6| Clare's Positive Birth Story. First birth, MGP, Circumvallate Placenta, PROM, Posterior Labour, Public Hospital, Hypnobirthing, Birth Prep, Cervical swelling, Epidural, C-Section, Postnatal anxiety.

Welcome to Clare's first pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience with her son George. Clare is passionate about sharing positive birth experiences, that support Mum's to feel educated and supported. *Mention of postpartum anxiety and cancer grief.

Clare and her partner Gregg attended a hypnobirthing course and from this became obsessed with listening to Australian Birth Stories and watching One Born Every Minute. Clare experienced a healthy, full term pregnancy, despite experiencing the rare condition circumvallate placenta.

When labour began at home, Clare loved utilising her Tens machine, however the pain levels of a posterior labour proved too intense, and she then desired the birth pool. After a long labour and many hours in the water, Clare then opted for an epidural, at which point her MGP midwife and care team noted that she had cervical swelling. After 30 hours Clare made the decision to have a very supportive and calm c-section. She still had her preferences of delayed cord clamping as well as immediate skin to skin in Theatre. Clare did an extensive amount of birth preparation, which included breastfeeding education. Gratefully, her breastfeeding journey with George was very straight forward. Clare openly discusses suffering with prenatal anxiety, which continued into the postpartum period. On the day of George's birth, her world was filled with so much love and extreme sadness all in one, when she found out her Mum had a terminal cancer diagnosis. Clare speaks about the struggles of dealing with this news, alongside hormones and sleep deprivation.

We hope you enjoy our first birth story on the Love Patty Podcast.

Love the Patty's xx

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Music: @lillifairfax