I started my home study Hypnobabies course around 24 weeks. I listened to the CDs as instructed each night, except I must admit that I did not listen to my daily affirmations secondary to lack of time in my schedule. However, the week leading into my birth I did listen to the affirmations in my car each day.
Now on to the birth of my sweet baby boy. At exactly 7 AM on August 27, 2006 my water broke. I had got out of bed to use the bathroom and after I finished the warm water kept gushing. I went through four Depends diapers from 7-11. I never imagined how gross it would feel. It was warm and never ending! During these four hours my contractions were about two minutes apart but did not increase too much in intensity. At home I listened to my affirmations and sat on the birthing ball. We decided to head to the hospital around 11:00 and by 11:30 we were checked in. In triage I was 5 cm dilated and 90% effaced. I was excited that I was able to make some progress at home before going to the hospital. I told the triage nurse that I wanted to do this without drugs and to give me a supportive nurse. The nurse who ended up attending my birth was awesome. She was so supportive. I told her my wishes and she was respectful. I agreed to a hep lock and turned my light switch to off while she stuck me.
I attempted to listen to my hypno CD but for some reason my portable player decided to not work properly. We then made the decision to play it on the regular CD player in the room. So my advice is check and double check your CD player before you leave for the hospital.
I started to b/c more uncomfortable around
12:30 secondary to the increase in the intensity of my pressure waves. It was
not pain that was making me uncomfortable but just not being able to find a
position that I wanted to be in for very long. I kept my light switch in the
center and just moved around the room
the whole time. I moved from the birthing ball, to squatting, to swaying, to
walking, to sitting on the toilet (I thought that I had to go to the bathroom
but of course it was the pressure of the baby on my rectum). My husband was
great. He offered me juice, ice chips, position changes, told me I was doing
great etc. I guess all of the hypno techniques we discussed in the previous
months had left
him, but he was great regardless. I could not even speak to him anyway. I felt
as though I could talk to no one, I could only concentrate on my body. It was
so strange and surreal.
My husband called the nurse around 1:30 or
1:45 and I allowed her to check me.
I was at 9.5 cm so she called in the scrub tech to start getting things prepped.
At this point, I began to feel burning. They had me lay down and she instructed
me to push. I did not even really hear what she was saying, not anything anyone
was saying. It was so primitive. Every time she asked me or the doctor told me
to push I could not do what they asked. I was just focused on breathing, My
body did not want to hold my breath and bear down, that did not feel natural to
me at all. I wanted my body to do what it wanted to do on it's own and that is
what it did. After fifteen minutes, Gabriel Elijah Williams was born. The time
was 2:21on Sunday, August 27th. He weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 inches
long. He came out screaming and they put him on my chest. It was so amazing.
I did require an episiotomy or maybe I did not. I remember the doctor saying that he would do one but I could not even vocalize rejection at that point. Everyone in the room was amazed at whole birth. The scrub tech said that she has never seen someone go through natural childbirth without screaming, cursing at their husbands, etc. She said all that you did was let out some moans.
Several nurses came up to me throughout the
day and commented on the stories they heard about my birth. It was pretty
amazing to me that a hospital that delivers so many babies each day and hardly
any are done without drugs. It was so worth it. The recovery has been great.
I was up and walking and showering within the hour. I have felt wonderful.
Hypnobabies really works and if I could do it, anyone can, and the end result is
priceless.