Hypnobabies on eBay

Just wanted to pass along the information that we now have discounted Hypnobabies Home Study Bundles and CDs on eBay:
 
http://tinyurl.com/DiscountHypnobabies-on-EBAY
 
We will also be making Second Chance offers to qualified bidders who don’t win the auctions. J
 
Feel free to forward this to any other moms and groups who might want to take advantage.
 
Thanks, and enjoy!
 
Kerry
 
Kerry Tuschhoff, HCHI, CHt, CI
Founder/Director of Hypnobabies
714-952-BABY (2229)
www.Hypnobabies.com

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Hypnobabies Classes in Mission Viejo California

Hypnobabies classes in Mission Viejo, CA…
October 15 – November 19 (Thursdays, 6 – 930p)
October 31 – December 12 (Saturdays, 9a  – 1230p) 

 
BIRTH PARTNER Professional Services
949.380.1681
www.hypnosis4birth.com
Carole Thorpe, CHt, HCHI, HCHD, CLEC, VP Hypnobabies-PR

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Hypnobabies Classes in Portland Oregon

2009
Thur 6-9 pm 10/1-11/14 (no class 10/22)
Sat 2-5 pm 11/14-12/19

Vittoria Palazzi, LMT, HCHI
Yoga Instructor
971 506.6789
http://home.birthwisdom.org/

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Reduce Infant Mortality Video

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

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Bryce’s Hospital Birth

You can read his mom’s blog post here.  There is even a short video of her relaxing through pressure waves at 9cm.

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Amber’s Extrenal Version Attempt

I wanted to share my story about our external version attempt on Monday. We weren’t successful in the traditional sense, but I personally consider it a success…I’ll explain.

Our little one has been breech since at least 31 weeks, though I’m pretty sure he’d been in that position for at least two weeks before. We found at our growth ultrasound that he was breech (and big and healthy! Daddy is 6’5″ so no surprise!)

I immediately began breech tilts, acupressure on my little toes, some swimming, and the Webster technique with the chiropractor. The Webster definitely made him more active, but he just couldn’t seem to turn on his own. By 36 weeks, he seemed to begin settling into my pelvis, making it even harder for him to flip. He was, however, able to flip side to side (he’d face my right side, then my left), so we had hope.

At my 36 week appt, I asked the OB to check placement. He was still frank breech. I asked about an external version then. The OB was really relunctant to do one for the following reasons: 1. this was my first birthing (tighter uterus than someone who’s blessed with 6!), 2. I had ‘OK’ fluid, but not plentiful, and 3. I had an anterior placenta. He gave me a chance of success of 10-15 percent, and said that if I hadn’t suggested it, he wouldn’t have because he didn’t want to put me through the pain of one. I told him I felt that 10-15 percent chance was better than nothing, and I was willing to try. We scheduled the version at the hospital for the following Monday.

Sunday night I did a fear release and listened to the turn your breech baby track. Hubby and I also talked to our baby, telling him that the doctor was going to try to help him turn and not to be afraid. We also told him, like we had before, that if for some reason he couldn’t turn, that would be ok.

Monday morning I did another fear release and listened to some of Deepening on the way (shorter ride than I expected!). The doctor’s office told me to be at the hospital at 10am, so we pulled into the lot around 9:30 just in case. As we pulled in, labor and delivery called wondering where I was! They had been expecting me at 8am for monitoring. Thanks for letting me know ;).

Once I got in the room, I got dressed in a gown and had the monitors placed. IV wasn’t too bad, but I have terrible veins from being stuck a lot in past years. When the doctor came in after I had been monitored for awhile, he had to bring in the buzzer to startle the baby – he was just too relaxed as well! My OB asked if I had been having contractions or anything, and I told him I hadn’t. Apparently I was while I was there on the monitor! The OB even commented that I was “as peaceful as a spring morning.” Once we confirmed we had good heart tones for everybody, and the whole group of nurses was there (4 nurses, the OB, and a resident, plus hubby), I got the shot of terb and we were ready.

My husband pulled close to me, and everyone gathered around. I didn’t have a lot of time to relax (I was I had done a finger drop before the doctor got in, but I wasn’t expecting him then), but my husband was able to reach over, put his hand on my shoulder, and say “relax.” That was enough to get me in hypnosis, and I felt myself just release. There was a lot of pressure and I was uncomfortable (I think I would have been more comfortable if I’d been more prepared), but overall it wasn’t painful. The baby was facing my right side, so they tried to turn him that way first. They got him to almost halfway, but couldn’t get any farther. I could feel that it felt like he got stuck there.

They regrouped and tried to backflip him to the left. This didn’t work either, and they couldn’t get him as far as they had to the right. Sometime during this, the nurse asked my husband how I was taking it so well, and he told her I’d been preparing for this all along. The OB commented that he was amazed that I wasn’t “cussing him out,” and joked that he was a little dissappointed.

After they were done, my OB explained that he just couldn’t get a good grip underneath the baby’s head because of my placental placement in the front. He actually seemed surprised that he couldn’t do it, despite what he had said before. Also, at previous appointments, whenever I made the comment that the baby still had time to turn, my OB would say “well, I’ll cross my fingers” and get a look that seemed to say “there’s no way.” However, after the version attempt, he told me that the baby still had time to turn and we’d talk more about everything at my next appointment.

I only had a little bit of pain the whole time – when they tried to turn him to the left, a buzzer started going off and worried me. I don’t know if they lost him on the monitor that way or what, but I lost concentration for a bit and had pain then.

The nurses asked me afterward if I had a “really high pain tolerance.” I told them that no, I didn’t, but I had been using self-hypnosis to prepare for birthing. One nurse almost jumped forward to ask what it was! They were really impressed. One of the nurses also commented that it was really good to see someone who didn’t just want to schedule a section, who understood that vaginal birth was best for baby and mommy.

It took awhile to get released, lots of monitoring and busy nurses. I’m sore now and I’m going to try to go to the pool and see if the bouyancy will help my soreness. We even laughed afterward while I was getting dressed that I had a big scratch at the top of my stomach where they had really been digging into me.

I feel that it was all successful for a few reasons. First, I had a peace going into the procedure, and a peace afterward. I had been afraid that I would be devastated if it didn’t work, but I wasn’t and I’m not now. I also feel that it went really well after seeing my OB’s reaction. Overall, he’s a pretty permissive OB – you can talk to him like an adult (!) and make a case for doing or not doing something and he’s usually good about it. However, he seemed more hopeful, and I think seeing me give it a go showed him that some women are willing to go for the difficult things in order to have a healthy birthing. I’m hoping he’ll be more willing with other women in the future to try. Also, I think it was really great for the nurses. One of the nurses in particular (all of the are surgical, so they only see c-sections) told me that she had two sections herself and didn’t want either one. She really coached me throughout the procedure, and I think it was a big encouragement for her.

My husband told me that it was amazing to see the procedure and see how I did with it. I could tell beforehand that he was nervous. He told me that you could really see the baby’s back and everything as they tried. He thinks now that there’s a chance this little guy will end up bigger than he is, and like I said hubby is 6’5″. Maybe I should start saving money for shoes now. I’m just glad the little one is good and healthy. 😀

sorry it’s so long!
-Amber
almost 38 weeks with a big boy!

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Rachael’s Successful Version

I posted a couple of days ago about scheduling the an external version after all sorts of crazy attempts to get my baby girl to turn on her own.  Short version is successful hypnosis and successful external version.  The long story is below:

We were scheduled for the procedure at 12:30 pm, but had to be there at 11.  Before I realized which day I would be heading in, I had scheduled an appointment with the chiropractor.  She was still hopeful for having success through her methods, but the doctor was going on vacation and then it would be too late.  I followed the doctor’s advice to go ahead with the procedure because he really thought it would be successful.  The chiropractor stretched out the ligaments in the front of my uterus and worked more on my sacral joint.

We arrived to the hospital and did all the paperwork.  My doctor was of course late.  He always is, but we love him anyway.  My husband and I were starving by 11:30 am and he showed up after 1:00 pm.  At noon, I did the deepening track and then talked with my husband until the nurses wheeled in the ultrasound machine and told me the doctor was on his way.  I then listened to turn baby turn.  My husband was great at talking to them all and describing what I was doing.  The doctor was excellent at waiting until I was ready and then introduced me to a student midwife and student nurse that he asked to come along.  (It is part of my birth plan to allow student nurses… I aim to impress everyone with the success of hypnosis).

I think that actual procedure took about 20 minutes, but it was hard to tell.  I was able to stay under hypnosis the whole time, but would have to constantly tell myself “peace.”  The experience was very intense.  There were only a couple of situations were there was pain, but again when I remembered to say “peace” to myself or “relax” it moved from painful to merely intense and uncomfortable quickly.  At one point, my husband could tell that I was having difficulty returning to a relaxed state so he supplied the external cue which was very successful.

I’m glad that we decided to try it this week because she has moved from tushie on my left side to tushie in the center.  I think she was close to being wedged.  The doctor had to push her tushy out, though she fought him the whole time.  After the successful turning, the doctor and nurses praised me quite a lot.  My husband told me that they were seriously impressed with my relaxation throughout the procedure.  I didn’t even hear them.

We were able to go home a couple of hours after the procedure.  We would have been able to leave sooner, but my uterus did a little bit of practicing for my birthing time.  Bonus: we already took care of most of registration for when the baby comes!

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Successful Version at 39 Weeks

I am very happy to report that after our baby being breech since they’d started checking at about 33 weeks, that we finally decided to try for the version at 39 weeks and it worked! We have ourselves a head down baby and are ready to await her arrival! So it CAN be done even this late in the game. Yesterday’s ultrasound showed nothing was blocking her way, butt was not wedged in the pelvis, etc. She was really sort of transverse but because her butt was down on my left side they called her a true breech.

Normally they don’t wait this long to try it (about 36 or 37 weeks is optimal), but we just kept thinking she’d turn on her own and so we didn’t push the issue.

My OB was willing to try it even though different midwives had already mentioned a couple of times scheduling me for a c-section at 39 weeks, but we just politely held our ground and let anyone who mentioned this know that we were not interested. Our doctor was thankfully never pushy in the least! I have really gained a respect for her, especially after today.

She was extremely gentle and here comes the good part with Hypnobabies! The whole process from check-in, to celebrate baby head-down, took under two hours. They put me in a gown and put the hep lock in and chastised me gently for having eaten and drank that morning. I knew I was not supposed to but also knew it would be harder to relax if I was hungry and thirsty! They asked me 20 (more like 50) questions while I had my Deepening track on and husband tried to answer some but I ended up just using my Center switch so I could answer. It was easier. They took heart rate and blood pressure and hooked up the fetal monitor. My blood pressure was a little high and my heart rate was elevated although I assured them my heart rate is always fast. That’s normal for me. But I was in fact having trouble relaxing to Deepening, which is weird because it always puts me out like a light when I’m at home. (This experience turned out to be excellent practice for my birthing time!)

So I listened to Deepening again while we waited for the doctor. In between the beeping and people coming in and out, it was still hard to relax. My wonderful Hypnobabies-doula arrived and it was so comforting to have her there with my husband as he held my hand, and they chatted and laughed quietly and that was really comforting. She is a licensed massage therapist! Boy that was a God-send. I decided to lie on my side and was instantly able to become more relaxed, and she worked wonders on my back and shoulders. Then my heart rate and blood pressure were back down for sure! I was definitely much deeper then, and went in Center as they had me flip back on my back to do the ultrasound.

When she was performing the version, I put on the Turn Your Breech Baby track and it was perfect, helping me remember to relax all the muscles around the baby. And I just kept talking to baby and telling her that she was a good girl and we could do this together! And my doula was encouraging me and telling me how great I was doing, and my husband was holding my hand, and it was all so comforting. And 2 minutes later they confirmed with ultrasound that she was head down! What an amazing feeling of relief! My doula had not yet seen a successful version before, but also said that she had not seen a mom this relaxed! I am so proud of us and Hypnobabies.

Just goes to show that it CAN work, even at 39 weeks! Here are some things about the situation that would make many people doubtful, and that Hypnobabies helped me overcome:

-I am a first-time mom (45% success rate when tried at 36-37 weeks for first-time moms. Not sure how far this drops when tried later. 65% for subsequent pregnancies)
-Told by negative midwife that “we don’t recommend them for first-time moms because they don’t work”
-Told by another negative midwife, just before the procedure this morning, that she’s thought all along that the baby was “stuck” and she didn’t think this would work, and told my husband later that she’d probably flip right back! Gee, thanks!

I hope this story encourages other moms who may be going through something similar. Mamas with breech babies do not have to rush to schedule a c-section!

Jenny

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The Birth Survey is 1 year old!

Please go and fill it out, if you have birthed in the last 3 years!

The Birth Survey.

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End of Summer Special – 20% off most Products in our Hypnobabies Store, August 15 – 21, 2009

Summer’s almost over, Hypnobabies Fans!

In Celebration of the coming of Fall, for one week only – August 15 through August 21, 2009, all products in our regular Hypnobabies website store are 20% off, including the following: (use the code below when ordering)

– Hypnobabies Individual CDs
– Hypnobabies Double-Track CDs
– Hypnobabies Home Study Course for Expectant Mothers
– All Recommended Books for Expectant Mothers (in *our* Hypnobabies Website Store, not our Amazon store)
– Hypno-Doula Workbook (and Bundle) for Doulas and Midwives
– New Baby and Sleep CDs
– Introduction to Childbirth Hypnosis for Hypnotherapists Workbook

*Please note: MP3s are *not* included, our Hypnobabies Instructor Training is *not* included and our Amazon.com store is *not* included in this sale.

Please visit our website at www.Hypnobabies.com to take advantage of this offer, and you must enter the code: FALL at checkout, to get our 20% discount on your order.

Thank you,
Kerry Tuschhoff, HCHI, CHt, CI
Founder and Director of Hypnobabies
714-952-BABY (2229)

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