Willem's Hypnobabies Home Birth, with picture links!

 I woke up at 5am that morning thinking “here we go again, another false alarm.” I had  been having prodromal labor for a few weeks at this point and was getting frustrated and  emotional by it. I just wanted things to be real already! I got up and went to the bathroom.

Things felt a  little different but I wasn’t going to put any merit to it yet. I went back to  bed but couldn’t get comfortable so I decided to take a bath. It didn’t go away. Infact it became more wonderfully intense, 5 mins apart suddenly became 2 mins apart. Could this seriously be it?? My mom had flown in from Texas a week or so prior when we thought things were really going. She was asleep in my son’s room, so I let her know that I “thought” I may actually be in labor, but that she could stay asleep longer until I figured it out. I knew if I was, I wanted to eat now instead of later, so I went downstairs and ate breakfast and drank some red raspberry leaf tea. 2 mins apart stayed 2 mins apart for over an hour so I just decided to call my midwife. Midwife Amy was on call that day and she’s an hour away so she just decided to start her trip over, because she’d rather go and be here for a birth that we had all decided would be relatively quick, then not leave and miss the whole thing!

I went ahead and called my support team, my friend Maria and my doula Emily and they headed over as well. I woke up mom and told her things were “on” but I still wasn’t  positive that this was “it” and needed lots of encouragement. I had been disappointed by 2 – 3 min apart waves being nothing at all several times before. But thankfully things became more intense. Things were going great. Intense, powerful, I was vocalizing and laughing my way through some of them. There’s a film called “orgasmic birth” and that’s what I felt almost. Wonderful, no pain at all. Discomfort at times but that was easily dealt with by getting on my hands and knees, rocking and rotating my hips and of course using my Hypnobabies, but what’s so wonderful is after practicing for so long and for so often I didn’t feel the need yet to recite to myself my peace cue, I just knew things were working and they were!

I was very aware during this birth and very active. I have video of me laughing through birthing waves and enjoying them. My friend Maria was laughing right along with me from behind the camera and you can see it shaking from it. Very different from my son’s birth to which I chose to rest and sleep as much as possible. Even though I had eaten eggs and toast earlier that morning, my mom was making pancakes for everybody and it smelled so good. So I ate! And I drank more tea and loots of ice water… with lots of ICE. More ICE!

Click here to see picture. 

So most of the birth went like this. With me on my hands and knees enjoying my very intense waves. Vocalizing and feeling so good. My son who is 15 months, snuggled and slept in with daddy. And when he awoke, played on the floor, and when I’d have a birthing wave and would instinctually drop to the floor drawing circles with my hand to help me “open” my cervix, he would come crawl over to me and laugh and play some more. It was exactly what I wanted during my birthing, to be with friends and family, and welcome our newest into a loving atmosphere.

To read the rest of her story and see more pictures click here. 

This birth story was shared by a mom from the Hypnobabies Yahoo Group.  Come join us if you want to learn more about Hypnobabies!  (You must send an introduction to be approved to the group)