The Birth Story of Zahli Theo at Redlands Hospital

On the 25th October I got the call at about 1230am to head to the hospital as Rachel was in labour. I flew outta bed got dressed and was in the car within minutes on my way to Redlands Hospital to capture the birth of little Zahli. Rachel did so well throughout the labour and birth even with a few complications along the way. Once Zahli was born and into her arms the past was in the past. All that there was to think about is the beautiful bundle of joys in Rachel and Tom's arms. Their own little princess 🙂 First bub for them both which is even more exciting. Grandma was there for the birth too and it was such a special time as Zahli was the first grandchild to be born on both sides of the family. Yay!

I had the honour to capture Rachel's complete journey from bump to baby with Maternity, Birth and Newborn sessions. The best part of all was I got to design a beautiful album to tell the story from start to finish that will be an heirloom to pass down to Zahli when she is older. Having something tangible like that is so incredible compared to a USB with some images on it and you need to piece the story together yourself in order. I pride myself on providing amazing products for all my clients that can be used straight away.

I asked Rachel to write out her birth story to share with you all about her whole journey. I have posted it below for you all to read about the journey bringing Zahli into the world.

"On Friday the 24th of October I hit 41 weeks. After having a great pregnancy I had a feeling throughout, that I would go early. However our baby girl had other plans and was in no hurry to make her entrance. Friday afternoon I started having pains but didn't think much of them, Tom and I took our dog Jax to the dog park, came home fiddled around and headed to bed nice and early. Around 8:30 I noticed the pain really wasn't going away and was becoming more frequent.

I messaged Angie to let her know that I thought this was the beginning of labour. Angie suggested that I downloaded the Full Term Contraction App which was a great help and made it so easy to time the
contractions.

By 10:30 the pain increased and I felt the contractions were quite regular as they varied from 2-7 minutes apart lasting for a minute. I called the hospital, they felt that my contractions weren't regular enough and to try and stay at home as long as I can. Within 30 minutes I was on my knees in pain. I woke up my partner to let him know and then contacted my mother. My mum came around and by 11 my contractions were roughly 4 minutes apart. We then decided we would head to the hospital as I could no longer bare the pain.

When we arrived at the hospital it was roughly 11:30pm, they did a internal examination, we soon
discovered that I was 6 cms dilated. All I remember asking was "So you"re not sending me home" with the
response of "No" I was relieved. Tom was straight on to contacting Angie as my mother contacted Nellie my student midwife. I spent most of my labour in the shower, I found the hot water a huge relief as I switched between the yoga ball and being on my hands and knees. Once leaving the shower and back on the bed the time passed as I had gas for pain relief, I was in and out of sleep waking for each contraction, I had such great support from Tom, Nellie and my Mum..

I am sure they were in pain with how tight I was holding on to their hand/arm. Whilst time went fast it also went oh so slow, especially when I felt the sensation to push but was told I was not ready to push yet. With my waters being broken it sped the process up slightly. At one point all I remember is closing my eyes with darkness and waking up to day light outside. At 5:50am it was time to start pushing, I pushed for 2 1/2 hours which felt like a life time.

With prolonged second stage of labour both baby and I were exhausted. However with some assistance at 8:25am, Tom and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl Zahli Theo Cox. In a split second everything was
forgotten as the smiles could not be wiped from our face. All I had wished for was a healthy baby and that is what we got, a healthy 9 pound 3 1/2 ounces.

I am ever so thankful for Angie and the amazing photos she has captured for us which we will treasure for a lifetime. I had a traumatic birth and not only was Angie our photographer she was also a great support for my mother. As I only got to spend 30 minutes with Zahli before I went to theatre I missed out on her first moments with her daddy, getting weighed, measured and getting dressed. Thanks to Angie however, I was able to get those moments back through photos.. Thank you for being there to help welcome little miss Zahli into the world. "

Here is a series of images from the birth of Zahli along with her birth story movie.

WARNING- Boobs can be seen in images and video.