose syntocinon to try to move her to the correct position. 

They somehow got an IV and epidural into me while I rocked on the bed and sucked the gas like a crazy woman – we were 24 hours in, I couldn’t keep down any food or fluid and I had definitely lost my cool at this point.
My wonderful husband tried so hard to bring me back to a state of calm and once the epidural began working, we managed to get there.

They gave me a few hours for the epidural and synto to do their jobs. They kept losing the trace of her heartbeat on the monitor which was frightening. By 1:00am we had to make the call whether to go to theatre or push.

Just before this I began to panic, I had a feeling something terrible was going to happen to my baby and I said I just wanted to go to theatre and get her out safely. Maybe this was transition.
My OB did a check and I was fully dilated. I managed to push her out in 45 minutes with no vacuum or forceps required.
I used the mirror during pushing, I thought I’d hate it but it was the most amazing thing to see her head emerge! She was a little Superman baby, coming out with her hand on her face. 

Our preferences for immediately after birth were upheld and we were able to do delayed cord clamping, uninterrupted skin to skin, and the room was dark and quiet while we got to know our baby. 

It was not what I imagined but it was so incredible and the hypnobirthing techniques got us through some very challenging moments.

I also want to mention that Reuben was absolutely amazing for my whole labour. He incorporated all of the techniques he had learned, helped me to stay calm, reminded me to relax, and just knew what I needed. I know I could not have gotten through it without him. He complained a lot about having to spend two Saturdays at birth classes but I know he gained a lot from it and realises now it was so worth it!

Thank you so much again Caitlin for your course and everything you taught us! I highly recommend hypnobirthing to everyone who will listen to me!

Hello again!

I know that Mother’s Day isn’t always happy but I hope that you took some time yesterday to honour all the mothering that you do…to pat yourself on the back and hopefully put your feet up!

How is your week going?
I hope that you are well.
What’s new?

I am collaborating on a project where we are attempting to prove the worth of a positive birth.  
Of course anyone who has experienced a positive birth knows the value…but it is harder to “sell” it to a wider audience so we are looking at “masculine” metrics like economic success and leadership.  For example, do those (mothers or fathers) who experienced a positive birth have an easier time returning to work and coping with the work – parent balance?
If you have any thoughts about how a positive birth affected you or your partner, I would love to hear them. 
 We are particularly interested in exploring that returning to work process and are curious if a positive birth leads to positive working and parenting wellbeing.
Please feel free so reply to this email with any comments.  Thank you!
And I will let you know what we discover.

Here is what’s coming up on Zoom:

Weekly Mother’s Group – Tuesdays at 12:00pm
Conversation and connection. 
Access to wonderful women’s health practitioners.
And mothers to be are welcome too!

Hypnobirthing Information Session – Wednesday 20 May at 7:00pm
If you or any of your friends are interested in hypnobirthing but want to know a bit more before committing, please spread the word!

Pregnancy Choices Webinar – Wednesday 3 June at 7:00pm
This is another one for those who aren’t pregnant yet or who are newly pregnant.  We will chat about models of care and how the decisions you make early in pregnancy can have major impacts on your birth.

Is there anything else that would be helpful for you?

Any other practitioners you would like me to line up?  
I was thinking maybe a short yoga practice?  Maybe seated yoga that you can do while you are feeding.

Here are five things that might help to boost your oxytocin this week.What has been helping you feel calm and connected?
Please feel free to email me back with what has been bring you joy.
Because of the things that brings me joy is hearing from you!

1 – Pan. Fried. Brie.

2 – I recently finished the audiobook version of Grown Ups by Marian Keyes (highly recommend…I didn’t want it to end). And ever since I have been listening to as much Marian Keyes as I can. I love what she has to say…and I love her accent. She is doing a YouTube series where she talks about one hard thing and three good things.

3 – Comfort reads. While I don’t read as often as I would like, I do listen to audiobooks and I will be downloading a few of these.

4 – A Dr Seuss and Dr Dre mash up! This is AMAZING! And if you have ever tried to read Fox in Sox without getting tongue tied, you will especially appreciate this!

5 – I haven’t made any banana bread during this pandemic…mostly because my kids eat at least a banana a day! So I am putting these on the list to try. And as I am back to making lunches, I need easy snacks to pop in. I think these banana bread scones will be perfect.

If you would like to get oxytocin boosters and other updates delivered directly to your inbox, you can sign up to my weekly-ish newsletter here. 
I will only ever send you information about upcoming free Zoom events and links to things that I think will make you happy.
And to be honest, before this pandemic the last time I sent an email was probably 2018, so don’t worry about me clogging up your inbox!

I met Sammy when she was a student doula taking my Supportive Caregivers course.
We hit it off and it has been such a pleasure to watch her come into her own as a supporter of women and birth.
And my clients who have hired her as their doula have AMAZING things to say about her.

If your goal is to labour at home as long as possible, it is important that you have some tools that you can use at home.
In this video she shares some simple things you and your partner can use that are comforting and that keep you comfortable.

Enjoy!

And if you would like to be notified of upcoming Zoom sessions, you can sign up to my weekly-ish newsletter here. 

Hello again!

How is your week going?

As it seems like restrictions are easing, I have been thinking about what aspects of social isolation I want to maintain once life returns to our new normal.

Weekends with nothing to do have been wonderful.
As have afternoons without the swimming, gymnastics, scouts rush.
I have been loving exercising at home…and the living in active wear that come along with it.
The lack of traffic has been amazing.  It is so fabulous that the bike paths have been busier than the roads!

Is there any part of isolation that you want to incorporate into your life?

Here is what’s coming up on Zoom:

Weekly Mother’s Group – Tuesdays at 12:00pm
Conversation and connection. 
Access to wonderful women’s health practitioners.
And mothers to be are welcome too!

Sammy Griffin Doula – Wednesday 29 April at 12:00pm
Sammy will share comfort measures for labour as well as answer any questions you have.

Birth Story Open Mic – Wednesday 6 May at 12:00pm
Come and share your story…or just listen in.  And this is not just for those with babes in arms!  If you haven’t birthed yet but are looking for positive guidance, please join us!

Hypnobirthing Information Session – Wednesday 20 May at 7:00pm
If you or any of your friends are interested in hypnobirthing but want to know a bit more before committing, please spread the word!

Pregnancy Choices Webinar – Wednesday 3 June at 7:00pm
This is another one for those who aren’t pregnant yet or who are newly pregnant.  We will chat about models of care and how the decisions you make early in pregnancy can have major impacts on your birth.

Here are five things that might help to boost your oxytocin this week.

“These days I settle for feeling only 85 percent sure about most things, most of the time. I believe this is keeping me sane, and I also believe that it’s keeping me human. In fact, I’m 85 percent sure of it.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert

1 – Why is it so hard to end a Zoom call? And what do you talk to friends about when there is literally nothing new in your life? I didn’t know how badly I needed this piece on Quarantine Etiquette.

2 – John Krasinski’s Some Good News keeps getting better. With a LEGO scene, a segment from the International Space Station, and some good tunes, this is a good one to watch with the kids. Brad Pitt makes an appearance too!

3 – Chris Hemsworth is doing meditations “for kids” on Centr.

4 – I somehow missed that Brene Brown is doing a podcast!

5 – If you are on FB, I have been loving the group A View From My Window. People all over the world share a little peek into their worlds. I should warn you though that after seeing some of the views you might be tempted to pack up and move. Its probably a good thing we are not allowed to travel at the moment!

If you would like to get oxytocin boosters and other updates delivered directly to your inbox, you can sign up to my weekly-ish newsletter here. 
I will only ever send you information about upcoming free Zoom events and links to things that I think will make you happy.
And to be honest, before this pandemic the last time I sent an email was probably 2018, so don’t worry about me clogging up your inbox!