My daughter, Hazel, is my second child, and first birth with Hypnobabies.
I was trying to achieve a natural birth with my first born son almost 4 years
ago but I didn’t have many tools at my disposal, nor a knowledgeable team to
support me through it and try different alternatives. The midwife and hospital
felt my BP was too high and encouraged me to have an epidural to lower it. That
started a chain reaction of drugs (epidural/pitocin chase) and required me to be
on my back to deliver by 9 lb 5 oz boy. It was not an enjoyable experience and I
was traumatized by it.
I knew I wanted to have a second child. I knew that drugs were not an option for
body, so I decided to research some ways that I could cope with the demands of
labor. I found Hypnobabies as well as an experienced doula. I continued with my
midwife team.
The night of 12/29 I thought my water broke as I had a gush while watching LOTR
on the couch with DH. Actually I had fallen asleep and woke up to a surprise. I
had mild waves through the night and then they ceased at 4 am. While all this
was going on, my poor husband was dealing with a nasty respiratory infection and
was on day 9 of chills, aches and spikes in fever up to 104F. We did not sleep
well. He spent an hour in a cold bath to get his temp down to drive himself to
urgent care for medical attention. They gave him a prescription for antibiotics
and he took one right away in case it was the birthing day.
I had also come down with the respiratory infection on Christmas Day, my
husband’s worst day. So I was fighting that off as well. Luckily, the symptoms
seemed to lighten as I progressed through the birthing time.
I called my midwife midmorning about the potential water break and she had me
come into the office. It looked like I hadn’t broken my water, so I went home to
wait. I lost my mucus plug in the afternoon. At 7 pm, the waves started full
force at about 20-30 minutes apart. However, they started picking up momentum.
It took full concentration to relax through them.
As they quickly picked up speed and I started to see a lot of blood, I called
Olga, my midwife on call. She said it was probably a lot of bloody show. If the
waves got to about 7-10 minutes apart she said to come into L&D. I called my
doula and gave her the update and asked her to start driving over as she had an
hour’s drive. Olga called me back 30 minutes later and my waves were now 15
minutes apart, so she wanted me to come in. I called Tracy, the doula, and
changed her destination to the hospital. We called my SIL and asked her to come
be with my son who we put to bed. He was also showing signs of the infection and
fevers.
We left for the hospital and I continued to try to relax through the waves. They
were getting intense. Tracey met us in the parking lot by chance and we all went
into L&D together.
My husband put on a surgical mask since he was ill and started putting up the
Hypnobabies sign and gave the cake to the nurse. She laughed, “Are you trying to
bribe us!” (They’re on to us ladies.) I said it was just a sign of thanks.
Olga showed up and measured me, but would only say she wanted to see how I
progressed. Turns out I was 3 cm and within the hour I moved to 6 cm. Olga and
Tracey put me in the tub when my BP was starting to climb to a concerning level.
That was nice to have another method besides drugs offered! The water up and
down my back felt wonderful!! And when I got out I was able to be totally limp
through a few waves as I listened to the Early Stages Script out loud in the
room. The waves became more and more intense and I started to lose my cool and
panic. For me, Hypnobabies was great for overall personal control and I was able
to relax and create anesthesia to a certain level of pressure. I would regain
myself between contractions and I tried to talk out my fears and concerns with
everyone in the room. I was afraid of the intensity of the waves during
transition and even though I tried to see them as something else, I wasn’t able
to hold the hypnosis during this time.
The waves became unbearable, so they put me back in the tub. I was crying and
saying I wanted to give up. Everyone encouraged me to be back on track and
remember how strong I was. I didn’t know it, but I was in the midst of
transition. Finally I felt the need to push with a wave, which surprised me. I
gave a push in the tub on hands and knees and felt a burning. They got me back
to the bed and before I could get in on hands and knees to deliver, I got caught
by a wave and hung myself on my midwife (closest to me) and yelled “Support”
while I worked through it. They tried to get me into bed, but I said it wasn’t
comfortable and insisted I stand by the bed to deliver. I started pushing with
each wave and within 10 pushes my baby girl was born at 00:09 am. Apparently I
became the talk of the ward since I delivered her standing up!
I am so proud of myself for delivering a 9 lb baby naturally and glad I had the
tools and support around me to walk that path. Any birth is an intense
experience and using drugs (from my perspective with the first birth) doesn’t
take that away. It was absolutely lovely to go through stage 3 of birthing and
recovery without the drugs pulsing through my body or baby. Everyone around me
thought I looked fantastic for having just given birth. I had one small tear
which Olga said she would leave to heal on its own. All I needed during
postpartum care was an occasional Motrin and those wonderful ice packs. ;)
Hazel was able to feed immediately and slept most of the first day which gave us
both a chance to rest and get to know one another.
I would recommend Hypnobabies as a tool to any mom who wanted to try natural
childbirth.
cheers,
Erica