Easy, fast, comfortable birth of Kaya!

I just wanted to quickly write down my story because I enjoyed reading other people’s birth stories on here — and hopefully inspire those who are contemplating Hypnobabies, because I believe it truly worked for me.

First of all, I had my doubts. Not of the efficacy of the Hypnobabies method, but rather of my own diligence in practice and the amount of support I received by those around me. I fell asleep during scripts, I fell asleep during practice when I did practice at all, I hardly did any of the prenatal exercises recommended, never got around to inflating my birthing ball, packed my hospital bag and wrote my birth plan at the very last minute, I wasn’t detailed in my visualization of the birth, my husband never practiced with me, I took a long hiatus in my listening to the scripts when we moved during my 37th week, when I also had to find a new OB, baby was posterior despite visits to chiropractor… the list goes on. I was the quintessential worst student ever. And yet somehow everything came together and I had the most amazing experience!

It started on Wednesday when I started to lose bits of my mucous plug. This continued into Thursday and along the way, I was experiencing BHs every evening. Come Friday evening, as my husband was giving our 2 yo son a bath, I felt a small gush. When my husband was done with bedtime, I told him I was suspicious about the fluid leak but that it seemed to be just a one time deal. However, to be on the safe side, let’s start putting together the crib, pack my hospital bag and finish tweaking the birth plan to email my OB (we had just moved into this house 3 weeks ago and everything was still in boxes!). This was about 10 PM. I told my husband I was experiencing small PWs but I wasn’t sure whether these were the real thing or just more intense BHs. So we decided to time it. The PWs were coming on at 5-7 minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds. He told me to rest while I can, so I put on my Pregnancy Affirmations to head to sleep at midnight.

I managed to sleep about 2 hours before deciding these PWs weren’t going away. So, I went down to the kitchen to get something to eat at 2 AM. The PWs made it difficult for me to eat much. I decided it was time to inflate that birthing ball, but didn’t get very far in that either. I timed myself for an hour before deciding it was time to wake my husband — now they were coming consistently at 5 minutes apart and lasting 50 seconds. I woke my husband and he suggested I try taking a bath before we called the OB and his parents (luckily my mom came the day before to take care of our toddler). I breathed through about 5 PWs in the bathtub listening to Birthing Affirmations while my husband shaved, when I got up and said “I’m feeling a bit shaky, I think we should go to the hospital sooner rather than later.” He seemed a bit shocked that I didn’t want to stay home longer, and I attribute that to my outward calmness betraying the increasing intensity of the PWs.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:15 AM while the first snow fell. My OB was already waiting for us in the room they had set up for us. First the hospital wanted to monitor baby’s heart rate. We did this for about half an hour because the monitor kept picking up my lower heart rate instead of the baby’s. Then my OB wanted to check my cervix. Everyone, including myself, was surprised to find out that I was 8-9 cm dilated and almost completely effaced. Baby was at -2 station floating about in there because my bag of waters was still intact. So, they let me do my thing: continue listening to Kerry’s voice on my iPod. I loved the Peace cue and I found Kerry repeating “relax the face, hands and pelvic muscles” extremely helpful during PWs. One of the nurses suggested that I drape myself over the back of the bed in a kneeling position, since I was favoring the hands and knees position on the bed. It was such a great position! I was whispering/moaning “peace” with each PW and imagined myself as that surfer riding each wave (thanks to someone’s post on this list with that analogy — sorry I forget who — I love that analogy!). Then with one of the waves, there was a huge POP! and this time there was no doubt that my bag of waters broke. :)

I had a few more PWs, where I thought, “how will I know it will be time to push? I wish someone could tell me when it’s time.” [side note: I was induced with my first pregnancy and had an epidural, which numbed my sensation to push and therefore made me dependent on one of the nurses to check and tell me when I was fully dilated and for the monitors to tell the nurses when I was having a contraction.] Well, no sooner did that thought cross my mind, when a powerful PW hug rise up and I had an URGENT NEED to push. I remember saying something like “she’s coming!” and hearing one of the nurses repeatedly scream “stop pushing! stop pushing!”. And I just shook my head and said “can’t.” This power within is so incredible and so amazing. There’s just no stopping it. I reached between my legs and felt her head. I couldn’t help but smile. Then another PW rose up and the rest of her body slid out onto the bed behind me at 6:39 AM. (I found out later that the nurses wanted me to stop pushing because they wanted to come check whether the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. It wasn’t.)

Kaya was placed on my chest skin-to-skin and nursed hungrily. The uterus then expelled the placenta that kept Kaya healthy all those months inside of me. Amazingly, I had no tears. Everything happened so quickly and so perfectly. As my husband said, “Better than if we could’ve scripted it. Except next time you get the urge to push, could you at least wait until I’m out of the bathroom?”

Thanks Hypnobabies for giving me the gift of experiencing childbirth the way it was intended. I felt like a conduit for one of Nature’s most awesome powers. It was truly truly the most amazing experience of my life. Thank you to everyone on this list for contributing your knowledge, support and inspiration to people like me.