Willow’s Birth Story

My labour was supposed to be 3-5 hours long, “joyful, flowing, & relaxing” according to what I visualized.  I read that now and laugh!  It was none of those things.

Yoga has made  the biggest impact on not just my pregnancy but my life in general.  I can’t imagine how anyone gets through their day, pregnant or not, without it.  My baby is very calm because I am.  My labour was much calmer than most as well, I believe.  I was told that not every woman can have complete, calm conversations at 7 centimetres dilated.

HypnoBirthing also had a huge impact on my pregnancy, labour and birth.  It gave me more confidence in my beliefs and helped me to have a much more positive pregnancy in a world that is full of people trying to tell us to trust in the system and not our body.  It helped to give me the confidence to fight for what I wanted in my child’s birth experience and to believe that I could do it no matter what everyone else around me was saying.

My two best friends, Chris (my fiancé) and Theresa, helped me through labour more than I could ever describe  Instead of the peaceful home-birth, after 15 ½ hours, I agreed to go to the hospital.  I was getting very tired and there were special circumstances, we later found out.  Our baby was ‘on the phone’ as a doula friend put it.  Her head was tilted in my pelvis and the umbilical cord was wrapped repeatedly around both ankles.  My midwife, Stacey, gave me the confidence to keep pushing throughout the 4 hours when I would have given up.  Doctor Clarke was amazed at my progress and Chris had to tell him that I love to prove people wrong.  From the very beginning of the surges until my daughter was born was almost 30 hours. 

In the end, I gave birth vaginally, with an episiotomy and a vacuum had to be used, 2 ½ weeks past my estimated due date, to a very beautiful baby girl.  Willow Kathleen Belanger Mills was born October 11, 2007, weighing 7 pounds 1.2 ounces.

Kim, Chris & Willow Mills

Frankford, On