Dear Jasmine, our baby boy Hani is finally here, he was born on April 5th at 38 weeks by a planned c-section.

As soon as we found out that the much hoped for water birth was not going to be possible due to placenta previa, I had time to mourn this and do the necessary preparation to be informed about my options for a rewarding cesarean section experience.

Thank you for all your support in the process, the references you shared were invaluable.

We wrote our birth preferences for a smooth, slow, family centred cesarean section.
Luckily our Dr was very curious about this and she was very open to trying so thanks to her every point in our Birth Preferences was honoured.

She even said that to her knowledge this natural C-section is a first in Dubai.

She only delivered the head, and our baby pushed himself out of the womb, I did perform the J breathing even though I was not feeling it. We did a trial breathing with our Dr before she made the incision and we agreed that I would breath upon her signal.

This is exactly what happened. 

I kept breathing and she was completely hands off, Hani pushed himself out, it was a slow and smooth birth where my baby was able to get the squeeze mimicking his exit from the birth canal.

We had the hypnobirthing relaxation tracks playing in the OR, as well as dimmed lights around the surgical field.

After delayed cord clamping that lasted 3 minutes, Hani was put on my chest skin to skin and the midwife helped him latch and I started breastfeeding him in the OR.

It was a magical moment that changed our lives forever.

The empowerment we received thanks to the Hypnobirthing classes was crucial to allow us to keep our calm and confidence throughout the whole process.

We were both very relaxed and ready for our birth.

Thank you again Jasmine for all the support.

Big Hugs!