AMAZING DELIVERY: Woman Plays Harp Until The Last Minute of Labour

Morwenna, who has played the harp for 17 years, plucked at the instrument until the last phase of her son’s four-hour home birth reports Mirror UK. It proved so successful in soothing her that she didn’t realize she was anywhere close to giving birth until midwives told her she was into the final stage of labor; she said,

“It really helped me relax, so much so that I assumed I was just having pre-labor pains. I expected it to be a lot worse than it was. For the last hour I couldn’t play anymore because I was concentrating so hard and it just became too painful. I played during the tough contractions, then had a break before playing again. It was a lovely birth, and playing really helped to begin with. But when the pain changed from labor pain to pushing pain I thought ‘now I really need to put my mind to this’.”

Morwenna runs a harp orchestra and harp-making workshop called Hands on Harps with her husband Craig, and says she first got the idea from an African ethnic group.

“I got the idea from a tribe in Namibia called the Himba tribe, which I came across online, who do a birth song. The birth wasn’t the time they considered to be the beginning of the child’s life, it was when the mother got inspiration for the life song. I thought it was a really nice idea, so I wanted to write a piece of music he would have for the rest of his life. I composed it during my pregnancy and played it to him regularly. It’s basically a lullaby, it’s very gentle. When I composed it he was kicking so I chose sounds that soothed him and soothed me.”

The couple live in Stroud, Gloucestershire and 30-year-old Craig, a part time maths teacher who also makes harps from their workshop in nearby Nailsworth, loved the sound of the music during the birth. He said,

“It absolutely helped having the music, as it really calmed everyone in the room. We had read up quite a lot beforehand and all the gurus think the best thing to do is keep everything as calm and low-key as possible. It definitely made it easier for Morwenna, but also the incredibly chilled atmosphere was good for me and the midwives as well. I don’t think the midwives had ever seen anything like it, and were inspired by Morwenna’s playing.”

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