Divya Deswal is a Doula - a birth assistant, someone who provides guidance and assistance to a couple who are about to have a baby and assists and helps them to have a smooth delivery. Divya is also a childbirth expert with P&P. Here, she shares one of her birthing experiences.
'Saloni and Vasant were in my childbirth class. As we went through our 4 days together I felt that these were THE people to benefit from hypnobirthing (Hypnobirthing is essentially a method that teaches the parent that in the absence of fear and tension, pain does not necessarily have to be an accompaniment of labour).
To begin with, they believed that birth was natural.
We began in earnest.
Vasant was very involved. At one point when we discussed listing of fears, he said "my biggest fear is that, what will I do when she is in pain?".
The expected date of delivery was sometime around end Oct, we decided not to go by dates. Also they had decided not to have many ultra sounds. They were also keen to use water for labour and we were set to give birth. Lots of practise, and there never seemed any sense of panic or urgency. The doctor was on board with this as well.
Saloni went for a routine check on the 3rd morning. By noon she was having mild surges, and was at a friend's place near the hospital but decided to go back home and wait and watch. I met them at home at about 3 pm that afternoon. She had eaten sandwiches and was relaxing. As I sat with her the surges seemed to get closer so we decided to go to the hospital.
