Jess, David and baby Georgie May 2018
The statistics on the benefits of doulas really do speak for themselves. You cannot discount the value and comfort of having another woman with you that has so much wisdom and experience around birth. Someone else who knows you can do it. However, our birth story didn’t go as we had hoped and it wasn’t until this happened that we really appreciated having Cheryl with us. She was right when she said that ‘doulas are for all births.’ Whilst we had hoped for an uncomplicated vaginal birth with minimal medical intervention, the opposite happened. During my 39th week, I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and it progressed quite quickly. It was a disappointment and a shock, considering the fact that we’d had a textbook pregnancy up until that point. We booked an induction and suddenly had a very different birth to prepare for in a very short time. Cheryl came over to reassure us and inform us about the process of induction and what we could expect. She had an amazing ability to calm both myself and my husband and to preserve the parts of our plan that were truly important to us. On the day of our induction, I laboured for seven hours, with four contractions in 10 minutes. It was hard work, but a powerful experience that I’m proud to have attempted under those circumstances. When Cheryl spoke to my husband, she asked that my dilation check be delayed until she got there. When she arrived at 4am, it was so great to see her. She has such an aura of calm around her and incredible instincts. She was onto something because my dilation was only 2cm after 7 hours! Pretty devastating stuff, considering the power of my contractions. At this stage, we had to change tack. I was exhausted and my labour wasn’t progressing. I had an epidural and continued my labour for five more hours. Still 2cm after all that time! By this stage, we had to consider an emergency Caesarean, which is what we did. Yes, our birth was not what we had hoped, but that is okay. Cheryl prepared us well from the beginning and helped us to see what was important, which was being informed and doing all we could to have a positive birth. When our daughter, Georgie, was finally born, she was absolutely perfect and that was all that mattered in the end. Cheryl waited for us to come back from theatre, met our Georgie girl, and made sure she was feeding well. We had photos together and a debrief before she left our new family to bond. In the time that has followed, Cheryl has kept vigil with regular text messages, a home visit, a full debrief and freezer drop of the most delicious lasagna! She’s helped us to remember the importance of fourth trimester thinking, with good feeds and cuddles (and not too many visitors) for the first forty days. We’re so grateful for Cheryl’s love and wisdom and would wholeheartedly recommend her for any birthing experience you have in mind. FYI… I completed this review while breastfeeding.
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