Luke Michael's Birth
Luke Michael was born 12:37 am April 12th, 2007. This was my fourth birth. My first birth, my water broke first and I was GBS positive, so I was on the clock. I didn't "progress" fast enough, so I was given pitocin. After a few hours of that, I got an "light" epidural. I could still feel the pain, but it took the edge off. After having that needle stuck in my spine I determined I would never have an epidural again. My daughter was born without complications. My next two were natural births, but very painful – 8 hours and 6 ½ hours.
When I first visited my midwife for this pregnancy, she asked me if I had ever heard of HypnoBirthing. I hadn't, but after some research I decided to try Hypnobabies. I started the course at 20 weeks and was pretty consistent with the CDs and the practice.
The pregnancy went well. I felt that the Hypnobabies practice helped me be more relaxed and positive than I would have otherwise. As my due date approached, I could tell I was going to have another large baby. My previous child had been 9 lb 4 oz. I'm pretty small – 5'2", so I felt like I swallowed a turkey. My last three children had been born within two days of their due dates. Well – six days past my due date I still hadn't started my birthing time. I was ready to have this baby! I had an appointment with my midwife, Linda, in the morning, and I asked her to strip my membranes. During the stripping, my water broke, but only a little came out. My midwife said it was just the fore waters (a collection of water below the baby's head) – the bulk of the water would come out during my birthing time, which, she said, would be starting within a matter of hours. It turned out, it wasn't even fore waters. When I got checked later at the hospital I had an intact bag of waters. It was just an extra "layer" of water that broke.
I went home and told my husband, Jon, to be prepared. Anytime I stood up I felt a lot of pressure and some pressure waves, so I started walking to get things going. My midwife, Linda, called about 12:30 pm and told me that the birth center was full, but a place was opening at 6:00 pm. Now I had switched midwives this pregnancy solely because I wanted to go to the birth center rather than the labor and delivery ward (my midwife for my previous births delivered at a hospital without a birth center). I really wanted to wait until 6:00 pm so I spent the afternoon sitting and lying down. It worked. When it got closer to six I started walking and pressure waves picked up. We headed to hospital at 5:30 – earlier in my birth time than I normally would have gone, but I wanted to claim that room. By the time I got there, my pressure waves were 4 minutes apart. I listened to my birth guide CD in the car.
At the hospital, the room wasn’t ready, so they did my monitor strip in triage. My pressure waves stopped for a bit. I walked around until 7:30pm and the pressure waves picked up with the walking. They were three minutes apart by the time I went into the room. I spent the next two hours walking in the room and leaning on my husband during a wave. I tried the birthing ball a couple of time, but the intensity of the waves decreased, so I felt standing was best to keep things going. I didn't want to listen to CDs – I just wanted my husband's voice. Jon was great – giving me the relax and release cues, just generally reminding me to relax, and being encouraging. He made himself into a human table by bending over when I had a pressure wave. I just leaned on him and completely relaxed. I gave myself the peace cue during each wave, and sometimes found it helpful to think of the waves as pressure, and other times found it helpful to think of them as energy. They were getting more intense, but I didn't consider them painful.
A little after nine, I wanted to get in the tub. This had been part of my birth visualization. I had visualized getting to the hospital, being checked and told I was at 7 cm, getting into the tub, and getting out when I needed to push. Well, I had to go to the hospital earlier than I wanted, but I was at 7 the first time I was checked. A little voice said to me, "Maybe you shouldn't get in the tub," but I had visualized it so often I was set on doing it. I spent 45 minutes in the tub, kneeling, so I wouldn't slow down the pressure waves. Then I got out. By this time I was feeling tired, so I got into bed on my side. I started shaking a lot and the pressure waves were very intense and very painful at this point. I thought – good – transition. After a while I knelt in bed and leaned on the birthing ball. I started feeling more pressure and a slight urge to push.
Linda checked me, and I was still at 7. I was so discouraged – two hours of very intense waves and no progress. I started to get fearful – what if my waves weren't effective and they wanted to give me pitocin? It was so painful already I felt I couldn't handle pitocin. I asked Linda if standing again would help me progress. She said definitely, so I got up and held unto Jon. Linda left, saying she would check on me in an hour. I spent about 40 minutes standing and hanging onto Jon's shoulders during a wave. I was in a lot of pain, but I used the affirmations I learned in Hypnobabies to keep myself as positive as possible. I visualized my cervix opening and kept saying open and peace to myself (can't say I felt any anesthesia at this point).
After 40 minutes I started feeling a definite urge to push. I had the nurse run for Linda. I wanted to be checked so I didn't push too early and swell my cervix. I lay on my side to try and slow the pushing urge. Jon told me to trust my body – it knew what to do. Just as Linda came into the room, the true pushing urge came over me. There was absolutely no way I could control it. It was the strongest pushing urge I have felt in any of my births. The first wave lasted two minutes. Linda sat by me and waited until it was over to check me. When she check me she laughed and said, "The head's right there!" She said I still had a cervical lip but that I was going to push right past it.
The pushing phase was intense (and painful)! The pressure waves were the most painful they had been, and the stretching caused by the head was very painful. However, it was manageable because the end was in sight. I had planned to push in a kneeling position, leaning on the birth ball, and to deliver him half squatting, half kneeling. However, when the pushing urge started I was on my side. I asked Linda if I should change positions and she told me not to. She could see this was working well for me. There was a nurse on either side of me and they held my legs wide open. This was helpful.
With previous births, during the pushing phase, the head would back up a bit between waves unless I added my own efforts. Not this time. The pushing pressure never went away – it just peaked into waves and when it peaked my body would push two or three times on it's own. I had no control over this. Relaxing was impossible and unnecessary. At one point I asked if he was crowning. Everyone laughed and said the head was halfway out. Hearing that, I did do one push on my own between waves because I wanted to ease the head out. I don't think it made a difference. The next wave brought the head out. Up until then no one had coached me at all. At that point everyone got excited and said "Push! Push!" I didn't mind – I wanted him out. I pushed once on my own and his shoulders slipped out. The nursed grabbed my hands and brought them down to the baby. At first I didn't know what she was doing, but I realized she wanted me to pull him out! This was the first time I had gotten to do that. I pulled him the rest of the way out myself. That was an incredible feeling. I brought him up to my chest. Luke was rosy pink and started crying right away. He was actually the noisiest of the four, but he quieted quickly and started nursing. Pushing took less then 10 minutes and I didn't even have a skid mark.
I was naked, so he and I were skin to skin. They put warm blankets around us and I sat and nursed him for about ½ an hour. When the placenta came (a few minutes after he was born), Linda showed it to me. I had asked her to because I hadn't paid any attention to it the other times. She described the different parts and functions. It was fascinating.
When he was done nursing, they weighed him. He was 9 lb 3 oz and his head was 38 cm – the biggest head of any of my children. Jon held him while they did the rest of the newborn care and I took a shower. I felt great.
Did Hypnobabies help?
Yes, I believe it did. Up until transition I was not in pain. This was not true for my previous births. I was also able to truly relax through the pressure waves and progress to 7 cm quickly. Even when it did become painful, I never thought of asking for drugs.
In my case, visualizing my birth did hamper me during the actual birthing time. I should not have gotten into the tub. Linda told me later that the second time she checked me, when I was still at 7 cm, she could feel the head trying to rotate and find it's way down. He had such a big head that I really needed to be standing in order for the head to make it's way down. The tub took away the power of gravity and so did lying on my side. If I had listened to that little voice and remained standing, I probably would have had him within an hour and I might have had much less pain. I have to say, my husband didn't really want me to get in the tub or lie down either. He felt it would slow my progress and he was right.
Hypnobabies helped me not give in to discouragement when I found I was still at 7 cm. I used the affirmations to get myself through.
Even though I slowed my progress by my own actions, this birth was my shortest yet – 5 ½ hours of what I would call active labor. If I had listened to my inner voice, it might have been 3 ½ hours.
What I learned:
· Even if you visualize your "perfect" birth, make sure you really listen to your body when you're in your birthing time. It knows what to do and that may be different from your visualization.
· If you think you have a big baby, try standing as much as possible. It really helps speed up the process. It would probably speed up any labor, no matter what the size of the baby.
· I shouldn't have been afraid of the preliminary pushing urges. They were useful – they were getting the head fully engaged and helping complete my dilation.
· Avoid drugs at all cost. If I had had an epidural, I might have ended up with a C-section because I wouldn't have been able to stand and walk about.
· Drink Red Raspberry Leaf tea! This was the first pregnancy that I drank it. Compared to my other births, my pushing was by far the most powerful, the pushing phase was shortest (half the time of my previous birth) and my bleeding was less (and is down to a trickle now - four days after). This, despite the fact that Luke had the biggest head of all my children. I really think the tea toned my uterus.