Anya

Anya's Birth

Although nothing about Anya's birth went as I'd imagined, she is healthy and the most
beautiful thing I've ever seen, so in the end, I'd call it a raging success. Here's the story...

After trying everything I could think of and bargaining with my doctors, I finally agreed to
start the induction process on the evening of Monday, April 30 (11 days after my guess
date). We checked in to the hospital and they hooked up up to the fetal monitor. Turns
out I was contracting a little too regularly for Cervadil, but the contractions weren't doing
anything (more like BH than the real thing). So they pumped me full of fluids, waited a few
hours, then when things slowed down, they placed the cervadil and said they'd check me
again in 12 hours. I tried to sleep, did a fear release, listened to my affirmations. I didn't
get a lot of sleep, but the hypnobabies at least kept me pretty relaxed. When they finally
checked me around noon or so the next day, I hadn't made any progress (2cm, long,
posterior, soft and with the baby still high). The doctor decided I should eat lunch, take a
shower, and then they would try a dose of cytotec. He stressed that he didn't want to start
pitocin or anything until I was more ready, because he really thought I could have the birth
I wanted, and he wanted to give me every chance for it (Part of why I agreed to the
induction was that he was on call that day, and I knew he was more relaxed than the other
docs in the practice). So they placed the cytotec that afternoon and checked me again in 4
hours. Some progress, but not much, so they decided I could have dinner, then more
cytotec.

After dinner, I began to feel more consistent pressure waves, but nothing too intense...
just a little more than the tightening I'd felt before. My husband, Bob, kept reminding me
to listen to my Hypnobabies to stay relaxed, as I was getting very discouraged and
emotional. Around 10:45 that night, I got up from bed (where I was sort of tethered by
the continuous monitoring and IV) feeling like I had to pee, and when I stood up, my water
broke. Luckily, there was no sign of meconium. After that, the pressure waves started
becoming more intense and more regular. They checked me and I was at 4cm, 80%
effaced, so definitely some progress. They decided to wait a few hours and see if my
pressure waves were enough without pitocin. I tried to get some sleep, but couldn't sleep
through the waves, so I listened to my birthing day affirmations and that helped a lot. I
stayed comfortable, but was having trouble relaxing because I was worried that I was "on
the clock" now that my water had broken. Around 2:30am, the resident came in and said
they were going to start pitocin at the lowest dose and see how I did with that until
morning. Once they started that, the pressure waves became much more regular,
probably every 2-3 min., lasting 45 sec-1 min. Hypnobabies kept me very calm and
comfortable through this part, and I was so glad I'd decided to use hypnosis. Bob was
great at catching nurses, doctors, etc., and explaining what we were doing, so no one
asked me about pain. All the nurses would ask, "Are you comfortable?" which was nice,
and actually reminded me that I was pretty comfortable.

In the morning, they checked and I was still 4cm, 80%, so they decided to start upping the
pitocin. At this point, I'd had maybe 8 hours of sleep total over the previous 3 days and
was starting to get really discouraged. Bob kept giving pep talks and trying to help me
relax, which definitely helped. I couldn't get comfortable in bed, so I sort of paced near
the bed so I wouldn't disturb the monitors. Pretty soon the pressure waves were lasting
even longer and were so intense they sort of took my breath away. I tried to "PEACE" my
way through them, but I was breathing out so much that I started to hyperventilate and my
hands and face got all tingly. Nurses kept coming in every 10-15 minutes and increasing
the pitocin and I started to panic. I felt like things were moving so slowly and that they
were increasing the pit so quickly that I would never be able to last. As soon as that
thought entered my mind, the pressure waves began to hurt (it's really amazing how well
the hypnosis had worked until this point though). Bob did everything he could to try to
redirect me, but I had sort of given up and finally decided to get an epidural. It was a
difficult choice, but I felt like I had to let them keep increasing the pit so I could have a
vaginal birth. I didn't want my time limit to expire and need a c-section. The epi was
quick and easy and I was finally able to sleep for a couple hours. As soon as I went to
sleep, my body started to make some progress and within a could hours I was ready to
push. The turned off the epidural, but had me basically pushing on my back holding my
legs and holding my breath. I hated it, and that was actually incentive enough to never get
another epidural. The whole 2.5 hours of pushing I felt like if I could just stand up and
move around a little, I would be able to move things along. Pushing uphill was really
discouraging. Eventually though, with lots of encouragement from Bob and the nurses, my
little Anya made her appearance, and then nothing else mattered.

She was 8lbs, 14oz, and 21.5 inches, born at 5:54pm on May 2. She is our first baby, and
we are loving parenthood so far. What an amazing feeling!

So all in all, not what I had envisioned, but I think Hypnobabies played a huge role in
keeping me relatively calm and definitely comfortable for the first 12 hours or so after my
water broke. And I do think under different circumstances (like not being induced or
getting a little more sleep), Hypnobabies would have taken me all the way to the end. I
will definitely use it with the next one!

Thanks for all your support,

Lindsay