When I had my first child I knew little about childbirth. To say that the birth was not a pleasant one would be an understatement, and when I became pregnant a second time I determined not to have a repeat of the experience. I set out to learn what I could about childbirth, particularly pain management in childbirth. I wanted a video so I could see what to do, figuring that this would be more helpful than trying to follow instructions from books. I found a homebirth video at the library. Though I had considered it I was not intending at that point to have a homebirth but I thought I would probably be able to learn a lot from such a video, so I took it home and watched it. It was wonderful, very informative, and I faced my next birth with a great deal more confidence. I had learned about the functions of the muscle groups in labour and delivery and the process of childbirth and about breathing and relaxation techniques for pain management. Well, what a difference it made! My second birth was a wonderful experience, a victory! My husband and I were elated as we joyfully and excitedly welcome into the world our second baby girl.

A couple of years later, having moved away from the city where we had our first two children, I no longer had the option of giving birth in a family birthing suite as I had for my second child, and had only a relatively small local hospital with a not-so-good reputation as far as birthing goes. So when I became pregnant again I considered the option of having a homebirth. My husband was cautious but eventually agreed to have the baby at home and I was able to again employ the techniques I had learned from the video. It was a wonderful experience, which we were able to share with one of my sisters who had come to help with the birth, and I was left with a feeling of joy and satisfaction that I had ‘done well’. I had successfully used the techniques I had learned and had tolerated the pain well.

I wanted to be able to share what I had learnt with other women in the hope of helping them to birth more easily and with less pain, less trauma and less intervention, hence this website. It is my sincere hope that many will read what I have written here and that from it they too may experience a joyful birth.

Heidi.

Joyful Birth

Welcome

The above web pages are equivalent to the chapters in the book "Joyful Birth"

You can download a pdf version of the full book here.

  joyful_birth.pdf    (200kb)

To view the file you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.
You can download the reader from the following Adobe Downloads page if you need to. It is 33.5 mb download.




Adobe Acrobat Reader   (33.5mb)

Joyful Birth