It was the middle of the day when Shirley started to go into labour. She had already transferred to the birth unit where she was to give birth; it was comfortable and familiar to her. As labour progressed she chose to walk around and get into whatever position she needed to in order to help the birth process. She was left alone so she could listen to her body and baby and do whatever she needed to birth calmly and gently.

People looked on in awe of her and what they were seeing, but nobody intervened in any way, she was completely protected in her birth environment. She felt safe, secure and in control. As the moment of birth came closer, she knew she needed to change positions and she was completely free to do so. There were no monitors, no noisy machines and no white coats to be seen. There were no examinations, no dilation cm's to be achieved within a set time frame, labour just progressed exactly as it needed to.

She intuitively knew how to breath her baby down and there was no forced pushing and absolutely no sounds of discomfort. She birthed her baby extremely gently; a beautiful natural birth. The baby stayed with her mum and they bonded. There was no cleaning or wiping, just mum and baby sharing that beautiful unique moment.

You might think that this wasn’t typical of births, however for Shirley and her friends and family at Combes Farm this is a regular experience. Now you've read the story, why not watch the birth video and see for yourself. I'm sure you'll agree that we can learn so many things from watching calm, gentle, natural births, even when the circumstances are not quite what you first perceived.

Yours for calmer births, more often,