Kia ora koutou birthing community

Eartha, Fiona and Michelle are some of the most amazing people I’ve met and are the best midwives ever! Helping me give birth to a handsome boy in June 2022. I was extremely nervous as this was number 3 and my two births were very challenging. I was lucky enough to have the same midwives for all three. Eartha asked “what’s something we can do differently this time that might make it easier than the first two?”. And we came up with the idea of a home birth. This plan freaked me out big time, but with their full support and experience we did it! I gave birth at home in a birthing pool, which I was able to hire from the centre. The calm presence and knowledge that these women brought to my home birth was just phenomenal. I couldn’t have done it without them. I’d definitely recommend a home birth with these lovely ladies any day. Me and my partner are very grateful to have had the Helensville Birthing Centre Whanau guide us through all our birthing experiences and those early days of parenthood. They answer any questions you have promptly and are always just a quick phone call away when you need them. Forever thankful!

Nga Mihi

Martika and Jonathan

When I first became pregnant I knew I wanted to have a natural birth and to breastfeed. With the incredible support of Michelle and the team at the Helensville Birthing Centre I was able to achieve both of those goals. I felt supported, empowered, respected and encouraged as I navigated those challenging 1st few days at the Birthing Centre when everything felt new and overwhelming. No question was to silly, no problem to big, and the reassurance of knowing that the lovely ladies at the birthing centre were there to help and pop their head around the corner when they could hear things weren’t going well made the world of difference. Debbie taught me how to feed while lying down which has been a god send in my breastfeeding journey. With the help of all of you in the early days and especially Michelle in the following weeks I was able to establish breastfeeding and I haven’t stopped since! After a few months of tandem feeding Archie naturally weaned at almost 3, and I am still feeding my 1 year old Oliver. I was fortunate to go through the Breastfeeding Peer Support training. It has been so helpful not only in my breastfeeding journey but for so many mums in our community that have just needed a little encouragement, a few simple ideas or tricks as they embark on their breastfeeding journey’s. I am so grateful that there is such huge support for women who want to breastfeed in our community. From the antenatal classes, to our dedicated midwives, the Birthing Centre, then ongoing support of LC’s, birthing centre coffee groups etc we are spoilt for choice. It is inspiring to have such passionate, dedicated women who go above and beyond time and time again for us. I am forever grateful for you all

I’m incredibly grateful for the team at the Helensville Birthing Unit. I gave birth the first time there and stayed three nights afterwards. Being able to call upon the staff night or day for assistance in establishing breastfeeding was amazing. I felt so supported and no question of mine went unanswered. After I left the birthing centre, breastfeeding didn’t feel totally right and there was some pain. Although I wasn’t in agony I was frustrated at not being able to get it right! I met with one of the lactation consultants, Marie, and a minor tongue-tie was diagnosed. Marie encouraged me that I was doing everything right otherwise and was very supportive. I went in to have the tongue-tie released and gradually over time breastfeeding became wonderful and natural. I continued until my son was 16 months old when he self-weaned. Thank you to Michelle, my midwife, Marie, my lactation consultant, and all the staff that are on call 24/7 at the birthing centre to help with breastfeeding. Your support is incredible and so valued!

On Tuesday October 7th 2013 at 41w5d I headed to be induced at north shore hospital, where my midwife Michelle planned to join us once I was in more established labour. However, after a terrifying ordeal, my son was transferred to NICU intensive care in Auckland and I was transferred not long after to be with him. Despite being discharged to hospital care, Michelle came to visit every few days to check on me and see how our son Leo was doing. We were discharged by day 12 and Michelle had arranged for us to be transferred to the birth unit so that we could establish breastfeeding, something that I wasn’t receiving much support on from the hospital. Our first night there was a long one, the midwife on duty at the time spent two hours with us to observe him feed and then provide some options to help him get a proper latch and off the nipple shield. We had her complete attention and her passion and dedication to help our wee boy was evident in the care she took with us! After that they simply provided support at each feed and within 48hrs of being there we had a happy and satisfied boy with a great latch, something we had struggled to get whilst in hospital care. My husband and I are forever grateful for our two days at the birthing unit post NICU, and even after we left the support kept coming. These ladies are above and beyond and the passion for their work shows on every friendly face there! We look forward to taking our next bub there in few short weeks to experience it all again. We can never thank you enough for giving our little family the best start after a horrific ordeal we suffered!

To the Wonderful Midwives of HBC, Congrats on your recent award, I’m so proud & we are so lucky to have such an amazing group of women running our birthing centre. Michelle, you are the best LMC I could possibly ask for, you made me feel respected, safe, empowered to make the right decisions for me and you stood by me as I insisted on a natural birth when Liam decided to turn breach at 41+ weeks! You went above and beyond expectation through both of my pregnancies, labour and postpartum journeys. I absolutely loved my stays at the birthing centre, it’s such a beautiful, calm place to recuperate and get to know your baby, and a bonus that hubby could stay with us too. I felt like my decisions were always respected and my emotional wellbeing was as important to the midwives as my physical wellbeing. Everyone is so lovely and knowledgeable and sometimes offering just a little chat in the middle of the night was a sanity saver when cluster feeding strikes!! After having my first baby, Ryan, Michelle helped me successfully latch and feed in the delivery room, then the next night in the birthing centre my milk had started to come in, I had Debbie on shift and was having a little trouble getting my tiny baby to latch onto my ginormous chest! Oh gosh Debbie was a godsend, we tried a few different positions and she also gave advice with my fast flow, all the while putting me at ease and making me feel like I was doing a great job. I’m so proud to say that the support I received from midwives was taken on board and put to practice with both of my babies and I successfully breast fed Ryan to 12 months and am still feeding Liam at almost 14 months. I felt so supported and knew if I needed further help the door was always open. Thank you ladies for everything you do, I wish more babies were in the cards just so I could stay again! Lots of love Sara Thomson xoxo (& thanks also from Will, Ryan and Liam)

I had my first & only child at the Helensville birthday unit in 2014. I wanted to birth there as had heard such amazing things about it & I also lived locally. My son decided to arrive quickly so as soon as I arrived at BC I was greeted by kind & smiling faces. My 2 midwives Fiona Kerton & Michelle Nasey went above & beyond for everything & assisted with the safe arrival of my son. We stayed 3 night at the BC & our stay was incredible. I didn’t want to leave. Everyone was so patient & kind & I was shown different options of BFing & supported over the challenges you face being a first time mum. I had incredible support from the staff at BC & from my midwives the following months. I can’t thank Fiona, Michelle & Sally Garrod enough for their kindness & support & also feel very lucky to have been able to take advantage of using the BC – I’d recommend Helensville BC to all of my friends.

To the beautiful women at the Helensville birthing unit – I just wanted to say thank you each and every one of you, literally. I really, really struggled with breastfeeding with both of my children in every way possible. My first child Saskia was born, and hours later my nipples were so sore and damaged. Upon entering the birthing unit for my stay, Claire identified that Saskia had a lip and tongue tie, and quickly arranged for that to be fixed. The staff at the birthing unit supported me day and night with latch, ways to relieve the pain, offering shields, and anything to help me persevere. They even let me stay an extra night, as I was finding the whole thing really hard. Breastfeeding was very painful for a good length of time after that, but thankfully it did become easy and pain free, and I was able to exclusively breast feed Saskia for 12 months. 2.5 years later, I had Arlo under the care of Michelle. She was aware of my breastfeeding concerns, and she identified immediately that Arlo also had a lip and tongue tie. She put in a big effort to help me latch Arlo the best I could, and arranged for me to have Arlo seen by the newly trained doctor at Helensville who could cut Arlo’s ties. Debbie was also an amazing support who saw me through this process from start to end, with follow up check ins. Breastfeeding was just as hard this time, and I also developed a pretty bad case of mastitis. Both Debbie and another midwife were amazing at doing what they could in this situation. They even brought me up to Helensville and worked for an hour with me on a pump with heat pads and all the bells and whistles, to try and remove my lumps. Maybe 6 weeks post birth, I was able to breast feed easily, and I proudly exclusively breastfeed Arlo for 16 months. I am so thankful and so appreciative of all the ladies at the birthing unit who went above and beyond to support me through that first month especially of pain, confusion and breastfeeding troubles. I literally could not have done it without their care and love, and I hope they know how important they are, and what they mean to us new mums when it is so scary and hard. Forever thankful

I’m so grateful to have such amazing support from the Helensville Birthing centre. While I’ve never actually stayed at the Birthing Centre myself, I’ve had Michelle and Fiona at 2 of my homebirths, and they’ve made the whole experience so much less stressful than it could have been. They were amazing at trusting in me, and my body, and listening to what I wanted, and respecting my wishes. All of my babies have had some issues with feeding, but with my daughter, I found breastfeeding sore from the start. So I had some help from Marie to work on her latch and my technique which helped a lot, and along with osteopathy her latch is now fantastic! I was also lucky enough to be part of the second group of mums who trained to be a Breastfeeding Peer Support Counsellor through the Birthing Centre. I gained so much knowledge, not only for myself and my current and future breastfeeding experiences, but also to be able to support and encourage other mums to overcome obstacles on their breastfeeding journeys. All of the Lactation consultants are amazing, but Debbie in particular goes above and beyond, often answering questions on our facebook support group, at all hours. You all do such a great job, and I feel very privileged to be part of a community that invests so much value in mothers, babies, and breastfeeding.

Being a first time mum, I learnt so much from Debbie in preparation to breastfeed when I attended the Helensville birthing centre antenatal classes. I took that knowledge with me when I stayed at the Helensville birthing centre after my son was born and was thrilled to see Debbie pop in to see how things were going, even at 2 in the morning. The whole experience staying at the birthing centre and having hands on support from the incredible hard working lactation consultants and midwives was just beautiful. With hormones going wild and learning so much in the first few days of being a mum, I look back on my experience with such love. They definitely helped me start a positive breastfeeding journey <3

“Both of my sons have been born at the Helensville Birthing Centre and both times it has been a really positive time with so much care and support from the staff. I left the birthing centre with my first son feeling empowered as a mother due to the way that my son and I were treated with respect at all times and the second time I was there was just as wonderful and empowering. Thanks to all the staff that cared for us each time – the support and space to get to know my new babies was really appreciated.”