Hello ladies,
This actually is my first post, though I joined the group about 6 weeks ago. I
have been reading many of the entries on here to positively prepare for my birth
and learn all that I could to help me have a medication free delivery. I heard
about Hypnobabies from a friend of mine when I was about 33 weeks pregnant. I
decided to give it a try because I wanted to try to deliver without an epidural.
My first had been delivered with an epidural, and although I look upon that
birth very positively, I was also curious what it was like to feel the birth
experience. I got the program and tried to do as much as possible. I didn't
exactly follow it as was directed (hard to when I am primary caregiver of a two
year old with a husband who works late), and I didn't always get all my
practices in. However, I tried to listen to the CD's as much as possible and fit
in what I could in such short time. So...here is my birthing story.
I started having pressure waves at around 7:30 in the morning on Monday, the
24th. We had tickets to go to the White House Easter Egg Roll. Though it was a
45 minute metro ride away, I decided to take my two-year-old son and meet my
husband there. I figured that I should probably be walking around anyway and it
would sort of take my mind off the pressure waves. We arrived there at around
11:30. We stayed for an hour. At this point, the pressure waves were coming
every five minutes if not more frequently but they weren't lasting a whole
minute yet. I decided we should leave.
We metroed back home and got our car. It was 1:00 PM at this time and the pressure waves were coming every 4 minutes or so and were lasting closer to a minute. I called my OB who told me to go to the hospital (I was headed there anyway, just wanted to double check). I got to the hospital around 2 and filled out very brief paper work. As I stood up, my water broke right there in the lobby. I got back to the room a couple minutes later.
They put in an IV, ran a little fluid through (I was okay with this), and externally monitored the baby for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. They also did an internal exam to check where I was. I was almost entirely effaced but only 2-3 cm dilated which disappointed me a little because the week before at my appt., I was 70% effaced and 2 cm dilated. I felt like I had not progressed that much despite all the pressure waves I had been having all day. They then unhooked the IV and the monitor so that I could move around. I sat on the birthing ball for about 10 minutes. Then I went for about a 15 minute walk around the hospital.
My pressure waves were coming close together. I was trying to get into the whole Hypnobabies mode listening to the CDS and remembering what I could, but because my day had been so action-packed, and up until about 1:30 I was also dealing with my 2-year-old, it was hard for me to focus. The waves were becoming very intense. I tried to just breathe through each one. They started coming very close together.
I came back from my walk and felt like I had to have a bowel movement. I went to the bathroom and the pressure was intense. I was expecting to feel pushing pressure in the vaginal area, not the rectum so I thought I had to go to the bathroom as opposed to push a baby out. I pushed once (again thinking I had to have a BM) and it felt as if everything was going to come out. The nurse suggested I go lay down so she could check me because that feeling may mean I was ready to push the baby out. Sure enough, I was ready to go.
3:40 PM The doctor got there about 10 minutes later (would have been sooner because his practice is connected to the hospital, but that weekend he had torn his ACL and MCL) and so he had to hobble over), and in three very intense rounds of pushing (less than 10 minutes in all), our second son Emery Michael arrived at a good size of 8 lbs. 12 oz.
I did have a local anesthesia for the episiotomy and stitching of that, but otherwise, it was medication free. I will be honest when I say I did feel p**n and the experience was little like I expected it to be. I didn't have time or focus to enter hypnosis. However, I have to say that Hypnobabies did play a positive experience in this birth because it gave me the confidence to know that I could make it through.
Had I not heard about the program, I probably would have gone to the hospital much earlier, done all the standard interventions (possible induction, pitocin, epidural, etc), and made sure I felt no p**n from the very beginning by getting an epidural. Who knows then how things would have progressed. I feel confident, too, that had I stayed around the house listening to my CDS all morning, I may have been far more successful in entering hypnosis.
I feel like if we decided to have a third child, I would have more time to prepare with the Hypnobabies program (I would start it much earlier than 34 weeks) and thus ensure my success of a p**n-free birth even more.
I also have to add that so far (only three days after having my son), the
recovery has been so much easier this time around. I have very little discomfort
or bleeding (probably because I did not spend much time pushing/breathing the
baby out). (For my first son, I pushed for two hours with an epidural to get him
out). The episiotomy stitching is hardly even bothersome either this time!
Overall, I was thrilled with my birth experience!
Heidi
(Mother of Noah-age 2, and Emery, three days old)