A nice Pregnancy Affirmation Video

One of the great things about Hypnobabies is their Pregnancy and Birthing Day Affirmations.  Moms love to listen and learn them.

I just found this nice video on You Tube with great pregnancy affirmations.

Enjoy!

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Donovan’s Hypnobabies Birth

My pressure waves started early Thursday morning, June 12th (not sure
what time as I didn’t look at the clock when they woke me up) but I
finally got up after one woke me up at 6:40am. I had another one 10
min later so I decided to try and time them. Starting at 7am I
started timing them and I had 4 in a row at just under 10 min apart.
They stayed between 10 – 20 min apart for most of the day. I started
listening to my Hypnobabies script Easy Stage One on repeat.

Between 5 – 6pm they started to get more intense and they seemed more
frequent. I asked my husband to time them for me and they were coming
about 6 – 7 min apart and lasting about 30 – 45 sec. I continued to
breathe through them and listen to my Hypnobabies scripts the entire
time. I alternated between Painless Childbirth and Easy Stage One.

At about 9pm when the pressure waves were about 4-5 min apart for an
hour I asked my husband to call my mom to have her come down (she
lives down the street from me). When the pressure waves were
consistently 3-4 min apart and lasting close to a minute we decided
to head to the hospital. I took a 15 min shower first while my mom
hovered over me and my husband got everything out to the car.

We arrived at the hospital at 9:30pm on Thursday, June 12th. I was
taken to a triage room and put on the fetal monitor, my vitals were
taken, and a cervical exam showed I was 6-7 cm dilated. The triage
nurse was surprised at this because she said I was doing so well.

A different doctor was on-call for my OB’s group so they called him
to get labor orders (I also knew this doctor very well and was quite
happy that he was on-call). The triage nurse told me that I was being
moved to a L&D room and they would keep the monitor straps on me and
hook me up when I got to my room. I asked her if I could have
intermittent monitoring so that I could walk around if I wanted to
and she said she would call the doctor to ask. The doctor insisted on
continuous fetal monitoring, but I wasn’t required to stay in bed, I
just couldn’t go past the wire length.

I was then taken to my L&D room and introduced to my nurse. I was GBS
positive so I already knew that I had to have antibiotics but I had
requested a hep lock only so another nurse came in to put the hep
lock in. I had to have two bags of antibiotics and was able to move
around at the bedside while this was being dripped. During this time
I was sitting on the glider in the room and was listening to my
scripts. My husband and mom were with me and were awesome in helping
me stay relaxed and reminding me to take sips of water to stay
hydrated. As soon as my antibiotic was done I was disconnected from
the IV.

My husband gave my nurse my birth plan and to my surprise she read it
very thoroughly and clarified a few things with me. He also gave her
the brownies I had made and she was surprised at this and said no one
has ever given them anything like that before. She seemed very
appreciative of that.

I continued breathing and relaxing through my pressure waves and when
they started getting much more intense I found that standing leaning
against the counter and swaying my hips back and forth really helped
me through them. I felt better able to relax my birthing muscles with
my abdomen kind of “hanging” out in front of me.

At 11:45pm I was standing at the counter in the room when I had a
pressure wave and along with it a huge urge to push and I did push
some and had a big gush of fluid. I told my husband and my mom and
said to get the nurse because I felt like I had to push. My husband
said that my triage nurse who first checked me when I arrived at the
hospital overheard him tell my nurse this and he said she whispered
to another nurse, “that was fast.” My nurse came in and had me get in
bed to check me. I had another pressure wave with an urge to push,
and I did, and had another gush of fluid. She said I was about 9 cm
dilated and they were calling Dr. Wiseman and I should not push until
the last lip of my cervix was out of the way. The most difficult part
for me was having pushing pressure waves with that incredibly strong
urge to push and being told not to.

This was the point that I lost focus on relaxing because it was so
difficult to not push. My husband and mom jumped in to help talk me
through trying to relax and not push so I would dilate that last bit.
The nurse wanted to check me again during a pressure wave to see if I
dilated. She checked me and I did dilate to 10cm and was given the go
ahead to push. The doctor was still not there yet. I tried to push in-
between pressure waves to help stretch my perineum without the force
of a pressure wave behind it and I did fairly well with this. I used
the “breathing baby down” technique of pushing and was very vocal
with the use of “ahhhh” to get through this part.

My nurse was getting very nervous because she said she could see hair
and the doctor was still not there. Another nurse in the room assured
her that he would be there any second. He came in shortly after that
and they got everything ready and wanted me to turn onto my back and
put my feet in stirrups but I was more comfortable lying on my side
with my leg up so I stayed in that position. My husband and another
nurse were holding my top leg up while I pushed. The doctor was
wonderful at helping to guide my pushing so that I wouldn’t tear. The
pushing part actually felt wonderful and not at all uncomfortable.
When he was crowning I felt very, very tight and stretched but I
wouldn’t call it painful. This was very interesting to me since my
biggest fear that I had was the pain of crowning and of tearing.

I started pushing at about 11:55pm and my beautiful Hypnobaby was
born at 12:15am on Friday, June 13th. He was 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 20 in.
long. My husband didn’t want to cut the cord (he’s always a little
queasy around blood and stuff and was holding himself together pretty
well for what he saw), but the doctor kind of pushed the scissors
into his hands and said, “come on daddy” and showed him where to cut
and he did. A few more pushes and my placenta came out and was
intact. I did end up having a small tear that the doctor was debating
about even stitching but he did do one stitch as a precaution because
it was bleeding a bit.

The only drugs I had for this birth were the 2 bags of antibiotics
when I first arrived at the hospital and 2 Tylenol tablets after I
was in post-partum to help with some soreness. I refused the routine
Pitocin that is given after delivery because when I asked if there
was a reason I needed it the nurse didn’t have one and she said that
I was fine. Total time from active birthing time to delivery was
about 6-7 hours and this is my first baby. Total pushing time was
about 20 minutes.

This birth was such a wonderful, intense and incredible experience
and I am so thankful to the Hypnobabies program for allowing me and
my husband to have a birthing experience the way God intended for
women to have.

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Twin Homebirth Video

Another amazing video to inspire moms of twins!

Danielle’s Twin Homebirth

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Inspiration!

CBS had a wonderful segment on their news about a midwife and the difference she is making in women’s births and their outcomes. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4428535n click on Beating the Odds to start the video.

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Hypnobabies on The Doctor Show

Hi Fans of Hypnobabies!
 
First this:
 
Recently a Hypnobabies couple was taped for the “DOCTORS” show…new to television this fall, and produced by Dr. Phil’s son, Jay McGraw.
 
It will air all over the US on September 10.
 
To see where it is showing on CBS affiliate stations all over the country, and for your local show times, go to this link: http://www.thedoctorstv.com/ds/local_listings
 
And now this:

If you’d like to you can sign up on the DOCTORS SHOW web site as a community member so that after the show featuring a Hypnobabies couple airs, if people are asking about Hypnobabies in the DOCTORS SHOW blog and forum, you can join the dialog and share your experience with Hypnobabies:

Here is the blog URL: http://70.32.120.22/categories/1-Blogs

Here is the forum URL: http://70.32.120.22/forums/6-Episode-3-September-1-2-8

Thanks!
 
Kerry

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New Blog

A new Hypnobabies Instructor, Mindy has a new blog.  Go check it out!  She has a lovely birth story of her son on there.  Many of the Hypnobabies Instructors were first Hypnobabies moms! 

Birth Peacefully

 

http://www.birthpeacefully.blogspot.com/

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New changes at the Hypnobabies Website

The Hypnobabies Website has a new look.  It is exciting to see the new changes up.  There are new articles to read and birth stories to enjoy.   

Go on over and check it out!

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Victor’s Hypnobabies Birth in Manilla

Hello from Manila!

Victor Emilio (“Vito”), our 5th child, arrived at 3:58 am on May 31.  Interestingly enough, when I would visualize my birthing time while listening to the Affirmations track, I always saw myself as birthing at 4 am.  The power of the mind is amazing!

My pregnancy, despite my age (41) went very well.  I was active and working throughout.  I exercised 5 days a week, doing spinning, dance and Pilates classes up to a couple of days before birth day.  My husband and I have 4 other children, ages 22 to 13, so my last birthing prior to this was almost 14 years ago.

This was our 5th drug-free delivery and our first to consciously use hypnosis during birth.  As I mentioned in my Introduction to the e-group, I apparently went into an altered mental state during my other births but was not aware how I entered it or what it was until later.  This time, with the understanding that it was self-hypnosis that helped me manage my previous births, I consulted a hypnotherapist for 3 practice sessions and listened to the Hypnobabies scripts for 6 weeks before baby’s arrival.

That week I was very busy attending to last minute arrangements for work and home before taking my official leave.  I even scheduled a belly photo shoot on Thursday, the 29th, and I asked  my baby just to let me have the photos taken before he/she decided to be born.  (The photo shoot went great, I am so glad to have done it!) 

Baby cooperated.  On the morning of the 30th, I noticed bloody mucous in my underwear.  This would go on the whole day along with sporadic pressure waves that felt different from Braxton Hicks in that they would radiate towards my back.  Nothing regular though.  But I went to bed at 11 pm that night knowing that I would definitely be in the delivery room in a few hours.

Shortly before 1 am I had been observing my PWs become more intense and around 10 minutes apart.  Although they were not that close together, because of the intensity of the sensations I was feeling I decided we should get going so that I would be nice and settled in the delivery room and well into hypnosis.   So I woke up my husband, we got dressed and out the door.  Our 2 teenage daughters who were still awake heard us and wanted to come along.  So the four of us drove to the hospital which was 10 minutes away.  On the way there the girls and my husband were very excited and chatty and I was quiet and concentrating on relaxing.  My girls even commented, “Wow, Mom, we are so excited…but you are so cool!”  (All throughout birthing I heard them chatting away excitedly in the waiting room next door.)
 
We arrived at the ER and I walked with my daughters to the Delivery Room, pausing a couple of times to relax during PWs.  My husband followed after parking the car.  When we got to the Labor Room, the resident did an IE and said I was only 3 cm.  I said, I sure don’t feel like 3 cm and I would like to go into the Delivery Room now, because I didn’t want to be moved when things started getting intense.  Since it was around 2 am by this time, and the 4 DRs were empty, they agreed.  My OB (who I just met that moment, because my regular OB was abroad) arrived around 2:30, and I was deep into relaxation by then but definitely feeling strong PWs.  She checked me and to everyone’s surprise I was at 6 cm!  My husband relayed this via text message to my girls in the waiting room, and I could hear them getting really excited.  I put my iPod on then and kept it on the whole time.

I asked for hot compresses to put on my back.  They gave me warm towels.  The PWs were coming on strong by then.  I would call it a cross between p**n and a really strong muscle contraction, similar to what you would feel during an intense weightlifting session.  The warm towels and counterpressure massage applied by my husband were wonderful in helping manage the PWs.  I remember feeling that this had better be over soon, because I didn’t know how much more I had in me, and then realizing that feeling this meant that the birthing time was near! 

The OB, who was waiting patiently at the foot of the birthing bed, checked me again, around 3 am and I was at 8 cm.  I knew then that this was the time for the hypnosis to get going! I repeated to myself the Bible verse I had saved for the occasion, “I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength”.  I concentrated even more on opening and relaxing, and felt myself very deeply in hypnosis.

 Amazingly, the eyes-open technique which I had been unsure would be effective–only because I didn’t feel deeply hypnotized during my practice sessions–really worked…although, my eyes were closed. 🙂  I could hear everyone in the room, I was aware of what was going on, I could change positions, yet I was so concentrated on opening my body during PWs.  In between PWs, even at 8 cm and with the waves coming on fast, I actually felt myself nod off to sleep! 

This went on for another 30 minutes, but when the OB checked me again I was still at 8 cm.  At this time I told her I was starting to feel pushy (all while still in VERY DEEP hypnosis!–I knew because while talking to her I was kind of semi-asleep and experiencing Rapid Eye Movement, like when you are dreaming).  So she said she would break my bag, which up to that point was still intact, to speed things along.  That’s when the mood in the room changed from waiting to activity.  I could hear everyone bustling around getting the birthing bed into the right position, preparing instruments and whatever else (remember, my eyes were closed). 

She broke my bag and I felt a huge gush of warm water from my body.  I sat up in bed with my husband at my back, his arms around me.  I switched to the Pushing Baby Out track on my iPod.  I felt really intense pushing sensations.  Really hard work!  It it took about 20 minutes to push the baby out (my other births took only about 10 minutes or less).  I think it was because this was my biggest baby (8lbs 1 oz) and I have a small frame.  I could feel baby moving down the birth canal, could feel the head turning and the crowning…a very intense stretching sensation and an incredible urge to push…like my whole body, mind and soul was directed toward that purpose.  I was grunting and making earthy “hard work” noises.  The doctor was so encouraging, telling me to push one more time, and then came the sensation of the head being born and a sudden feeling of relief as the shoulders and body followed!  And it was over.  I had a baby boy. 🙂

My other reward was to have my two girls welcome their little brother into the world, and to see their mom happy and relaxed immediately after delivery.  I hope they will carry this memory with them when the time comes for them to become mothers.

Afterwards, the pediatrician who attended my birth came up to me to tell me that he was amazed watching my husband and me and wanted to know what was on my iPod!  Since then I’ve learned he’s told his other patients about my baby’s birth.

I just want to let everyone know that the power of the mind is incredible. I didn’t expect an easy birth experience… I always felt birthing was a deeply transformative, empowering, and spiritual experience and that it had to be somewhat intense to be so.   I had moments of doubt during my practice hypnosis sessions because I didn’t feel I was “deep” enough, and that I was easily distracted when I shouldn’t be…but come showtime, everything came together perfectly and I experienced an incredibly deep hypnotic state that helped me manage birthing what for me was a big baby.  At 41 years  old, I am just so happy that  my birthing was safe, natural, and that my healthy baby was finally born!

I wish everyone who is still awaiting their birthing time a wonderful birth experience.  Keep practicing and know that it will work perfectly for you when the time comes!  I miss listening to my scripts already. 🙂

God bless,

Michelline

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Claire’s Hypnobabies Hospital Birth

On Monday, May 5th, I went to my appointment with the midwife. My due
date was on May 3rd, so she started talking about the possibility of
inducing labor since they can not continue my care if I am over due
too long. I did not want to be induced so I let her strip my
membranes. That was not a comfortable experience even trying to relax.
She said that she could feel Claire’s ear.  That totally weirded my
husband out. (:
    After my appointment we went bike shopping for my husband. I was
cramping and bleeding but nothing much was happening. When Brian got
back we went on a walk. When we were starting back I started cramping.
It started getting so I did not want to walk through them although I
could. When we got back home we decided to go out on what may have
been our last date before the baby. We went to “Color Me Mine” and
painted some pottery for the baby. That was really fun!

    We got back around 10:30 and I went to bed around 11:30. Around
1:00 I woke up feeling contractions but went back to sleep. By 2:00 I
could no longer sleep and woke up my mom and we started timing
pressure waves. Around 5:30 they were 45-1:00 minute long and only
about 3-4 minutes apart and we decided to go to Orem Community. I was
trying to stay very relaxed and using my hypnobabies suggestions. We
got to the hospital at 6:00 and they admitted me to the triage. When
they checked me I was 3 centimeters dilated. The midwife on call
started me on antibiotics (since I was GBS +) and after an hour I was
at a 4. They decided to admit me and we called the doula. Our doula
was out of town and the backup was already at a birth so we got the
backup to the backup (Megan) and she was AMAZING. When she got there
she started me walking up and down the hall over and over again.
Anytime a wave came on I would put my arms around Brian and Megan
would put counter pressure on my hips. We also tried sitting on the
toilet. I know some people really like that but I DID NOT.   The
midwife on call (Sue) came and checked me at noon. She asked if I
wanted to know where I was and I said only if it was good news such as
a 7 or 8. Ha. She didn’t say anything and in my mind I told myself
that I was AT LEAST a 6. 🙂 After I asked what I had been. My mom told
me that I had only been at a 5. I am glad I didn’t know that because I
would have been very disappointed.

    At that point I started losing control a little and I kept saying
that I did not think I could do it anymore. Megan told me to just get
through one at a time and that my endorphins would kick it up a notch
if I could just last 20 more minutes. It actually was 40 minutes but I
put on my birthing day affirmations and completely zoned out. (next
time I will turn it on earlier!)  Sometimes the doula or the midwife
would try to talk to me and I would be in the middle of a birthing
wave but they could not tell because they were watching me and not the
computer. I asked to be checked again so I got into bed and I was at
an 8. I was so tired that I was falling asleep in between pressure
waves and completely zoning out during them. I asked to be checked
again and she said 9 ½!!

  I started to get my sense of humor back and it wasn’t very long
before I looked up and told Sue that I needed to poop.   That got
everyone hustling to get everything ready for baby. I wanted a
squatting bar and they hunted one out of storage. I pushed for a while
that way but my legs started to get really tired. Megan got on the bed
behind me and I put my feet on the bar to push. They also brought out
a mirror so I could see her crowning. That made me push more
effectively! I only pushed for maybe 30 min and at 3:07 pm out she
came! 6 lbs 12 oz, 20.5 inches.  They hustled her to the respiratory
therapist and I just bawled. I couldn’t believe I had my baby! She was
just beautiful. Didn’t have a cone head at all. They finally finished
with her and I was so glad to hold her.  Everyone remarked about how
alert and awake she was.

    The easiest part of my birthing time was transition.  Totally
pain free.  I know I could have done better during some parts but on
the whole it was amazing how I just felt pressure!  The worst part was
when I got nauseous and vomited but my birthing waves stopped when
that happened so I didn’t have to worry about them.  My husband was an
awesome coach and my doula and midwife…amazing.  Recovery was easy and
everyone was impressed with Hypnobabies.  Whoo hoo!  (And it was fun
to say “I told you I could” to everyone who doubted my ability to go
natural 🙂 )

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Free Hypnobabies CD!

For moms who are interested in Hypnobabies and want to learn more.  There is a free Introduction to Hypnobabies CD available.  There are 2 different tracks on the CD

Track #1 Hypnobabies Introduction: What is Hypnobabies Hypnosis for Childbirth?

This track introduces you to the benefits of using childbirth hypnosis as well as the specific advantages of our Hypnobabies program. You’ll learn about “Eyes Open Childbirth Hypnosis”, the importance of compete childbirth education and how you can easily become a mental computer reprogrammer, creating a much easier and more comfortable birthing experience for yourself by simply listening to one Hypnobabies CD every day.

Track #2 Relax Me (hypnosis session)

Track #2 is a special gift for you from Hypnobabies! This hypnosis session allows you to experience deep physical relaxation throughout your entire body and a powerful hypnosis training session. You’ll choose a special word cue that will train you to become completely relaxed and calm in any situation, from now on. How wonderful to be calm and in control at all times, in work, family an driving situations, with stress-relief as a wonderful side-effect! Enjoy.

There are two ways to get the free CD.  You can call Hypnobabies or you can download them from Enjoy Birth.

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